Life on Mars returned from hiatus tonight, and as I waited through the whole hour for some sort of cool reveal regarding what happened at the end of the last episode, I got more worried. And then the episode was over, and not a frakkin’ peep was uttered about what happened in that strange house, with that strange voice telling Sam to go down to the basement. Are you kidding me?
Last time I said “I can’t wait to see what the next episode brings!” And now we have it: poop.
There are a few reasons I can see for something like this, and I don’t like any of them:
As for the networks or the writers (or whoever decides these things), their decision to not resolve last episode’s cliffhanger was likely to lure new viewers, as plopping them into the show with Sam entering a basement would’ve been confusing for a newcomer. What, a quick “previously on” wouldn’t work? Don’t you think those new viewers might be a wee bit confused by tiny robots coming out of blood and people’s eyes? Hell, even I was tonight!
I feel robbed. You don’t leave us fans with a pricktease cliffhanger, keep us waiting through a hiatus and then give us this. And the show was just getting good, dammit!
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Jan 29, 2009 @ 08:00 EST5EDT
According to IMDB, this was meant to be episode #11, and they aired it yesterday as #8. Hence the confusion.
Mark my words, this is the beginning of the end for this show. If the network doesn’t understand that this is the kind of show you want to see in order, they won’t give it the support it needs when it counts…
P. S. As for #4, they’re completely off the BBC script already. There was no mysterious phone call or basement in the BBC version, and as for this episode, Gene Hunt didn’t have a daughter.
Yeah – they already jumped the shark on what made the BBC version so glorious. I fell asleep before it was on last night…now I guess I’ll just save them up and watch them in order until it’s canceled.
And then, I’ll watch the Brit version again.
They definitely blue-balled us. At least they are gonna show us the right one next week. I guess since ABC is safely out of the Nielsen shithouse (Thanks to NBC) they think they can go back to their old ways of cancelling shows at a moments notice and screwing up the schedule and the ep orders of their shows and nobody will care. I’m going back to my 3 year rule that I broke for this show. For the last 5 years you could depend on ABC giving almost all their new shows at least 2 years to build an audience and not to interfere with their shows. Not anymore. It’s too bad because they were building their network up pretty good until this year. Now they are going to run it right back into the ground with all the dumb moves they are making this year.
Jumbling the intended order of television shows is probably one of the major reasons they fail. In trying to lure in new viewers with “stand alone” episodes, the networks alienate regular viewers and really don’t get any new ones, either.
Too bad the networks can’t figure that out.
it suck, but i enjoy the episode anyway…
I am really pissed. The show had some early potential, but now I am just bored. Showing the episodes out of order makes no sense to me. I want to know what happened in the basement in fact the last episode before the break was the best. In fact it’s the only reason I watched the Jan. episode, which to be kind was crap. I know it doesn’t bode well when I am fast-forwarding through parts and manage to watch the whole episode in 20 minutes, and furthermore I am not really interested in watching last night’s episode either. I really like Jason O’Mara too bad the show is veering off course. I see a cancellation looming if the show doesn’t come up with something to keep it’s viewer’s hooked and watching.
The show is already screwed. Come next season ABC will only have 3 shows for the fall, DH, GA, and PP. They are really helping out NBC though!
WHY SHOW IT OUT OF ORDER???????
im soooo freakin confused!
at least i know now somethings up