I am not a fanboy.
I felt that I just had to say this, because I’m about to write some observations concerning the season finale of the US version of Life on Mars. I know that such a statement may get me into hot water here on Livejournal, but I am not an obsessive fan. There are a number of TV programs I enjoyed this season — Survivor, Heroes, CSI:, Life on Mars, Pushing Daises, Weeds — but I haven’t gotten into them enough to follow every minutae closely, or to have the urge to write fan fiction. I know that there are those who are and who do, and if that makes them happy, more power to them. But I’m not that obsessive about it (I’m obsessive about other things). I watch TV programs just for the entertainment they provide.
I felt the need to make this statement because any discussion of Life on Mars invariably turns to comparisons with the UK original (which actually had fewer episodes than its US sibling). I watched a bit of the UK version, but not all episodes. I found it interesting, but I also found it dark (and at times dull). The US version was very entertaining, with good characters, and lightness of cinematography.
Last night, before my normal Thursday viewing, I watched the DVRed series finale of Life on Mars. You should know I’m a sucker for series finales. I’ve got the ER finale on Tivo, even though I haven’t watched it in years. I have strong memories of the M*A*S*H finale, the Newhart finale, the Mary Tyler Moore finale, the Bob Newhart Show finale, and even the St. Elsewhere finale. I actually thought the Life on Mars finale did a good job of tying everything together in a way that bring closure to the series and probably makes most of the viewers happy (unlike the St Elsewhere finale… or from what I hear, the Friends or Sopranos finales). But I still have some problems with it:
- Why is it when characters dream in a TV show, they always dream as if they are watching episodic television? They see scenes for which they didn’t take part, scenes they would have no way of knowing happened. Now, when I dream, it is always from my point of view, not that of an external observer. By the way, this isn’t just a complaint for Life on Mars. St. Elsewhere was supposedly the dream of an autistic child, so why why would he have known all the details? Newhart was supposedly the dream of Bob Hartley, yet concerned all of these characters and actions he never knew about. Of course, we won’t go into Pam’s dream of an entire season of Dallas.
- Did they plan this out? I mean, did they go in from day one and say: this is how it is going to end? Were they just flying by the seat of their pants, and pulled this out of their asses to tie things together? I’m going to have to go back and rewatch.
One thing the Life on Mars finale did serve to cement was the thought that, from Day 0, TV shows should either be open or closed ended. If you think of Life on Mars as a short run mini-series, it works. If you think of it as a cancelled show, it doesn’t. Some programs naturally work well open-ended because of the nature of the stories they tell and the ensemble they have. Law and Order and CSI: are great examples of this; so were ER and Hill Street Blues. Other shows should be closed ended and have a definate arc and ending. Life on Mars is one of those. Heroes should be, and so should (from what I hear) Lost. If we turn to comedies, M*A*S*H should have been closed ended: it went on too long, and outlasted the war, confusing the timeline.
In any case, I enjoyed the Life on Mars finale. I truly wish the opportunities given to the producers here were given to other producers — it should be a standard clause for any show. Many fans are still upset that there never was a proper finale for Quantum Leap, for example.
Tonight: the ER finale.
