TV News and Reviews

*SPOILER ALERT* Tonight’s series finale of Life on Mars, “Life Is a Rock”, gave us a suitably sci-fi ending that tied up loose ends, answered our questions, and totally threw us all for a loop. I’d be really surprised if anyone saw this one coming. Not that it was a sucker punch, however–it fit the clues that had been given all season and even gave us a reason for Sam’s journey.

The whole episode was rather spastic and began with dream imagery that had 1973 characters in Sam’s 2008 apartment. Then Sam (Jason O’Mara) wakes up in 1973, much to my relief. And that’s what made the surprise ending of Life on Mars so bittersweet — I’d come to love these 1973 characters and Sam’s relationship with them so much that I didn’t want him to go back. I mean, we had the tough but fair Gene Hunt, who became like a father to Sam. We had the young and sweet Chris (Jonathan Murphy), who looked to Sam as a role model. Even the chauvinistic, grumpy Ray (Michael Imperioli) had his charms, because underneath all that 70s macho was a basically good guy.

And then there was Annie (Gretchen Mol), Sam’s trusted, intelligent, feminist, sexy, gutsy confidante. No matter what crazy notions Sam told her about his mysterious journey to 1973, she helped him, protected him, and eventually believed him. In return Sam supported her at work, respected her, and listened to her. Their love was based on a good and true friendship, something really nice to see on network TV.

So now we have the finale, and we end up on…Mars. In 2035. I really hadn’t seen that one coming at all. I think everyone expected some sort of coma or death scenario, which wasn’t exactly wrong–Sam had been in an induced coma for a two-year-long journey to Mars. Turns out an asteroid field had jolted his planned dream sequence as a cop in 2008 to one where all his mission cohorts were cops in 1973. That’s right, Annie, Ray, and Chris are all astronauts, and Ray still calls Sam “Spaceman”. It’s particularly funny as Annie is in charge, something 1973 Annie told Sam’s mother Rose that she’d dreamt about to keep her going through all the chauvinistic treatment at work.

The added twist was that they are all on a “gene hunt” on Mars, and his Lieutenant Gene Hunt? Is actually his father. And that’s where the second part of Sam’s dream journey ties in–he was reconnecting with his father. I really liked that aspect of the finale, that while Ray was dancing on an island with a thousand girls, Sam was using his dreams to explore his relationships with those around him.

What this finale allows us is to have our cake and eat it, too. Had Sam merely stayed in 1973, it would have meant he didn’t care about his former fiance or any of his family and friends. With this solution, the 2008 relationships were all a dream, and the family he blended in with in 1973 turned out to be the actual family he had in 2035. It’s a good compromise. We get the chance of a Sam/Annie relationship, the gang’s still all together, and we get an ending that came straight from Mars. Way to go, Spaceman.

PHOTOS: Jason O’Mara as Sam Tyler, Gretchen Mol as Annie Norris, and Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt, Life on Mars screencaps, c2009 Kudos Film and Television, ABC Studios.

I just had to start with a photo of Annie for this Life on Mars post. Gretchen Mol totally rocks this part, and Annie Norris is one of the great and interesting characters of TV. It’s a shame we have to say goodbye to her and the rest of uber talented Life on Mars cast after next week’s finale.

*SPOILER ALERT* This week’s episode, “Everyone Knows It’s Windy”, picks up after the huge cliffhanger of last week. Pulling over a car on what seemed a random traffic stop, Ray (Michael Imperioli) and Chris (Jonathan Murphy) were both shot at point blank range by the Irish mobster Jimmy McManus (Peter Greene). Sam (Jason O’Mara) had been working undercover in McManus’ gang, but got caught and saved by his backup just in time. Apparently McManus didn’t like his party getting busted up by the cops.

“Everyone Knows It’s Windy” picks up with the 125 looking for some vigilante justice for the fallen officers. Ray, with less serious wounds, gets patched up and joins the hunt for McManus. Chris, who took most of the bullets, is in critical condition in surgery.

McManus quickly turns up dead, shot close-up by someone McManus perceived as a cop. An FBI agent shows up to investigate McManus’ death and suddenly all the clues are pointing towards Sam. What’s more troubling is when the gun is found in Sam’s apartment, and his hippie chick neighbor Windy (Tanya Fischer) is unable to help provide his alibi–because her apartment is completely empty, and it looks as if she never existed at all.

Sam ends up behind bars and begins to question his own sanity, and his own motives. Here we have one of the best scenes in the episode, as Annie helps him see what really matters in all of this.

(If you can’t see the video, go here.)

Lt. Gene Hunt (Harvey Keitel) hilariously shows up to Sam’s cell with a key hidden in a Chinese food container. With Annie and even Ray’s help, Sam manages to track the clues to the eyewitness who identified him–an actor attending a party at a toy factory. And of course, the toy factory makes the same little robot gizmos that Sam has seen crawling out of people’s eyeballs.

It turns out the FBI agent is responsible for the whole thing. He corners Sam, and almost convinces him to jump off a building to “get home”. Does he hold all the answers to Sam’s true reality? Or is it just that he read Sam’s psych files and knows all the details of Sam’s “delusions”? Sam still sees things the others don’t, and hears the agent saying things the others don’t hear. Is Sam really crazy?

In the end, it’s Annie to the rescue. To be honest, if Sam really is in a coma or time traveling or whatever the explanation, I don’t want him to go back. The relationship he has with Annie is too good to let go of, and Sam has actually found a place for himself here in 1973. Sure, he doesn’t exactly fit in, but that’s part of what makes it work. He’s shaken up the 125, and given Annie the fortitude to go forward with ambitions she might otherwise have let fall away. He has a purpose here.

Word is, we’ll have a true ending to Life on Mars. I don’t think the showrunners knew they’d be canceled until they were working on the last episode, so I worry it won’t quite be as thorough as we’d like it to be. I’m not complaining, however–any ending is better than no ending at all. When great shows like Studio 60 and Life on Mars get an ending, it’s a lot easier to accept it as just a sterling miniseries that had a beginning, middle, and end, rather than a series that got cut off just as it was hitting its stride.

Here’s hoping we get some answers to our questions, and maybe we’ll find out if Windy really IS a real hippie chick or just a figment of Sam’s imagination.

P.S. Chris pulled through, no doubt helped by visits from his friends and extra prayers from Annie. Murphy plays Chris with just the right amount of adorableness when he notices that Annie and Sam seem “different together”. Perceptive kid. He’s the most huggable police detective on TV, that’s for sure, and I’m glad he made it.

Tune in next week for the Life on Mars finale, on Wednesday at 10/9c, after Lost.

PHOTOS: Gretchen Mol as Annie Norris and Jason O’Mara as Sam Tyler, Life on Mars, “Everyone Knows It’s Windy” screencaps, c2009 Kudos Film and Television, ABC Studios.

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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