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Life on Mars
Feb. 28th, 2006 07:58 amEnd of series, and man, that was fantastic. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a British made series so much (oh yeah, that would be Doctor Who)
I'm glad the second series was commissioned from the start - with a concept like this they would need to have, in order to keep the ongoing story arc tight.
That last episode was so fantastic. Poor Sam was so desperate to help his dad, to take away his own traumatic but buried childhood memories, and yet the doubts about Vic's innocence were there from the start. Not just a weak man, but a genuine wrong-un, and the audience was always just that step ahead of Sam - just enough to be yelling "Sam! Don't do it!" at the TV. But Vic was just so good at acting innocent, and we could still see the little boy Sam inside the grown-up Sam, so desperate to hold on to that childhood belief in his dad as a hero. And he absolutely could not win - the only way he could change history was by making things worse for his mum and his four-year-old self, and he just couldn't do it.
At least he had enough sense left to unload the gun before he let Vic have it.
I loved so much that the flashes of the woods that he's had all the way through turned out to be so significant in this episode. And Annie was in that memory. So has he constructed this entire fantasy around that long-buried childhood memory? How good of a look did he get at her back then, anyway? Maybe it's more that the whole 1973 world has been made up by his brain in order to get him to face up to the fact he saw his dad beat up a female copper.
Amazed at how easily Gene took him back into the fold at the end, after everything that had happened between them in that episode. He physically fought - and beat - his boss, and then pulled a gun on him! He allowed a murder suspect to escape. And then they all just head down to the pub together as if nothing had happened? I guess disciplinary matters weren't so strictly enforced back then. Or perhaps more that Sam's subconscious needed it to be brushed under the carpet in order to continue. Depends whether you subscribe to the 'coma' or 'time travel' theory. Me, I'm a coma theorist. *G*
Annie finally telling Sam he needs help was a good scene, and not before time. From her point of view he has so frequently come across as a complete lunatic, and she's been incredibly supportive and tolerant, but she's getting seriously worried about him now.
The Sam-Gene double act never fails to amuse. Gene's 'big fish' speech was hilarious, especially with Sam's deadpan response.
"See, a big fish has gone and we don't want all the smaller fish trying to climb the ladder."
"That's a very mixed metaphor."
As a character I've found throughout the series that I prefer Gene, because he's so much more fun than the frequently holier-than-thou Sam. But my sympathy for Sam was back full force in this episode. He just couldn't win, and his desperation was so painfully obvious.
There are paradoxes inherent in the entire thing - like, is Sam's presence changing or reinforcing history? But on the other hand, if the whole thing is an eleborate fantasy constructed by his unconscious mind while in a coma, both can be true because none of it is real.
I'm glad the second series was commissioned from the start - with a concept like this they would need to have, in order to keep the ongoing story arc tight.
That last episode was so fantastic. Poor Sam was so desperate to help his dad, to take away his own traumatic but buried childhood memories, and yet the doubts about Vic's innocence were there from the start. Not just a weak man, but a genuine wrong-un, and the audience was always just that step ahead of Sam - just enough to be yelling "Sam! Don't do it!" at the TV. But Vic was just so good at acting innocent, and we could still see the little boy Sam inside the grown-up Sam, so desperate to hold on to that childhood belief in his dad as a hero. And he absolutely could not win - the only way he could change history was by making things worse for his mum and his four-year-old self, and he just couldn't do it.
At least he had enough sense left to unload the gun before he let Vic have it.
I loved so much that the flashes of the woods that he's had all the way through turned out to be so significant in this episode. And Annie was in that memory. So has he constructed this entire fantasy around that long-buried childhood memory? How good of a look did he get at her back then, anyway? Maybe it's more that the whole 1973 world has been made up by his brain in order to get him to face up to the fact he saw his dad beat up a female copper.
Amazed at how easily Gene took him back into the fold at the end, after everything that had happened between them in that episode. He physically fought - and beat - his boss, and then pulled a gun on him! He allowed a murder suspect to escape. And then they all just head down to the pub together as if nothing had happened? I guess disciplinary matters weren't so strictly enforced back then. Or perhaps more that Sam's subconscious needed it to be brushed under the carpet in order to continue. Depends whether you subscribe to the 'coma' or 'time travel' theory. Me, I'm a coma theorist. *G*
Annie finally telling Sam he needs help was a good scene, and not before time. From her point of view he has so frequently come across as a complete lunatic, and she's been incredibly supportive and tolerant, but she's getting seriously worried about him now.
The Sam-Gene double act never fails to amuse. Gene's 'big fish' speech was hilarious, especially with Sam's deadpan response.
"See, a big fish has gone and we don't want all the smaller fish trying to climb the ladder."
"That's a very mixed metaphor."
As a character I've found throughout the series that I prefer Gene, because he's so much more fun than the frequently holier-than-thou Sam. But my sympathy for Sam was back full force in this episode. He just couldn't win, and his desperation was so painfully obvious.
There are paradoxes inherent in the entire thing - like, is Sam's presence changing or reinforcing history? But on the other hand, if the whole thing is an eleborate fantasy constructed by his unconscious mind while in a coma, both can be true because none of it is real.
