Even as early as 2011 John expressed regret that he didn't do a third & final series to wrap it all up so the fact he's up for whatever has been pitched to him for Lazarus tells me it'll be good & worth the wait.
A third series has been confirmed. It will be set in an alternative past. It won't be as good cause of the lines that Gene said back then won't be allowed now
@@dannya6825 I don't think they'd bother doing a third series if they had to water down Gene's character. Either they'll write the real deal or they'll leave it alone.
@@DuchessOfStratosphereit's cancelled now anyway, but yeah even in the original series gene was set up as a heel with what he said so i think it's still perfectly acceptable if not more than ever
I would've ended it when he jumped off the roof as well, personally. The final scenes are good as well, but they just feel a bit... too "perfect". Though I do hate ambiguous endings... I feel like the scenes after he jumps off diminish from the scenes where he's in the modern day leading upto leaping from the roof. That moment is stronger than any scene after it, which is why it should've been the end. Back when the BBC was at its peak, with this and 2005 Doctor Who.
I know what you mean. Like if they'd have ended with him jumping off the roof it would've been powerful, but the ambiguous ending would've killed me! Although I guess ashes to ashes would've revealed that he did end up getting back and saving them
Aw, I didn't know this made it into the top spot - that's great! I love both endings, this and also the ending of 'ashes to ashes' - just two fantastic shows... Watched both probably 5 times now, and when they end I always miss all the characters. Sad it wouldn't even be possible to make these two shows these days for many stupid reasons
@@DuchessOfStratosphere I was like 11 or 12 when it came out and at the time I thought it was really good. But I’d like to reiterate that I was 11 or 12.
One thing I don't get about this amazing finale episode. How come the team forgive Sam for going undercover with Frank Morgan? Knowing gene he would never forgive a person for betraying him and his team. I thought maybe it was because they had their memories wiped of Frank Morgan because Sam decided to stay in the world permanently which caused his death, so there was no need for Frank in that world, but later Chris apologies to Sam because of the angry things he said to Sam when Sam confessed he was undercover, so obviously he remembered. Idk it just doesn't make sense to me
Yeah, they're all really fond of Sam and I do agree because he had the "amnesia" from the crash, so they wouldn't have been able to blame him for going undercover if he wasn't sending information back and not realising he was undercover anyways.
Nah, Sam did the right thing in the end, going back to help them, keeping his promise. Remember that Sam had done some forgiving as well - of Gene's corruption. If you watch the sequel series Ashes to Ashes you see that just about every member of the team betrays Gene's trust at some point. But he forgives them all and takes them back.
@@Trev359 no its basically the sweeney on the bbc. And anyways the BBC can sod off! Defund the bbc and cancel your tv licence! Not paying to watch the crap on air today!
This is so much better than the crap ending they squeezed out for the U.S. version of the show. That one never got a chance to be great, thanks to network decisions & disregard for viewers who'd invested time into that 1st & only season. The ending they tacked onto it was the absolute worst in American TV history.
It was my second favorite ending. My favorite was when The Prisoner, #6, discovered he was really #1. Still, Life On Mars is a very close second best ending.
Sorry, I don’t know why people like this ending, I thought it was irrational and crap. There are better ways to end this story and still have the themes it wanted to express.
Why would people from the 70s hate it? I'm sorry but that seems like a very strange and Ill-informered comment. I'm from the 70s and I loved it, so did my mates. One of the best shows ever. It reminded us of 70s shows we loved and why they were so much more exciting, plus it had the twist of Sam being in a coma and it kept us guessing until the end. This was made because the writers wanted to do a 70s style cop show but to make it work in the 2000s they had to show it through the eyes of someone from the 2000s. The ending of this suggests the writers , themselves, preferred 70s cop shows by the fact they wrote in the idea that Sam found the 2000s boring and jumped off the roof to go back to the 70s.
My mum and dad loved it, being born in the late 60's, and growing up in the 70's they recognized so many of the props, party seven, the big thick glass pint glasses, the music etc... so it was a good way to go back and see glimpses of their childhood... and yes apparently, the police were like Gene Hunt to some extent, and would happily give someone a hiding if needed.
