Dumbest ending to a great show? - Life on Mars (2006) Discussion

[–] tenonceb4 16 years ago

That's the difference between the UK and US audience. American audiences aren't deep enough to appreciate the journey Sam takes. Not a physical journey, but rather a spiritual one.

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[–] jenemb 16 years ago

Probably because American networks rarely give them the chance...

Agreed though Tenonceb4. The ending of LOM was brilliant. The "real world" just wasn't real to Sam anymore. He went back to where he wanted to be.

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[–] Muncherator 15 years ago

Prison Break's ending was similar, but worse. Twin Peaks pissed from a great height over all bad endings. And then there was that artwanked waste of a perfectly good thriller: No *beep* for Old *beep*

Not sure if Brits are intellectually superior to Yanks, just more conceited.

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[–] DJOfRadioGallifrey 15 years ago

Precisely, to Sam, the 70s was like heaven he was the smartest cop there, he had a fab girlfriend, plus he was seeing lost relatives and his cat.

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[–] SpiltPersonality 13 years ago

seeing lost relatives

...and Marc Bolan

SpiltPersonality

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[–] caroline-mode 12 years ago

Best ending!! So happy and amazed and grateful it ended like that!!!!

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[–] nevermor-2 16 years ago

Yanks like their main characters to come back to life.....remember J.R. or his brother Bobby....no one's allowed to die....Sam listened to Nelson who said if there's no feeling....there's no point in life.....he gets back to the super squeaky clean 90's and it's fa to sterile for him so he goes back to the 70's and he has his gorgeous Annie who's much better the the US version....the Yanks aen't into the deep and meaningful.....sighhhh....the ending was great

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[–] nevermor-2 16 years ago

great ending.....cried my eyes out but when he kissed Annie.....that was magic.....nope....the Yanks don't get it....sighhhhhhh

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[–] tenonceb4 16 years ago

Some Yanks would say Annie (in the UK version) is too fat and old looking. I thought Liz White looked like she belonged in the 1970s, she wasn't an actress playing the part. Gretchen Mol is playing the part of a policewoman in the 1970s. We probably should be glad we are spared Policewoman references. Or do people not remember that Angie Dickinson series?

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] laydlo 16 years ago

Well, this American absolutely loved the ending.

I was crying the entire episode!

*sigh*

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[–] paudie 16 years ago

I think the ending is very good.

Sam does spend all his time in the 70's wanting to get back to the 00's but when he does get back he realises he felt more "alive" in the 70's. When he realises he can't "feel" he does what he hopes will get him back to the 70's. Also remember that Maya has left him and he realises be loves Annie.

A complex and perhaps confusing ending but brilliant all the same.

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[–] rootbeerafloat 16 years ago

I'm only a few eps into the US one and while it isn't half the show the original is, I'll admit it isn't nearly as terrible as I was expecting. The ending to LoM was beautiful and very fitting. One of my all time favorite TV moments. I don't think you really got what it was trying to convey. Sorry man.

I love the rampant xenophobia in this thread. Good to see every country has their own hateful message board bigots, not just the US. It's very reassuring.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] MacEachan 16 years ago

In defense of the Yanks, I love this show. I loved the ending. I'm saving up to buy a region free DVD player for this show, among others. Like the whole series, the ending was meant to make you keep examining what's real and what's not. The ending is whatever you decided it meant. If you want pure reality, watch a documentary. This was entertaining, as it was meant to be.

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[–] tenonceb4 16 years ago

In these days of thrift and penny saving, I'd like to suggest you compare the price of a multi region player with a dvd copier. Just google "dvd copy program" (without the ""s) and you will be given a choice of what's out there. Any dvd copy will have the region code stripped out (but it will still be PAL), but I haven't had any region 2 copy not play properly on region 1 only players...

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[–] Maxopoly 16 years ago

I'm going to have to disagree about Americans not appreciating or understanding shows like LoM. You can't determine the worth of an entire country based on one interpretation of a show. Not everyone thinks alike you know.

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[–] tenonceb4 16 years ago

Not everyone thinks alike you know.

We're going to see if this is true in the coming years or months...

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[–] sikexl 16 years ago

Good lord, I'm American so most certainly I didn't get it! No, wait, it's cause the main girl is fat and ugly! THAT's why! Thanks for the laughs, some of you.

To clarify: The problem I have with the ending is that I did get it. It just doesn't make sense in respect to the character. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly but even in the last episode he was still fairly desperate to get home. As I said in the op, it just seemed like something his character wouldn't do as he had been portrayed in every scene up to that point.

It was a great show but as I said, dumb ending. I do have to say I'm quite enjoying Ashes to Ashes if only because it seems to not be taking itself as seriously as LoM did.

