You mean S2? There is no S3.

Right. I was thinking of New Who S3 so got confused.

Are Region 2 DVDs out? I can do that.

Amazon UK says yea.

No, Dana! Comment first!

Life on Mars finale:

Huh. Interesting reading people's reactions, especially Jon and ita. I had no problem with Sam's choice. I mean, it was obvious, at least from this episode if not from the whole series, that Sam was going to have to make a choice between one reality and the other, and once he left Annie and the others in mortal jeopardy, I knew he would go back.

Reading the various interviews that were linked here was interesting. Despite what the creators say, whatever they intended, I think the show is ambiguous, and I prefer it that way. If you go only by what was aired, I don't think the central question was answered definitively. Was he in a coma, was he crazy, was he somehow back in time? What mattered at the end is that he chose the life that made him happiest.

I'm really pleased with the whole thing, and looking forward to watching it again. (I am sort of technically watching it with my husband, but we've only made it up to series 1, ep 4. I skipped ahead. A lot.)

You can make up your own interpretation if you like Dana; my take on it starts from the premise that the creators' interpretation is the only correct one. Given that, he's not choosing between "one reality and the other". He's choosing between reality and death. The only "mortal jeopardy" he left Annie in was the one where she was in a dream that he had awoken from.

I know I'm harping on this, but I don't believe that suicide is ever the answer when it comes to mental illness, and I especially don't think it was the answer in this case. So his girlfriend left him and his job is boring -- Oh Boo-fuckin'-hoo! Did he even try to get help for his depression? if he did, we're not shown it. We can only assume that he was depressed and, rather than get help, he jumped off a building hoping to go back to his fantasy world for a brief moment before he went splat. And the creators presented that as a happy ending. I think that's messed up.

None of this is to say that I didn't enjoy the show. I thought it was brilliantly done!

my take on it starts from the premise that the creators' interpretation is the only correct one.

Yeah, whereas I'm all "authorial intent, piffle." I suspect it's the years of being an English major.

Oh, and I didn't know anything about this spinoff, and I don't think I'm pleased. For one thing, I'd have been just as happy to forget that Ray ever existed. And as cool as Gene Hunt is, I just don't know if it's going to work, putting him in a new context.

Hmph.

y'know, I'd fallen waaaay behind in this thread. I come back and the first however-many-hundred posts are SPN W&P. I haven't been watching it this season, so I skipped and skimmed like crazy.

Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been Let The Flailing Begin!

I'm totally down with the authorial intent of LoM, although it took a while for the impact to sink in. Unlike Jon, I do believe that while suicide is never the happy ending, it's sometimes the least sad. Sometimes there is no way to make everyone happy, and he prioritised himself. However, he was also crazy by that point, I think, or perhaps just running scared. Why did his subconscious create such a violent and primal take on his day job for him? Why did it demand he excise that violence before waking up?

a more appropriate title would have been Let The Flailing Begin!

I like the flailing, but we are more than the flailing.

New SPN! YAY!