Just rewatched this show and I have to say I'm confused. I came here searching for answers and I guess I have them now. From the words of the cast and crew, Sam was in fact from 2006 and he did jump off the building to get back to 1973 because his dreams were better than real life. But even though that's from the mouths of people involved in making the show, I don't know if I believe it. Morgan mentions when unveiling their plot to bring down Gene Hunt that he was in a crash when he was 12 and he went into a waking coma in his hospital bed. Then he came back better than ever and was part of a forward thinking police unite in Hyde before agreeing to move to Manchester to bring down Gene. Only he started acting funny after being in another crash. I think he is from 1973. I think when he was in a crash as a child and his parents were both killed, he retreated into a fantasy. One he remembered after his second crash and the fantasy took the place of reality as he lost his memories of Hyde. Morgan even says he has amnesia. Looses his memory but replaces them with his fantasy world, the one he created when he underwent the trauma of loosing his parents. A world reawakened in his mind after being in a similar crash. Then in the finale, in darkness of that tunnel, with the stress of not knowing what world is real, with his friends being shot, his Hyde partner betraying him and with his life under threat, he returns to his safe haven, back to the future he has imagined. Back into a waking coma like when he was 12. Only he has gotten so used to 1973 that he starts to realise that he was living in a dream. 2006 was the dream. He breaks free by taking a leap of faith and returns to 1973. Neither endings make complete sense. If 1973 is reality, how does Sam know about the future? (though for the sake of the story and for the added mystery, it would make sense to have his imagined future, be similar to real life. Otherwise if he imagines flying cars and robots, we as the audience will immediately know that its not real. But if 2006 is reality, how come he doesn't feel? How come his way of getting back is to kill the tumour (Hunt) but Hunt doesn't die, at least, not yet? And how come jumping off the roof worked? He didn't know it would work and surely the fall would kill him, not put him back into a coma. I think the 1973 being real makes more sense and has the better moral. Don't live in a fantasy, real life is better. If 2006 is real, the moral is your dreams are better than reality. That's a bit grim. Should we all jump of buildings to go into a better dream world? And I'm sure Ashes to Ashes had a different ending that may very well crush my theory, though I remember it not exactly aligning with the official ending of Life on Mars. I barely remember it. I'm going to move on to re watching that show next. But I wonder if anyone else here doesn't quite believe that Sam is from 2006.
I feel like in LoM, it was left quite ambiguous. You weren't quite sure whether this 1973 was real or in his head - and I personally like it that way. Up to the watcher's interpretation of the ending. "if 2006 is reality, how come he doesn't feel" - because he felt more real in '73 than in 2006. One reason could be because he suffered brain damage from the coma and couldn't exist in the same way after waking up. Another reason could be because the writers wanted to make a whole point about how people were more 'alive' in the 70s than in the 00's.
I was confused about this when I first watched the show too, but upon rewatch I get it completely. Morgan was completely bullshitting Sam. None of what he said was true. He was gaslighting Sam. By making Sam think that 1973 was the real world and that Sam is from that time, Sam would be more likely to bring Gene down. Which was Morgans scheme. Sam really is from 2006, born in 1969, Morgans tale was all part of a plan. As far as the other question, Sam not feeling in the modern world is more metaphorical than literal. He doesn't feel because that world isn't real to him anymore, its reflective of someone who is depressed and far prefers their dreams. Yes, the message is grim, but its far more than just dreams being better than reality, its more that whatever feels good to can be your reality. I know its dark, but I like that about it.
The world they are in (Sams coma world and also A2A world) is a purgatory for cops who died also knows as genes world because he is the one who is overseeing everyones journey through purgatory. The reason Morgan wants Sam to destroy Gene is because he is a Symbolism of the devil wanting to bring hunt down with him and all the souls that are stuck there. We learn this from A2A but ultimately Sam doesn't give into the temptations of Morgan/The Devil.
The 70s was brilliant food tasted delicious now mostly artificial and nasty inferior crap. Even some Fresh Fish have a funny taste which could be fish eating microscopic plastic. Would love to do a independent study on the effects of how much plastic in fish digestion system
wasn't there less variety in the 70s? i didn't grow up in that period, but always imagined there'd be lot less to eat. plus, way less vegan/vegetarian food places around.
