@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H: "Oh, but I can do it so much better because I'm a real writer. Plus, I've already seen a few episodes of that Space Track show."
Since everyone seems to be comparing it to previous works, it also seems very similar to the Book of the Long Sun books by Gene Wolfe. There's also at least one short story that sounds almost exactly like this (only with more radiation-poisoning mutants) but I can't for the life of me remember the title or author. It had a religion based around non-literal interpretations of the laws of physics, because gravity made no sense to someone who had only ever experienced centrifugal acceleration.
I'm glad the US ending deviated so much from the original, even if the execution seemed a little forced. They might have built up to it a little more in previous episodes, but either way a sci-fi nod on network TV is actually quite ballsy.
For those that didn't like it, Harvey Keitel in "Saturn 5" will help wash the taste out of you mouth.
I love British TV so I am biased but I think The Office is the only transplant that we have done better than the original. Somebody else mentioned Sanford and Son to me when I had this conversation but that was before my time.
@sallybrownies: "Sanford and Son" was terrific. It was not only funny, it had a lot more to say about the socioeconomic times and such than the original did. You could enjoy it on either level; I laughed at it when I was young and when I saw reruns when I was older, it was a surprise to me how much social commentary they'd gotten in there. As an upper-class white kid in an all-white suburb, it was an object lesson in the fact that lower-class black urban people were just people like me, with a few different problems..
Most people I know who watch "The Office" (both versions) don't rewatch episodes of the British one, they don't think it holds up to repeated viewings once you already know the jokes/cringe situation of the week. Whereas they'll rewatch the US one.
I know Brits who duck and mumble apologetically that they really think the US version is superior and hope their fellow subjects don't hurt them. Doesn't Ricky Gervais like the US version better?
Also, Charlie, the poll's weighted: you've got 3 equal, one US better and two UK better, with the UK better ones having stronger word choices.
So you've given people unequal choices, much like bad political pollsters who do crappy push polls. You'd need another US better option and more neutral wording on all choices.
@Evil Tortie's Mom: Also, even anyone who thought it was great would draw the line at choosing an answer with "pwned" in it. I loved it and that scared me.
Sam went through all that stuff, and everything we watched him do was all a dream and then he woke up.
So, really, anyone "let down" by the US ending and pissed at the people who made it either a) didn't notice that the UK version also ended with "it was all just a dream" and/or b) they like that the UK dreams really meant absolutely nothing at ALL to the audience who'd invested all the hours watching Sam's dreams and/or c) they like watching characters die for no good reason other than "woops, our 8 episodes are up" (similar to the later Shamalamadingdong school of "the movie's almost over, quick, a pointless TWIST!").
I hope that the readers of io9 are smart enough and critical/discerning enough not to automatically think that all happy endings are worthless/ TEH SUX.
Quick plug - Serra Tinic from the University of Alberta has a great essay on the history, challenges and politics of adapting content from the UK for the US market over at FlowTV.org: [flowtv.org]
@josh.green: Interesting, but "Da Vinci's Inquest" didn't air on prime-time CBS US television. It's in syndication, which is a very different market -- either non-network stations, late at night, or on weekend afternoon/evenings.
CBS aired a lot of stuff from Canada (and co-productions with Canada and other countries) as far back as the 1980's, but only on late nights.
@Evil Tortie's Mom: For those too young to remember, CBS didn't used to have talk shows after the news -- they had reruns or imports of light action-adventure and cop/spy shows, like you see on USA nowadays. Along the lines of "Psych" and "Burn Notice", but not as well written and much, much cheaper.
The Canadian co-productions with Global (like Night Heat and Adderly) were made with Toronto talent, generic back-east-cold-city settings, and American money. When the CBS funding ended, so did those Canadian shows, leading to the Great Vancouver Sci-Fi Boom of the 90's and 00's... and TOPIC!
US LoM had the courage of its convictions. It started out as an SF show, and it finished as an SF show.
English LoM wanted to have it both ways: use the structure of SF with time-travel and then wuss out (YES, I SAID WUSS OUT! ya big girl's blouse nancy-boys) with an ending of "It was all a dream and Sam is too much of a wimp to deal with reality, so he killed himself". Had it actually been time-travel, it would have been a much better, more honest ending.
UK Sam used his dreams to escape his reality; US Sam used his to improve it.
Plus, in the UK version, Gene is clearly the star (as can be seen by him getting another show, though it isn't as good), whereas in the US version, it's always been Sam.
Also, those of you who are all "English ending is superior in every way YAH BOO" would also have been bitching if the US ending was identical or even similar, so your bitching is superfluous. You wouldn't have liked it anyway.
Although I suppose the British ending makes sense in that context; if someone can't even manage to be the star/most interesting character in their own fantasy/dreams (!!), it makes sense he'd off himself IRL.
