Life on Mars S2 finale thoughts

[hazelk]

I’d been enjoying this second series. It’s felt more polished, the “issue” episodes less potentially preachy and better integrated with Sam’s emotional arcs. On the other hand some of edginess of the first series had been lost. Basically Gene Hunt had stopped being scary (and if you want to remember just how scary he was at first, I recommend re-watching Too much light in this bar by absolut3destiny). However, since part of the point this time around was that Sam was becoming more comfortable with the 1973 world, I didn’t really have a problem with it.

Sam wasn’t the only one getting complacent because the finale caught me completely by surprise so many times at the end I felt like I’d been in a car crash and gone back in time myself. From the physical shock of the testcard girl at the door, to Morgan’s alternative coma explanation, right up to that final leap of faith/despair at the end. According to interviews with the writers 2007 was real and Sam’s jump was suicidal but that doesn’t quite work for me, I think because we hadn’t seen enough of him in 2007 to justify his preferring death to staying in it. I’d rather think that his waking from the coma was illusory, a dream within in a dream. It makes the leaping from tall buildings as a mechanism for travelling between worlds more symmetrical with the scene in the first episode and the whole thing gentler and better in keeping with the overall tone. Not trying to say that modern life is hell, just that nothing we do as adults has quite the intensity of childhood.

Comments

[ninerva.livejournal.com]

Sam wasn’t the only one getting complacent because the finale caught me completely by surprise so many times at the end I felt like I’d been in a car crash and gone back in time myself. From the physical shock of the testcard girl at the door, to Morgan’s alternative coma explanation, right up to that final leap of faith/despair at the end.

I couldn't agree more. It's a long time since I watched a show which made me lean forward and back to often on my sofa. I nearly fell off altogether when he jumped.

I like your alternative scenario. I like to think he went back out of love, loyalty and a more defined sense of right and wrong, all the things he learned from 1973. I tend to think he missed DCI Hunt more than Annie though. ;-)

LOVE the vid btw. :-)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Definitely, I mean Annie was cool (and reminded me of my sister-in-law) but Gene Hunt was just such a force of nature. One other thing I liked a lot was how it was such a beautiful day when he jumped, it did make it seem less as if he were running away from his real life and more choosing what he found in the fantasy world. The whole thing worked really well emotionally even though my literal self is still puzzling it out.

[elisi]

It's like 'Normal Again'. Like Buffy Sam chose the difficult/most rewarding path.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Well not quite the same because on Buffy Sunnydale had been presented as the real world for the whole series up until NA whereas this began with the premise that 1973 was some kind of coma induced dream. Also with Buffy it was much clearer that she was going back to save her friends because she could see them under attack as she made the decision whereas here the immediate trigger was Sam not being able to feel, not being strong enough to cope outside of his fantasy. I think as well it may be that I was 11 in 1973 so it literally looks like a retreat into childhood fantasy because that's how my childhood looked. Sunnydale really doesn't even without the monsters.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I am fine with the writers' explanation, as it's more or less what I'd assumed from day 1. What I don't like is having him wake up back in '73. I would have preferred him going on to live his life in the present day, sadder, but changed for the better. Or killing himself and letting that be *it*. No happy ending. IMO it would have been more satisfying, but then I prefer angst and I don't believe in afterlives.

That said, I enjoy the idea of everybody getting to choose their own heaven, from a narrative point of view. I have a hard time believing this would really be Sam's choice, because he's been struggling against it for so long, so it's hard for me to reconcile those feelings. I want to go back to the first ep and see if he really seems to be dissatisfied in the present day -- I don't remember that, just that he was arguing with his girlfriend.

I thought the finale was a great ride, and surprising, but somehow it didn't quite wind up in a believable place for me.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I remember being on the edge of my seat when he was on the roof and it was spinning and he began to run. Then feeling vaguely disappointed when the screen didn’t black out but somewhere between the music and the final shot of the kids running in the street I forgave them at the time.

I think the writer’s original plan was to have him wake up sadder but wiser but I can see how that would have been hard to express in 10 minutes and wouldn’t have felt climatic. Still you’re right the happy ending feels unearned or unconvincing somehow. I like the idea that “Sam in a coma” only dreamt that he woke up before sinking back into oblivion because it does combine the element of choosing what you remember before you die with the bleak notion that the whole thing was simply a dying man’s meanderings not a personal quest or redemptive journey.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

somewhere between the music and the final shot of the kids running in the street I forgave them at the time.

Yes, I had that experience, too.

And I read what the writer said. I understood it, emotionally, but it still seemed like the weaker choice to me.

I like the idea that “Sam in a coma” only dreamt that he woke up before sinking back into oblivion

Didn't John Simm say that that's how he interpreted the ending?

Anyway. I like all your theories about this. And it's cool that, whatever you feel about the ending, you can still read it however you want. There's no clear statement about what it actually means.