Plastics in fish hell. They've done studies showing that basically the entire human race now has nanoplastics in our systems because we've screwed around so much with this planet.
I finally completed this show not one hour ago, and I loved every minute of it!
Even as early as 2011 John expressed regret that he didn't do a third & final series to wrap it all up so the fact he's up for whatever has been pitched to him for Lazarus tells me it'll be good & worth the wait.
Im pretty sure season 3 has been confirmed
A third series has been confirmed. It will be set in an alternative past. It won't be as good cause of the lines that Gene said back then won't be allowed now
@@dannya6825 they’ll be allowed now because the whole point of the gov’s character is how shockingly non PC he is.
@@dannya6825 I don't think they'd bother doing a third series if they had to water down Gene's character. Either they'll write the real deal or they'll leave it alone.
@@DuchessOfStratosphereit's cancelled now anyway, but yeah even in the original series gene was set up as a heel with what he said so i think it's still perfectly acceptable if not more than ever
"The thinking man's Doctor Who."
Leaving the condescension aside for a moment, it's fuck all like Doctor Who. 😂
Sam Tyler was the master the whole time 🤣
@@pghudd 😂😂😂😂👏👏
Knickers all in a twist over dissenting preferences in television programming? So sorry to hear about that, mate!
@user-mz1kt6iz4e Good to know. Didn't care, but good to know. 👍
He didn’t feel anything... To be unconscious rather than live in a world of sterility. Beautiful. ❤️
A cinematic masterpiece to say the least
I absolutely loved this series love John simm and especially Philip Glennister phowarrrr
I just finished life on Mars such a grate tv show
Great*
@@-----------g- I’m dyslexic which means it is hard to spell
Just finished it today, I'm in amazement. What a brilliant series.
Wait til they see the Finale of A2A. Wow.
Agreed!
Best programme ever
I would've ended it when he jumped off the roof as well, personally.
The final scenes are good as well, but they just feel a bit... too "perfect". Though I do hate ambiguous endings... I feel like the scenes after he jumps off diminish from the scenes where he's in the modern day leading upto leaping from the roof. That moment is stronger than any scene after it, which is why it should've been the end.
Back when the BBC was at its peak, with this and 2005 Doctor Who.
I know what you mean. Like if they'd have ended with him jumping off the roof it would've been powerful, but the ambiguous ending would've killed me! Although I guess ashes to ashes would've revealed that he did end up getting back and saving them
Absolutely agree, it would’ve left things up to the audience’s imagination rather than close all the doors
I wasn't born til 1992 but this show brings me so much joy. I watch it regularly, along with Ashes to Ashes. ❤
Absolutely brilliant actors and TV programme.
The massive mistake they made was not making it into a 70s cop show after season 2 with Tyler and Hunt and co. would have been amazing.
Fantastic show, and one hell of an ending. And that car...
Just rewatched both series on BritBox and it was magic television. Really hope we get to see Lazarus as John Simm and Philip Glenister are a dream duo
best show
I was absolutely in love with Liz White when this series came out.
The last episode of the sequel Ashes to Ashes was even better!
No way could we have guessed that ending.
i loved it the ending was brill i want to watch it again it was that good
Aw, I didn't know this made it into the top spot - that's great! I love both endings, this and also the ending of 'ashes to ashes' - just two fantastic shows... Watched both probably 5 times now, and when they end I always miss all the characters. Sad it wouldn't even be possible to make these two shows these days for many stupid reasons
This was way different of an ending from the American version. I actually like this one
how did you make it past the first episode of the usa version?!
@@DuchessOfStratosphere I was like 11 or 12 when it came out and at the time I thought it was really good. But I’d like to reiterate that I was 11 or 12.
I never watched the US version. I read about it's finale premise and it just stinks. I will never watch it.
If you haven't watched it and made up your own opinion from watching it how do you know it stinks?@@sunrisings292
@@sunrisings292the American was unwatchable 😂
TYLER
awesome, LOM deserves the title.
It would be mad if u replied to this
It would
It would
The thinking man's Doctor Who is "Doctor Who."
