In a completely unsurprising move, ABC has canceled the sci-fi/drama Life on Mars. If the desperate and oddly-placed rescheduling of the hiatus return episode didn’t clue us all in that there were problems afoot, subsequent episodes surely did. What is surprising and hopeful to those who followed the show thus far is that the series will wrap its underlying mystery of how and why Sam Tyler was transported to 1973.

The news of the show getting a proper burial isn’t that surprising to me. When I spoke with Life on Mars writers/producers Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec last year at the ABC Family gathering at ComicCon, they told me flat-out that their deal with ABC included allowing the show to have a resolution, should it “for some reason” not get a return season. I have to wonder now if those guys (or ABC) never really had much faith in the series if they came to the table with a resolution already mapped out, “should” it get canceled. You mean “when” it got canceled, right?

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Dear Life on Mars writers –

Fans of your show are waiting mighty patiently here for some sort of advancement in the main plotline: Sam’s predicament. First we endured a dangling cliffhanger a few weeks ago, where the episodes were aired out of order (I know — not necessarily your fault). In the cliffhanger “resolution” episode, we got some cool little tidbits of info: the Aries Project and the mysterious caller, to name a couple. I’ve got to tell you, though — it’s not enough.

What the hell are you waiting for?

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ABC

Fringe was “meh.” Gary Unmarried was unmemorable. Worst Week wasn’t the worst, but it wasn’t the best. Kath & Kim was a disaster, and The Ex List was a piffle. 90210 was neither interesting or salacious enough. But last night at 10, we finally got a new show whose pilot was well-done enough to get me excited about what’s next. That show was Life on Mars.

Let me preface this by saying that I never saw the original British version of this show, so I’ve got nothing to compare the American version to. But all the mishegas surrounding the show — David E. Kelley came and went, the original pilot was scrapped, the locale was moved from LA to New York, there wasn’t a first episode ready to show as recently as three weeks ago — made me wary of what I was going to see last night at 10. But at the end of the hour, I was glad I tuned in. Read the rest of this entry »