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[–] tenonceb4 16 years ago

Sam really died when his father disappeared. From that point on he became no more than a robot. His life was on track when he joined the force and had a path set out for him. Even the colors in 2006/7 were bluish grey--dull deathly colors. Going back to 1973 reminded him what life was all about. The spontineity and gut instinct and all that. Not only that Sam felt he had purpose in the past, both Maya and his mother had let him go so he could go back to 1973 and to life (or an after life if you believe in such things).

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] CowboyNinjaD 16 years ago

I thought the ending fit the rest of the show, but I think they could have sold it a little more.

Like Sam is out of his coma and back at work as a DCI and catches himself doing something Gene would do. Or he tries to get the other cops to go to the pub with him after work, but they're too busy finishing up paperwork. Maybe show some awkward exchange between Sam and his ex-girlfriend.

But it would still end with him jumping off the building to go back to 1973.

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[–] Samarkand_Ape 16 years ago

I like it how it is. The realisation basically coming from Sam remembering what Nelson said about not being able feel/the incident with the pen proving the point.

Any more than that would be overkill.

If I did have to change on thing about the ending, as much as I did like the way it was done I'd have preferred it left at the jump. I like the ambiguity of that as the final scene. Yes, it wouldn't have given happiness and a little closure but I do think it would have been a little more memorable.

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[–] sikexl 16 years ago

That's it?

If I didn't get it then why don't you explain it to me? How about instead of a "yes it does," why don't you tell me how the decision Sam made any sense at all in respect to his character?

I'm also interested in the correlation between Americans not getting the original show, the poor attempt at a remake that was canceled, and my post.

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[–] DodgerTower 16 years ago

The biggest reason Sam wanted to get out of 1973 was that he felt TRAPPED. He kept thinking of it as a prison, as something he felt that there was no escaping from. It didn't occur to him that, in spite of all his complaining, Gene Hunt was right: he DID like it there. You look at how he is in 2006 in the very beginning of the show, it's clear that he feels frustrated, that he feels gut instinct has become totally redundant and it's becoming more and more impossible to catch the criminal, no matter how much you know you're right. More than that: it's very clear that in 2006, Maya's the ONLY thing he has any feelings about.

"Look around you, what use are feelings in this room?"

Of course, when he's finally "free" of 1973 and wakes up in 2007, the classic story device is used when a man frees himself of one prison only to find himself in another. With police work back to being more paperwork and much more complicated and boring than it needs to be for Sam, and with even Maya gone from his life, he realises that he feels absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. He doesn't hate his job, he doesn't love it, he just feels dead already.

It's true: Sam DID hate 1973. But when he's given the choice of being somewhere he hates and being somewhere where doesn't feel anything at all, he finds the choice very easy to make. And why not? He doesn't just hate 1973, he loves it, he loves Annie, he FEELS. That's why the ending is just so brilliant: you watch the beginning, and then watch the ending, and you can SEE how well the ending ties up everything in Sam's life. And that's what Life on Mars was really about: not strange myteries, or weird time travel stories, but the journey that Sam Tyler goes through. That's why I'll always believe that the ending of Life on Mars is the greatest ending to a tv show ever!

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] gustav-39 16 years ago

I just finished watching the whole series, and I sat on needles through almost the whole last episode. And when he jumped from the roof, I almost started to cry. To me, that was perfect.

If it would've ended there, we still would've got the message (even though it's a pretty crazy thing to do, even for Sam).

And I have to disagree with most of you on another point. Clearly, an "american" ending often leave the viewer rather emotionally satisfied, rather than intelligently satisfied. But in this case, whereas most of you say that it's un-american - I find it quite the opposite. It's incredible sobby and sentimental and sweetened.

And that's a little too bad. Because the series were really intelligent otherwise.

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[–] Kinokima 16 years ago

Well I think the "jump" itself is un-American more-so than the epilogue after the jump. Yes it was a sweet ending for Sam as he saves the day and gets the girl but even in that scene we hear the radio, the sounds of his real life slipping away as he turns the channel. The darker implications of how Sam got back are still there. The fact remains that Sam's "happily ever after" is not reality or at least not what we think of reality. And while I as viewer might be happy to see him back with Gene and Annie, the fact that Sam could not find fulfillment in the real world is a little sad too. So in the end I guess I see the ending as more bittersweet.

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[–] rochey_1 13 years ago

"To clarify: The problem I have with the ending is that I did get it. It just doesn't make sense in respect to the character. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly but even in the last episode he was still fairly desperate to get home. As I said in the op, it just seemed like something his character wouldn't do as he had been portrayed in every scene up to that point."