I was hanging on for Gladiators but it never came on :(
shush
When some vanished without a trace what if they are just people from different dimensions walking up from their comas
One thing I don't get about this amazing finale episode. How come the team forgive Sam for going undercover with Frank Morgan? Knowing gene he would never forgive a person for betraying him and his team. I thought maybe it was because they had their memories wiped of Frank Morgan because Sam decided to stay in the world permanently which caused his death, so there was no need for Frank in that world, but later Chris apologies to Sam because of the angry things he said to Sam when Sam confessed he was undercover, so obviously he remembered. Idk it just doesn't make sense to me
I think cos Sam saved Gene many times, Gene definitely would have forgiven him, as he was fond of Sam even if he didn't like to show it.
Yeah, they're all really fond of Sam and I do agree because he had the "amnesia" from the crash, so they wouldn't have been able to blame him for going undercover if he wasn't sending information back and not realising he was undercover anyways.
Nah, Sam did the right thing in the end, going back to help them, keeping his promise. Remember that Sam had done some forgiving as well - of Gene's corruption.
If you watch the sequel series Ashes to Ashes you see that just about every member of the team betrays Gene's trust at some point. But he forgives them all and takes them back.
1973 I WAS 7 YEARS OLD THEN
I hear ya. I was 6.
Its basically The Sweeney on BBC1!!!
It was inspire by the Sweeney but it's much more than that. To say it's basically the Sweeney on BBC1 suggests a misunderstanding of whatit's about.
@@Trev359 no its basically the sweeney on the bbc. And anyways the BBC can sod off! Defund the bbc and cancel your tv licence! Not paying to watch the crap on air today!
get yer flurrs out.
Thunbs up if OfficialNerdCubed brought you here :P
Did he?
❤❤❤❤❤
Love gene hunts. One. Liners. Best. Cop. Series. Ever. Watching. It. Again. Now.
This is so much better than the crap ending they squeezed out for the U.S. version of the show. That one never got a chance to be great, thanks to network decisions & disregard for viewers who'd invested time into that 1st & only season. The ending they tacked onto it was the absolute worst in American TV history.
I'm an American who absolutely prefers British tv. We get great shows cancelled midseason with no finale, or shite endings. Bleah.
It was my second favorite ending. My favorite was when The Prisoner, #6, discovered he was really #1. Still, Life On Mars is a very close second best ending.
spoilers....guess i'll never watch the prisoner now
RIP Cilla Black.
S3 sooooooooon
Sorry, I don’t know why people like this ending, I thought it was irrational and crap. There are better ways to end this story and still have the themes it wanted to express.
Hi, purely curious, could u give an example of one? I honestly just want to see cuz I also thought the ending could've been different
If there is one women you don't want settim you up on a date it's cilla he success rate is terrible
I bet people from the 70s hated this
Why would people from the 70s hate it? I'm sorry but that seems like a very strange and Ill-informered comment. I'm from the 70s and I loved it, so did my mates. One of the best shows ever. It reminded us of 70s shows we loved and why they were so much more exciting, plus it had the twist of Sam being in a coma and it kept us guessing until the end. This was made because the writers wanted to do a 70s style cop show but to make it work in the 2000s they had to show it through the eyes of someone from the 2000s. The ending of this suggests the writers , themselves, preferred 70s cop shows by the fact they wrote in the idea that Sam found the 2000s boring and jumped off the roof to go back to the 70s.
I think I can class myself as from the 70s - I was born 1970.
My mum and dad loved it, being born in the late 60's, and growing up in the 70's they recognized so many of the props, party seven, the big thick glass pint glasses, the music etc... so it was a good way to go back and see glimpses of their childhood... and yes apparently, the police were like Gene Hunt to some extent, and would happily give someone a hiding if needed.
I bet you’re fun at parties Jim.
No. We loved it
Just rewatched this show and I have to say I'm confused. I came here searching for answers and I guess I have them now. From the words of the cast and crew, Sam was in fact from 2006 and he did jump off the building to get back to 1973 because his dreams were better than real life. But even though that's from the mouths of people involved in making the show, I don't know if I believe it.
