Life on Mars - dancing around spoilers

[neadods]

Just read spoilers for the ending of the American Life on Mars. I knew we wouldn't air the British ending - an ending like that is 100% opposed to the tropes of American popular culture, which is almost always upbeat in the face of the worst disasters, while I've noticed that British entertainment is generally more ambivalent on its best days and even the comedies have a bittersweet "can't win for losing" undertone. (The finale episode of "Good Neighbors" being a perfect example.)

However, I must say that the British inclination to not pull punches is why the British ending to Life on Mars was fresh and appropriate, if not necessarily satisfying. While the Americanization... well, see icon.

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

The final scene of The Good Life/Good Neighbors is gut-wrenching, especially in a show where everybody is so nice, even minor characters.

I just read the American LoM ending on Wiki, though I can't work out if it's real or a belated April Fool.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Real. Hilariously bad and out of keeping with the first 4/5 of the episode, but utterly real.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

This ending was actively insulting to the audience. I was watching because I was interested in the choices they were making, doing changes and variations on the source text, and now I feel like "it serves me right for giving it a chance; I should have spent that time rewatching my British DVDs instead." Some of what they did in the show was interesting; this was a slap in the face.

And honestly? If it hadn't been for a couple of interviews from the creators right after the ending of Real-LOM that sent us all into a tizzy, there was plenty of room for ambiguity in interpreting it. This, combined with the BSG finale? Makes me wonder if I should ever watch television ever again.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

This ending was actively insulting to the audience.

From the comments, though, I'm getting the impression that people who didn't see the original liked it. Or more accurately, Americans who like a happy ending and didn't know the original liked it.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Not on the LOM-USA comm, where there's a lot of disgust; mobody defending it in comments in my LJ either, though I have to admit that only one person who replied there is a fan of the US version only (she is my best friend since high school and I have been remiss in not converting my UK DVDs to loan her ;-) ) but she was insulted by the ending too.

When I've got a free moment this weekend I'll have to swing by your LJ to see the other viewpoint in the comments, because I really haven't seen anyone like it, and I'm curious to see those reactions.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I had to look up just what the ending was, after seeing all the WTF reactions on my flist.

And now I've heard what it is, what the actual fuck?

[evil_plotbunny]

I will admit to liking both endings. *hides*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm still at the O.o stage. If I *hadn't* seen the original, I probably wouldn't be as gobsmacked.

[evil_plotbunny]

I do think it was over the top, but I also think it was over the top in a good way.

I also like the contrast between the two endings.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Spoil the ignorant, please?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

jigglykat's latest entry has the straight dope.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

WHATEVER THEY WERE SMOKING I WANT IT AS WELL!

[iko.livejournal.com]

I... have no words to describe that ending. None. *facepalms*

[boogiebabe-smap.livejournal.com]

From actually watching it, I was a little stunned because it came completely from left field. I haven't decided whether or not I like it. I didn't like what the ending did to the relationships between the different characters, but I didn't hate the ending outright. I'm letting it percolate through my psyche.

I'm sorry the show was cut off so short since the writers and actors were just starting to get comfortable with the characters they were portraying. One of the things I liked in the British version was that Sam was causing positive changes in procedure; I was sorry that I didn't see more of that in the American version.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I do wonder if the American ending was what was "originally" planned or something slapped on quickly to resolve everything before it got canceled.

[calliopes_pen]

*goes to Wikipedia to find out the ending*

That...that's just stupid. Glad I didn't watch this version.

[rheanna27.livejournal.com]

I was curious, so I looked up the ending on Wikipedia and -- man, is that for real? Surely that's an April Fool joke? Right?

The best ambivalent/dark ending I can think of to a UK comedy is the fantastic conclusion of Blackadder Goes Forth, with the character finally going 'over the top' and to their deaths.

What was the ending of The Good Life / Good Neighbours?

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

Series 4: "7: Anniversary (22 May 77)

Tom and Barbara decide to sell their record collection to get enough money to build a new pig sty and to repair the damage done to their garden by the oil leak.

