Mar 06 2009
ABC Kills Life on Mars
We knew it was too good to last: the quirky, period drama with a sci-fi twist Life on Mars has been canceled by ABC. With Jason O’Mara, Gretchen Mol, Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli, and Jonathan Murphy, this groundbreaking show was a little bit crazy and occasionally uneven, but always innovative, unexpected, and entertaining.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that supposedly ABC will run the last five episodes as planned–and that there is time enough for producers to wrap up the storyline. Certainly that wrap-up won’t be as well-developed as it could have been during a longer run, but at least we’re not getting cut off mid-stream. I’m not holding my breath, however–Eli Stone supposedly has an ending for us, too, but we’ve yet to see it. Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money, and Pushing Daisies are supposed to burn off the remaining episodes in the summer, but we’ll believe it when we see it.
Here’s hoping that Life on Mars gets to finish up as planned. The new show The Unusuals is slated to replace Life on Mars in April, so there at least looks to be time to get the end of our 1970s time warp wrapped up. I’m going to miss all the characters on the show, especially Gretchen Mol’s Annie with her fabulous flipped hair and struggle to get respect in a man’s world. Her relationship with Sam (O’Mara) was a delicious blend of angst, sexual tension, and undeniable sweetness.
It was also entertaining to sink back into the 70s, before computers and cell phones and political correctness. Life on Mars gave a well-rounded perspective, giving us a look at the good side to the old days as well as the bad side–and all the gray areas in between. It was also nice to have a drama that was more about people and ideas, rather than blood and gore.
Once again, ABC took a good drama and killed it. Halfway through the season, Life on Mars went on a months-long break, before finally pairing up with Lost this year. The first half of the season ended on a cliffhanger, but not wanting to alienate potential new viewers, ABC chose to NOT air the second part when the show returned. So the show took a long hiatus, switched timeslots, and then showed the episodes out of order. Can’t imagine why the show didn’t do well in the ratings. (!)
I’m starting to think that network TV is going to go the way of MTV and VH1–its original purpose is going to fade away, and all they’re going to do is air reality programs. In the future, if you want quality TV drama, it’ll probably all be on cable or on the Internet.
Enjoy the final episodes of Life on Mars as long as you can, Wednesdays on ABC, 10/9c.
Thanks to Variety and TV.com for the news.
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Jason O’Mara and Harvey Keitel, Gretchen Mol, Michael Imperioli and Gretchen Mol, and Jason O’Mara Life on Mars screencaps, c2009, 2008 Kudos Film and Television, ABC Studios, 20th Century Fox Television.
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It’s pretty sad when you’ve made four critically lauded shows and you tank all of them within one season. Heads should be rolling over there at ABC–whoever is commissioning these shows is brilliant, but the people planning the schedules and promotion are morons. It’s driving me crazy.
ABC and Fox do seem to be harder on shows than the other networks. I’m not naming names, because I don’t want to jinx it, but I know of shows on NBC that have worse ratings than Life on Mars and they’re still hanging in there. You have to give a show time to build an audience, to get a buzz going. There are very few shows that are hits right out of the gate. Gah.
Hey, Emm, no I haven’t seen the original UK version! I’d like to, though, after I’ve seen how this one turns out. If we do get a real ending, as promised, it might be worth it for you to check out this US version–it’s a bit loopy sometimes, but there’s a lot of good stuff in it, too.
We do a lot of series watching on DVD or online now, too. It’s impossible to keep up with everything in real time, especially when ten shows I like are all on the same day at conflicting times, and then the next day there’s nothing on I’m interested in! And it is so nice to watch shows with limited or no commercials–it’s also a lot less time-consuming!
I didn’t know that the BBC has no commercials! I think I need to move. *G*