Hmm. Slightly annoying ending for me* - liked the dadplot stuff, and at least the stuff in the wood was resolved, but I'd like the coma plot in the second series to be more than just voices in the background, otherwise it's just going to be a Seventies set cop show. Which is fun, but that first episode promised a lot more. It's mostly delivered, to be fair.
Maybe I'm just a bit grumpy because:
I thought Nelson the barman was going to turn out to be the guy in the next bed.
And Gene was going to be a rather posh and terribly considerate consultant.
And Liz White was going to be a nurse, but we've already seen her in the uniform once, so I shouldn't be greedy.
And I thought the girl in the telly was going to be someone Young Sam had seen murdered in the woods but blocked from his memory, which is why she was annoyed with him, and wanted him to give up and die.
And I was wrong on all counts. Tch.
Roll on series two though.
* Feel free to make comments about ambulances and cliffs though. Glass houses, stones etc.
Yes. Not sure what I thought, to be honest. Really enjoyed the whole series but, like you say, the danger is that it becomes just a seventies styled cop show. I think they should leave off the nudge and the wink next season and produce some totally trippy shit. It's a premise that can't be extended definitely, after all. Might as well have some real, mind-bending fun with it.
ReplyDeleteGiven how popular it's been I wasn't expecting it to give us a "there you go, everything neatly wrapped up" ending. (I'd have been mightily impressed if the powers that be had nobly decided to only have the one, perfect series. But no.)
ReplyDeleteWhat it all boils down to, of course, is that I do like John Simm. A lot.
Oooh, I don't think I've been so gripped by anything on TV for ages - probably since said ambulance on cliff, actually! But yeah, it wasn't the most satisfying ending.
ReplyDeleteWe were already considering if he'd wake up, live his 2006 life a bit, then have another accident and go back a bit further in time, so he could catch his dad before he started hanging with the wrong crowd. Yeah, they came up with something better I'm sure.
These word verifications are getting ridiculously long.
I've been mulling this over rather more than perhaps I should have been...
ReplyDeleteWas quite happy with it all right up until the last sixty seconds or so, at which point I thought "hang on, shouldn't there be some more coma stuff now?"
The whole reason why it's been such a compelling show is that it's worked on more than just the 70s-cop-show-pastiche level, so it would indeed be a bit of a disaster if Series 2 was just about the cop stuff.
Which makes me think surely it can't be, and they'll have to find another twist in order to keep the suspense going.
Just a teeny tiny cliffhanger wouldn't have hurt.
Mutter mutter moan moan - still loved it though.
The opening v.o says that he could be in a coma, back in time, or just mad, and I personally think we have to discount the back in time bit. So he's either mad or in a coma. It seems most likely to me Sam's in a coma, and in an attempt to retreat from massive physical trauma, has basically decided to inhabit his most buried memory (his dad kicking the crap out of a girl in a red dress) and build an elaborate fantasy around it (the girl was a police woman, he's a copper.)
ReplyDeleteSo now that Sam's recovered the memory that was most likely the catalyst for the whole show, where can it go?
I thought it was immensely disappointing. And it's not just because wifey has bagged the lead character as her free pass, about which I feel mildly grumpy because he's a bit of a scrawny, whining wimp, and somehow i thik she could do better.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I was hoping he'd wake up briefly at the end then slip back into a coma and be in the 1980's or 1960's instead.
ReplyDeleteBut that would probably be a bit too 'Quantum Leap'.