Life on Mars
Apr. 11th, 2007 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twitchbellWatched the finale of 'Life on Mars' yesterday evening. Spent last night thinking too hard about it, which may explain why I woke up at 5.00am with a migraine.
I never thought I'd be so happy about a series that (basically) ends with the lead character committing suicide! I say 'basically', because if you strip it down to the bare facts, that's what Sam did. He was a 2006 policeman in a coma. In his coma, he dreamt/imagined/time-travelled in his head back to 1973. 1973 became so important to him that when he was revived from his coma in 2006, he couldn't cope: "no longer at ease in the old dispensation". So he killed himself to get back to 1973, which is either heaven or a place in his head that will cease to exist when Sam does in 2006. (Or, bearing in mind the sequel, something else!)
Well, that's 'basically' covered. But, of course, it's much more than that. It's about making choices, about what it means to be 'real', about what it means to be alive. When Sam decided Gene et al were not real, there most certainly was a 'darkness' in him, a coldness as he detached from his humanity. Was there anyone in the country who wasn't urging him to go back and save Gene, Annie, Ray and Chris? But - oh noes! - he did the cold, logical thing and went back to the present day. And it was wrong, dammit! So that moment where he cut himself in the present day and realises he didn't feel it, that (in spite of all evidence to the contrary) he wasn't truly alive was fantastic. I knew then what he was going to do. And I wanted him to do it.
Now you could say that means I bought into Sam's madness, but I don't actually care. That was my take on the series. I saw it as a happy, triumphal ending. Others will see it differently, and the ending was constructed to make sure that they can - which I think is a bit genius. One pat ending that blocked out all others wouldn't have been interesting at all.
For anyone interested in what Matthew Graham (lead writer and co-creator) has to say on the finale (and 'Ashes to Ashes'), follow this link:
http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ianwylie/2007/04/life_on_mars_the_answers.html
"And that template of a journeyman, going through the looking glass into a magical world is an archetypal story, and people respond to archetypal stories."
Damn right they do. I decided last night that 'Life on Mars' is actually closely related to 'Pan's Labyrinth'.
I never thought I'd be so happy about a series that (basically) ends with the lead character committing suicide! I say 'basically', because if you strip it down to the bare facts, that's what Sam did. He was a 2006 policeman in a coma. In his coma, he dreamt/imagined/time-travelled in his head back to 1973. 1973 became so important to him that when he was revived from his coma in 2006, he couldn't cope: "no longer at ease in the old dispensation". So he killed himself to get back to 1973, which is either heaven or a place in his head that will cease to exist when Sam does in 2006. (Or, bearing in mind the sequel, something else!)
Well, that's 'basically' covered. But, of course, it's much more than that. It's about making choices, about what it means to be 'real', about what it means to be alive. When Sam decided Gene et al were not real, there most certainly was a 'darkness' in him, a coldness as he detached from his humanity. Was there anyone in the country who wasn't urging him to go back and save Gene, Annie, Ray and Chris? But - oh noes! - he did the cold, logical thing and went back to the present day. And it was wrong, dammit! So that moment where he cut himself in the present day and realises he didn't feel it, that (in spite of all evidence to the contrary) he wasn't truly alive was fantastic. I knew then what he was going to do. And I wanted him to do it.
Now you could say that means I bought into Sam's madness, but I don't actually care. That was my take on the series. I saw it as a happy, triumphal ending. Others will see it differently, and the ending was constructed to make sure that they can - which I think is a bit genius. One pat ending that blocked out all others wouldn't have been interesting at all.
For anyone interested in what Matthew Graham (lead writer and co-creator) has to say on the finale (and 'Ashes to Ashes'), follow this link:
http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ianwylie/2007/04/life_on_mars_the_answers.html
"And that template of a journeyman, going through the looking glass into a magical world is an archetypal story, and people respond to archetypal stories."
Damn right they do. I decided last night that 'Life on Mars' is actually closely related to 'Pan's Labyrinth'.
