Dear Life on Mars writers —
Fans of your show are waiting mighty patiently here for some sort of advancement in the main plotline: Sam’s predicament. First we endured a dangling cliffhanger a few weeks ago, where the episodes were aired out of order (I know — not necessarily your fault). In the cliffhanger “resolution” episode, we got some cool little tidbits of info: the Aries Project and the mysterious caller, to name a couple. I’ve got to tell you, though — it’s not enough.
What the hell are you waiting for?
I sat through last night’s episode hoping to get at least a morsel of info on the Aries Project or something other than a Mars rover/robot coming out of someone’s ear or a stray TV signal from the future, and we got nothing. I sat and tried to think of something to write about for the episode, and I stared at a blank screen for way too long. This shouldn’t happen for a show like this! We should have information overload to discuss at least every other week.
The main problem with Life on Mars is that I simply don’t care about the crime-of-the-week. Sam takes to solving these crimes as though he feels completely comfortable in his new life in 1973, and they become the central focal point of the episode. These weekly plots should be secondary to what this show is about — a guy stuck in a time he does not belong, desperately (desperately, I say!) looking for a way back home. If Sam merely sheds a solitary tear once in a while when reminiscing over 2008, then how can we, the viewers, care about whether he should even be trying to get back at all? He writes a list of possible reasons for his fucked up situation on a blackboard … and that’s it?
The reshuffling of the schedule after the hiatus was clearly a ploy to lure in new viewers, and I can sort of respect that. However, while you may have gained a few viewers that way, you’re losing current fans with this snail’s pace. Either make these weekly crimes more intriguing, or throw them far in the back seat and start showing us that Sam is desperate and deserving to figure out what the hell is going on with him.
I love you guys and all, and all I want is the best for this show, but with a Lost lead-in you need to be throwing us a bigger bone or we’ll be looking forward to an earlier Wednesday night bedtime.
Sincerely,
Keith
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Feb 26, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
I agree, Keith. While I’m loving the “crime of the week” scenarios more than you are, I definitely feel like the main story arc has stalled completely. Considering the not-so-great ratings I fear we’ll never get a second season…or a conclusion to Sam’s predicament. Even if this is the only season Life On Mars gets, it would be gratifying to have a real end to it.
Dear Keith,
Agree to disagree. What was it again that sent Heroes plummeting down? Wait… trying to copy Lost.
Life on Mars has its own mythology, has from the point of view as a writer myself I kinda feel how a main plot can be inserted into a storyline spanning over seasons. If you conpsare to Lost, when was it that we knew, why they crashed? End of Season 2. Not to mention Season 1, where the only thing that was really happening was the abduction of Walt.
I have a strong guess, how the conscience of Sam got into 1973, I have exhaustively wrote about it last time. But it is an other thing to implant it into the story. In this version the writers have more time to explore SWam’s character and I for myself would lay low if my only source of confirmation is at least ambigious.
I heard once, it takes 3 things to make a good detective, a big truth, a big lie, and a big mistake. The writers are doing a brilliant work, and truthfully I’m more interested to know, whose memories is he living through
*POST AUTHOR*
As I said, it would be fine if we didn’t get main plot advancement if the individual stories and crimes weren’t taking me to snoozeville. At least with Lost we got new cool things to talk about every week. Remember that first season — everyone who liked it was talking about it the next day/week with friends. Can you honestly say you’re discussing last night’s episode with friends today? How about the episode before this? Utterly forgettable.
Actually, I had suffered loss of contact with most of my friends with whom we started to watch Lost, and I like it, they change the players in the same settings.
I don’t know about Snoozeville, I’m more used to subtle hints, like the one in JAG which led to the tie-in pilot of NCIS and we ciuld not know, that switching those hats will be relevant.
Whatever happens AND happened in 1973 has ties with the characters and the place. Although the man from Aries or the one with the bunny cane could abduct him, they have their reason not to interfere right away.
What Sam needs to understand, his consciousness is in 1973, his body is most probably still in 2009. Indeeed I totally missed the Quantum Leap relevance and he also hass effects on the future.
I hope we will have clues as to whether whose memories he is living through and/or it will be revealed, one of the characters exists simultaneously, as faked memory and a real orderly/policeman who had not hsd the sameposition back then and possibly could have answers how to get home.
As for the councilman, either he was killed or was braindead just long enough he could not make the jump into reality
I’m with you Keith. I felt like this watching the last season of Quantum Leap.
Man I want Journeyman back… that show was so frickin awesome grrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
Now that couldn’t be a negative I’m hearing about Quantum Leap, could it? C’mon, they wrapped it up nicely. There were some episodes that lost their way a bit, but as a whole, that was one awesome, groundbreaking series. Nobody messes with my Bakula! ;-)
Hear, Hear! It seems whenever a show comes along that has time travel involved, they liken it to Quantum Leap. It is still one of my favorites! You are right, Debbie, it was a very groundbreaking series!
“Man I want Journeyman back… that show was so frickin awesome grrrrrrrrrrrrrr…”
Amen! Not at the expense of Life on Mars though. Sure its slow at releasing clues to his predicament, but I find the “case du jour” and the character development of the support players to be interesting. (Heck we’ve found out that there might be a slight possibility that Ray isn’t a complete douche! … but I’m sure he can turn it around)
I really miss Journeyman though. That was a great show. Get that show back on and take off one of the bazillion “Dancing with the C list Rehab Stars” drek shows that are polluting our airwaves!
It’s pretty much identical to the UK version in the respect that there wasn’t much to the mythology till the last episode of the second series, it was just a slight twist on a cop drama as an excuse to show the era from our era’s persective (or arrogance) & I enjoy it as such.
I really don’t care for why he’s there because that’s the mcguffin
I kind of feel guilty for not liking the show as much as I want to. I haven’t watched since the break although I have them on my DVR. I’ll get around to it… But yes the crime of the week is not my thing.
Now I got the chance to watch the episode, and I’m confused.
From a literary viewpoint, this was a cataclismic episode. Detective Sam Tyler realized that time is relative and a conscience is sane enough as long there is a person of trust and confidence. I can’t imagine so won’t tell how it is exactly when someone’s loved one got Alzheimer’s and he can’t recognize you anymore or even him or herself in the mirror, thinking it is still the 1950s. More painful if you experience that the loved person seeks trust in someone long dead and shouts him/herself out.
So the writers asked the big question: are the people around him enlightened and trustworthy enough so that even if a familiar case comes along that effects the lives of everyone they could accept the source of his hunches?
The answer is no, and that turning point had to be made to establish the reason for continuity.
And if that is Snoozeville, makes me wonder what made Quantum Leap interesting for others knowing the fact that none of his main issues were ever resolved nor had he returned to home