It's Tom's birthday. It's also the second anniversary of the Goods' decision to try self-sufficiency.

Jerry learns that he has been appointed Managing Director of JJM. While Tom and Barbara are next door helping the Leadbetters to celebrate, someone breaks into the Goods' house and smashes it up.

Jerry tries to persuade Tom to return to his old job with JJM, but the Goods decide to carry on with self-sufficiency."

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Oh mibble. That's an ep I never saw on the repeats.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It tends to disappear on the repeats, particularly in America.

But even To the Manor Born only got its happy ending and marriage *after* Richard was professionally ruined. By racists, yet.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I cried at Blackadder Goes Forth. Mostly less for the characters than for the young men who had had moments like that, knowing full well what would happen.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

*looks it up on Wikipedia like everyone else, points and laughs* Wow, incredibly stupid, pounds on the themes/puns/musical references with maniacal claw-hammer literalism (because obviously we'd all be too stupid to handle any kind of ambiguity) AND strangles any and all potential main-relationship homoeroticism in its cradle--yep, that's a true Hollywood-style ending, all right. I think I'll stick with the British one. *pats region-free player*

"I've noticed that British entertainment is generally more ambivalent on its best days and even the comedies have a bittersweet 'can't win for losing' undertone."

I admit to occasionally watching British television and thinking, "God, can't ANYONE ever just have a simple happy ending, just once?", but if that means losing things like the finale of "Blackadder Goes Forth" then forget what I just said. (And the finale to, say, "Spaced" was very sweet and upbeat.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

To the Manor Born had a happy ending... if you overlook that it took Richard being professionally ruined.

I do wonder if the American LoM ending wasn't what was originally planned as much as something quickly done to have a resolution before the cancellation.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

It does sound like something someone came up with at three in the morning under deadline after a lot of coffee and cigarettes, so, yeah.

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

Dear Goddess. It sounds like a bad version of Red Dwarf's "Better Than Life".

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

It's thoroughly bizarre and ranks up there with St Elsewhere's snow globe. However, I must give them some points because unlike the UK version, at least I understood this ending. I'm still trying to figure out the UK one.

spoilers

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

Main character comes out of his coma, but discovers that he's suffering from a severe deadening of effect, which leaves him spaced out and numb, and which was probably due to something done to him during the operation that brought him out of the coma. After failing to realise that folksy sayings spouted by non-existent token minority characters are not meant to be taken literally, and due to the nonexistence of psychiatrists in 2007*, he decides to cut himself with a pen and then jump off a building when he discovers that he doesn't really feel pain, which puts him back into the coma again.

This then sets up the cast for the second series, called "Ashes to Ashes", which is like Life on Mars but set during a different decade.

* according to production notes, Life on Mars is "set in an alternative universe, which is exactly like our own except all the psychiatrists were eaten by alligators at some unspecified point in the past."

[neadods.livejournal.com]

He discovered he was happier in the past, and put himself back into a coma to return.

[jigglykat.livejournal.com]

I admit, I only watched the finale to see if they pulled something like what they did with the pilot (doing it word-for-word, shot-for-shot based on the original, whatever).

Apparently not, unless that was the secret finale episode that no one knows about.

If this was an April Fool's joke, as everyone is saying, it was a very expensive one!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

As I'm answering all over the thread, I suddenly wonder if this is what they're *originally* planned as an ending or if it was suddenly slapped on because they could shoot it quickly when they got the news they'd been whacked.

OTOH, it's exactly the sort of happy happy joy joy WTF I'd expect to be spoonfed an American audience.

[maypanic.livejournal.com]

It so didn't fit with the rest of the show, it was hilarious. I actually thought it wasn't the absolute worst idea they could've come up with... but the execution was definitely lacking. Just the last five minutes pounding us with puns, exaggerated correlations, and explanations.

On the other hand, my family loved it. They thought it was "better than the original because this one actually made sense and wrapped things up." *sigh*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It made sense? I thought the British version made plenty of sense and wrapped things up. He wasn't happy in this time after all, and returned to when he felt alive, even if he wasn't very actually alive.