UK Sam had even more issues than I thought! That's really low self-esteem.
The US version was SF and proud of it; the UK version was a cop show that used SF tropes and was ashamed of it. The difference in Sams shows that.
@Evil Tortie's Mom: SF tropes and was ashamed of it? Erm, just because it didn't wallop you over the head with the sci-fi factor doesn't mean it was ashamed. Lets not forget that the person commissioned the UK Life on Mars was Julie Gardner, the woman who commissioned Torchwood and Doctor Who. I think she might just be a tad familiar with scifi. What the UK show was unafraid to do is f%$#k with the audiences mind and be controversial. What this show did was another St. Elsehwere/Dallas-Bobby shower thing.
@IGPNicki: I'm referring to the end, which is unequivocally NOT sci-fi, and the fact that they only used the tropes b/c that was the only way to do a cop show set in the 70's. Which the writers have admitted what was they wanted all along.
@Evil Tortie's Mom: Sorry, to be pendantic but "english" is not a good term to describe LoM, it was comissioned by the BRITISH Broadcasting Corparation, you would call the aermican one the Californian version now, so please don't marginalise Scots, Welsh and N. Irish
@TwistedChimp: Being largely of Scots descent (with a smidge of Northern Irish), I probably know that better than the majority of the BBC staff, who don't seem to get out of London much! Even ITV's leaving "the regions". (damn shame -- loved the Gaelic news when I was in northern Scotland)
It was written and filmed in England. The sequel is entirely London-based. The Welsh and Scots had to pay the fee for it, but got no more out of it than the people who saw it worldwide.
05/05/09
zzzzzz.
05/05/09
feh.
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04/04/09
For those that didn't like it, Harvey Keitel in "Saturn 5" will help wash the taste out of you mouth.
04/04/09
04/04/09
04/04/09
Most people I know who watch "The Office" (both versions) don't rewatch episodes of the British one, they don't think it holds up to repeated viewings once you already know the jokes/cringe situation of the week. Whereas they'll rewatch the US one.
I know Brits who duck and mumble apologetically that they really think the US version is superior and hope their fellow subjects don't hurt them. Doesn't Ricky Gervais like the US version better?
04/03/09
So you've given people unequal choices, much like bad political pollsters who do crappy push polls. You'd need another US better option and more neutral wording on all choices.
Answer 7, in other words.
04/03/09
04/03/09
Sam went through all that stuff, and everything we watched him do was all a dream and then he woke up.
So, really, anyone "let down" by the US ending and pissed at the people who made it either a) didn't notice that the UK version also ended with "it was all just a dream" and/or b) they like that the UK dreams really meant absolutely nothing at ALL to the audience who'd invested all the hours watching Sam's dreams and/or c) they like watching characters die for no good reason other than "woops, our 8 episodes are up" (similar to the later Shamalamadingdong school of "the movie's almost over, quick, a pointless TWIST!").
I hope that the readers of io9 are smart enough and critical/discerning enough not to automatically think that all happy endings are worthless/ TEH SUX.
04/03/09
04/03/09
CBS aired a lot of stuff from Canada (and co-productions with Canada and other countries) as far back as the 1980's, but only on late nights.
04/03/09
The Canadian co-productions with Global (like Night Heat and Adderly) were made with Toronto talent, generic back-east-cold-city settings, and American money. When the CBS funding ended, so did those Canadian shows, leading to the Great Vancouver Sci-Fi Boom of the 90's and 00's... and TOPIC!
04/03/09
04/03/09
Also, they played "Life on Mars" at the beginning of the show in both 2008 and 1973, just like the original.
04/03/09
04/03/09
English LoM wanted to have it both ways: use the structure of SF with time-travel and then wuss out (YES, I SAID WUSS OUT! ya big girl's blouse nancy-boys) with an ending of "It was all a dream and Sam is too much of a wimp to deal with reality, so he killed himself". Had it actually been time-travel, it would have been a much better, more honest ending.
UK Sam used his dreams to escape his reality; US Sam used his to improve it.
Plus, in the UK version, Gene is clearly the star (as can be seen by him getting another show, though it isn't as good), whereas in the US version, it's always been Sam.
Also, those of you who are all "English ending is superior in every way YAH BOO" would also have been bitching if the US ending was identical or even similar, so your bitching is superfluous. You wouldn't have liked it anyway.
04/03/09
UK Sam had even more issues than I thought! That's really low self-esteem.
The US version was SF and proud of it; the UK version was a cop show that used SF tropes and was ashamed of it. The difference in Sams shows that.
04/03/09
04/04/09
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It was written and filmed in England. The sequel is entirely London-based. The Welsh and Scots had to pay the fee for it, but got no more out of it than the people who saw it worldwide.
04/03/09
Pretty please?
04/03/09