Morgan mentions when unveiling their plot to bring down Gene Hunt that he was in a crash when he was 12 and he went into a waking coma in his hospital bed. Then he came back better than ever and was part of a forward thinking police unite in Hyde before agreeing to move to Manchester to bring down Gene. Only he started acting funny after being in another crash. I think he is from 1973. I think when he was in a crash as a child and his parents were both killed, he retreated into a fantasy. One he remembered after his second crash and the fantasy took the place of reality as he lost his memories of Hyde. Morgan even says he has amnesia. Looses his memory but replaces them with his fantasy world, the one he created when he underwent the trauma of loosing his parents. A world reawakened in his mind after being in a similar crash. Then in the finale, in darkness of that tunnel, with the stress of not knowing what world is real, with his friends being shot, his Hyde partner betraying him and with his life under threat, he returns to his safe haven, back to the future he has imagined. Back into a waking coma like when he was 12. Only he has gotten so used to 1973 that he starts to realise that he was living in a dream. 2006 was the dream. He breaks free by taking a leap of faith and returns to 1973.
Neither endings make complete sense. If 1973 is reality, how does Sam know about the future? (though for the sake of the story and for the added mystery, it would make sense to have his imagined future, be similar to real life. Otherwise if he imagines flying cars and robots, we as the audience will immediately know that its not real. But if 2006 is reality, how come he doesn't feel? How come his way of getting back is to kill the tumour (Hunt) but Hunt doesn't die, at least, not yet? And how come jumping off the roof worked? He didn't know it would work and surely the fall would kill him, not put him back into a coma. I think the 1973 being real makes more sense and has the better moral. Don't live in a fantasy, real life is better. If 2006 is real, the moral is your dreams are better than reality. That's a bit grim. Should we all jump of buildings to go into a better dream world? And I'm sure Ashes to Ashes had a different ending that may very well crush my theory, though I remember it not exactly aligning with the official ending of Life on Mars. I barely remember it. I'm going to move on to re watching that show next. But I wonder if anyone else here doesn't quite believe that Sam is from 2006.
I feel like in LoM, it was left quite ambiguous. You weren't quite sure whether this 1973 was real or in his head - and I personally like it that way. Up to the watcher's interpretation of the ending. "if 2006 is reality, how come he doesn't feel" - because he felt more real in '73 than in 2006. One reason could be because he suffered brain damage from the coma and couldn't exist in the same way after waking up. Another reason could be because the writers wanted to make a whole point about how people were more 'alive' in the 70s than in the 00's.
I was confused about this when I first watched the show too, but upon rewatch I get it completely. Morgan was completely bullshitting Sam. None of what he said was true. He was gaslighting Sam. By making Sam think that 1973 was the real world and that Sam is from that time, Sam would be more likely to bring Gene down. Which was Morgans scheme. Sam really is from 2006, born in 1969, Morgans tale was all part of a plan.
As far as the other question, Sam not feeling in the modern world is more metaphorical than literal. He doesn't feel because that world isn't real to him anymore, its reflective of someone who is depressed and far prefers their dreams. Yes, the message is grim, but its far more than just dreams being better than reality, its more that whatever feels good to can be your reality. I know its dark, but I like that about it.
Watch "Ashes to Ashes". Pretty good too. And it's heart-breaking finale explains both series.
The world they are in (Sams coma world and also A2A world) is a purgatory for cops who died also knows as genes world because he is the one who is overseeing everyones journey through purgatory. The reason Morgan wants Sam to destroy Gene is because he is a Symbolism of the devil wanting to bring hunt down with him and all the souls that are stuck there. We learn this from A2A but ultimately Sam doesn't give into the temptations of Morgan/The Devil.
The 70s was brilliant food tasted delicious now mostly artificial and nasty inferior crap. Even some Fresh Fish have a funny taste which could be fish eating microscopic plastic. Would love to do a independent study on the effects of how much plastic in fish digestion system
wasn't there less variety in the 70s? i didn't grow up in that period, but always imagined there'd be lot less to eat. plus, way less vegan/vegetarian food places around.
Plastics in fish hell. They've done studies showing that basically the entire human race now has nanoplastics in our systems because we've screwed around so much with this planet.