[maypanic.livejournal.com]

I thought the ending to the original series was brilliant and perfect for the story it told. Was left with a feeling of "YES. That is the only way it could have ended." It left you somewhat uncertain, fired the brain cells, sparked debate.

The family, on the other hand, found it horribly depressing that the character we've been following so long committed suicide, leaving his dear mother alone, turning away from reality to chase an illusion. (Even so, they still like the original show better. None of us were exactly loyal followers of the 'Merican one.)

So I can kind of see their point, even though I completely disagree. However, I took great delight in calling today to tell them that the entire internet hated the foolish trite ending.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It was a very depressing ending. But somehow satisfying too, in a way that a classic happy ending would not have been.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I went and looked up the ending and what the ever-loving frak?!

[un-sedentary.livejournal.com]

Do you mean the first series ending, or the ending-ending?

I thought the way LoM ended (the second series) was great, and I'm a happy-ending kind of girl... but it was the kind of ending where you could debate whether is good or bad. Especially given the premise of Ashes to Ashes (which I haven't seen but read some spoilers for).

[un-sedentary.livejournal.com]

P.S, I would like to just add that IMHO it is bizarre someone in America felt the needed to reshoot a show that's already in English, just because it's in the wrong accent. -_- It's not like there aren't any writers with fresh ideas out there.

[fyrdrakken]

This is a thing that I've noticed about American TV and movies -- God forbid we import something popular from another country, even if it's British or Australian and hence wouldn't require subtitling or dubbing: It always has to be remade to bring it into line with core American values and eliminate any genuine flavor of other cultures. (I suspect this may in part be due to there being higher profits for American production/distribution companies for their "own" productions than for licensing rights for foreign products. Probably though there's also a heavy dose of Hollywood execs having a very limited concept of the what the American viewing public will "accept" and forcing everything through that filter.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

there's also a heavy dose of Hollywood execs having a very limited concept of the what the American viewing public will "accept" and forcing everything through that filter.

This, IMO. Although it's not just Hollywood execs. Their audience also includes the kind of people who are extremely insular, want happy endings, and are majorly suspicious from other states, much less outside the country.

[fyrdrakken]

A certain amount of catering to insularity, yes (which thus is reinforced by never having to learn that other cultures exist in this world and not everyone actually wants to be just like them), but there's also that thing where studio execs tie themselves in knots trying to explain why such-and-such a thing that was wildly popular despite being outside the narrowly defined category of "what Americans want to see" doesn't actually disprove any of their conventional wisdom.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

there's also that thing where studio execs tie themselves in knots trying to explain why such-and-such a thing that was wildly popular despite being outside the narrowly defined category of "what Americans want to see" doesn't actually disprove any of their conventional wisdom

Don't even start me on that, or I'll start frothing about the guy who said that League of Their Own was only a hit because women made enough guys go see it.

[fyrdrakken]

Yeah, right up there with, "People don't want to see female leads in action/SF&fantasy/outside chick flicks," followed by a list of excuses as to why such-and-such films with female leads don't actually count.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I thought the way LoM ended (the second series) was great, and I'm a happy-ending kind of girl... but it was the kind of ending where you could debate whether is good or bad

Ditto, ditto, and the fact that you could debate it is why I liked it so much. There was something to actually sink your brain into and think about.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

I've just read the ending and it's left with with this: D: expression on my face. I now have a morbid curiosity to watch it.

[fyrdrakken]

See, the Wiki page made it sound almost interesting -- out-of-left-field endings can be enjoyable if they're pulled off well. Sounds like this one really wasn't, though -- makes me glad I decided from the beginning that I was fine with the original British version and saw no reason to see what the Americanization would do to it.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

So, sheep-like, I went over to Wiki to read the US ending... and what??? What brain-dead, moronic, sci-fi-cliché-wedded idiot thought that one up? And it wasn't laughed off the set?

*shakes head* I'm so glad I was never even tempted to watch this.

ETA: it's crack on speed, isn't it?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Or speed on crack.