Hi :D

I see what you're saying but it's about the dawning realization that he was home all along...It's what Nelson said:

Nelson: I see a darkness in you, Sam.
Sam Tyler: Oh, you can see into me, can you, Nelson? Well, Come on then. Am I mad? Huh? Is this real? Come on. I just want to know the truth.
Nelson: We all want that, Sam. What's real. What's not. I see folk who walk about in a sunken dream, 'cause they feel nothing. Are they alive?
Sam Tyler: I wake up every morning and I tell myself I am alive.
Nelson: When you can feel, then you're alive. When you don't feel, you're not.

And that all came full circle at the end when Sam cut himself in the real world and couldn't feel it....And the irony of it was, Sam has spent all his time in 1973 wishing for Home....but he was home.....That's why i loved the end...It was poetically beautiful <33

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] maz_wally 16 years ago

My theory is that he never woke up from his coma at all, and so even the return to 2006 wasn't real. And then at the very end, where you see the girl switching off the tv, is actually his life support being turned off.

This is why I personally liked the ending, it can be interpreted in so many ways and people can make their own conclusions as to what happened.

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[–] fuzzout987 16 years ago

The crappy U.S. remake ended with and I'm not making this up, all the characters were actually astronauts flying to Mars and everything in 1973 was a hallucination brought on by something that had gone wrong in their cryogenic sleep chambers. Just goes to show the differences between the two shows, I liked the ending of the British Life on Mars because it was open ended and open to interpretation while apparently Hollywood thinks we need concrete definitive answers. I say good riddance to the crappy American version. The only good thing that came from it is that maybe, finally the UK Life on Mars will finally be available on DVD over here.

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[–] libra_ryu 16 years ago

The first series of UK LOM is set for US release in July 2009, with series two to follow in 2010. This announcement came out a few weeks ago, although the remake was probably what was holding the UK version from being released.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Knight_Yellow 16 years ago

Holy crap seriously?

Thats just utterly utterly mind numbingly bad.

i mean... astronauts?

I mean.. that doesnt explain anything... at all.

*bangs head on desk*

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[–] Patty1234 16 years ago

Everyone seems to be ignoring the very last scene of the US ending. They are about to walk on the surface of Mars, and the very last shot is a leg/foot about to take that first step. The leg - presumably Sam's - is in street clothes, not a space suit. My theory is that Sam has been in a coma all along and the mission to Mars is just another of his mental consructs.

It was different, but it actually wasn't that bad an ending. A bit ridiculous, but also strangely satisfying.

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[–] libra_ryu 16 years ago

'The leg - presumably Sam's - is in street clothes, not a space suit'

The leg was Gene's, who was shown to be wearing the white loafers throughout the show.

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[–] Patty1234 16 years ago

I sit corrected, libra! I got told that on the LOMUS board.

Still no spacesuit on the leg though, so I'm sticking with my on-going coma theory.

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[–] libra_ryu 16 years ago

The lack of spacesuit was the one thing that made me scratch my head with the ending, so I really like your continuing coma theory. While I don't think LOMUS will get picked up anywhere, the shoe is just a nice open ended thing that could lead to more.

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[–] Tonesta 16 years ago

I had a similar albeit slightly different interpretation.

I saw the waking up in 2006 as real, including his suicide. Then the return to 1973, saving everyone and driving off with Annie takes place in the milliseconds/seconds between the jump and Sam's death. The girl switching off the TV (which is, of course, the very final shot of the series) is essentially Sam blinking out of existence.

So for me, it was a pretty tragic ending about emptiness, depression and suicide.
Other people saw it as a happy ending about choosing life.
And that sort of extreme range of interpretations is why it's one of the great endings. There's no annoying plot lines left hanging, but at the same time you've not been spoon-fed and are instead invited to think and apply your own reasoning.

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[–] fuzzout987 16 years ago

The ending of the U.S. version doesn't matter because the entire thing was a steaming dog turd.

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[–] Patty1234 16 years ago

For the first few episodes I would have agreed with you (though maybe not that exact description!) But as it went on, it got better. Different from the UK show, cheesy, but much more watchable than at the start.

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[–] Sir_Hugo_Rune 16 years ago

My theory is that he never woke up from his coma at all, and so even the return to 2006 wasn't real

but we already know for a fact that he returned to 2006/7 because in the last episode we see him dictating a report to a police psychologist in london.

then came the sequel series 'Ashes to Ashes' where the psychologist investigating his now suicide is shot by a criminal and wakes up in 1981.

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[–] lantzn 11 years ago

That's sort of how I saw the ending only he just continued in a coma in his 70s life.

I saw it as the 2006 medical staff were trying to pull him out of the comma throughout the entire series. In the final episode they were succeeding and what we saw of the scenes of 2006 was Sam's mind making up what things would be like if he returned to reality. It was his mind fighting between being in the present and what he left behind in the 70s. His mind finally realized he wanted to be in the 70s and so he made the "jump" and chose to stay in the comma. Him turning the radio station was him tuning out of ever wanting to return.

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[–] 16 years ago

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