Life on Mars, the best new series this season (in my opinion), came to an extremely satisfying close with last night’s series finale. When I learned of the show’s cancelation a few weeks ago, I was disappointed but not surprised. The show had failed to capitalize on its Grey’s Anatomy lead in earlier this fall (Eli Stone should have had that timeslot) and ABC paired it with Lost over the winter in an effort to goose the ratings. Pairing it with Lost was a great idea and it shows that ABC did whatever they could to make the series a hit, but unfortunately it failed. I guess it was due to the serialized nature of the show. People who had missed the first half of the season must have felt that it was a too dense a narrative to just jump in to. This is a real shame for 2 reasons. One the audience for Lost that didn’t tune in to Life on Mars missed the boat on this one. This is an imaginative series that the bulk of that audience really would’ve enjoyed. The second reason is that the show really was very accessible to new viewers. What is happening to main character, Sam Tyler, is laid out in the title sequence of every episode. In addition, each episode really played out like any other cop show that has ever been on the air, with a crime to be solved. The main story arc of Sam trying to figure out why he is trapped in 1973 was never the main focus of individual episodes. They gave you just enough each week to tease you in to wanting to know more. It was really done perfectly.

As I said, I was initially disappointed to learn that Life on Mars had fallen under the network’s axe, but when it was announced that the show would be brought to a conclusion, I was overjoyed. I actually became excited that the series was ending. It is all too often, that shows get cancelled and yanked off the air before reaching an end point, so to me the fact that they were actually going to bring Mars to a conclusion before pulling it was unprecedented. I’ve been burned by the networks so many times in the past, cancelling serialized shows, I almost expect it at this point. It makes me feel like the networks don’t truly care about their viewers. So the simple fact that ABC allowed Mars to end its run with a proper finale gives me hope for the first time in years. I’d like to extend kudos and thanks to ABC for honoring the viewers that watched Mars week in and week out. It almost makes up for the premature axing of Eli Stone and it leads to a valuable idea that will help the networks in the future.

I think whenever the networks green light a show that is serialized, they should commit to airing one full season, regardless of ratings. Yes I know that ratings determine how much ad revenue the networks make, but hear me out. I’m sure that every time a show is cancelled without reaching a satisfying conclusion, viewers boycott the offending network. But if viewers knew that their favorite shows were safe for the whole season, they would be loyal to the network and feel more inclined to sample new shows, thus increasing overall viewership for the network. These serialized shows should also run uninterrupted every week until they are done, just like 24 does on FOX. In addition it is time to do away with the traditional TV season. There should be no TV season; it should be all year round. The networks are certainly moving toward this goal by airing more and more original series during the summer, but they haven’t quite committed to the notion either. 

To sum it all up, by allowing Life on Mars to wrap up with an amazing conclusion (I’m not telling what it was, I don’t want to ruin it for anybody), ABC has made this viewer (and I’m sure many others) very happy and keeping their viewers pleased is the key to the future success of the networks.