A modern (well, 2008 , pretty modern) detective winds up back in 1973, no forensics, no computers, no cell phones, and a fairly corrupt (probably fictional) 125th police district in New York City.
Sounds goofy ? Yes, but I gave it a watch , and found it fascinating. 17 episodes. (Netflix, I'm on the cheapo 8$ / month plan)
Which is the catch. Who makes a 17 episode season ? Did it suddenly die ? Because I saw that before, a series called Constantine.
It was an awesome show ,up until episode 17 , which did nothing but tick me off and tempt me to rage quit (can you call it rage quitting when you watched all the episodes and it was the end of the last one that ticked you off ? )
What did they do ?
They did the Matrix thing. They did the BAD MATRIX thing.
Basically , it turned out the main charactar and the company of cops he was with were actually on a space ship on a trip to Mars, and to keep their minds active they were each in their own private little virtual world.
Why is this bad ?
1... broke the audience contract.
When you show the audience a world , you keep the audience in that world. You don't turn around after 17 episodes and a number of unresolved plot lines and say "enough about that. We're switching to 2035 and you're on a space ship just arriving at Mars" ! That's like making a years worth of some Greys Anatomy Soap Opera, getting everyone to love it and then saying "Forget it, we're going star trek , too bad if you guys don't like sci fi ! ". The audience you carefully built up , who were nostalgic about 1973 , who loved it all , you just ticked them all off. You just lost them.
2... Just a Dream = No Drama
Turns out they're all in little glass coffins on a star ship and they were all safe and sound and never in any danger. Now that you've established that, how are you going to have any dramatic moments ? If he goes back to 1973 , everyone knows he's safe and can't possibly be hurt. If he goes somewhere else, hey , he's just dreaming. Again , no worries. You killed all hope of drama by doing this.
3...Broken Romance Arc
After 17 episodes of finally getting him to admit he likes that cute little platinum blonde, he wakes up in a space ship on mars and she's not there. She's not one of the crew members, she's not the computer Windy (or "W1N-D") , she's no where. She's a figment of the computer dream's imagination. This just may be the worst way to end a romance in the history of TV. It certainly deserves nomination as such.
So, would you keep watching a show ? Knowing they're going to keep pulling the rug out from under you and just abandon most of the story once a year ? I know I won't.
Which is why I believe the show was actually Abandonned. As in , the backer said "Aint getting good ratings ! You got 1 episode to shut it down !" . That's really the only explanation that makes any sense here. Because there's no way there can be a next season if you're pulling crap like this. No one would watch it. The main charactar would have to go back to 1973 , and it would have to NOT be a computer dream. And I just don't see that happening.
EDIT : https://www.justwatch.com/ca/tv-show/life-on-mars
"Life on Mars garnered critical praise for its premise, acting, and depiction of the 1970s but suffered from a declining viewership after its premiere and a two-month hiatus. ABC announced on March 2, 2009 that it would not be ordering a second season."
(bottom of the article)
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