Kicking The Door Down: Life on Mars

Life on Mars – the finale
(BBC1. Tuesday. 9PM)

It would be foolish to argue otherwise – Life On Mars has been absolutely fantastic. Intelligent television without a hint of elitism; a thought-provoking concept which never resorted to preaching; and a drama fuelled by genuine mystery rather than blithering idiocy (Lost – take note).

So perhaps it can be forgiven for last night's vaguely complacent and horribly anticlimactic conclusion. I don’t contend for a moment that television dramas should be forbidden from leaving questions open, but when you’re left still taunted by the same question posed in the show’s tagline than there's got to be something wrong.

"Am I mad, am I in a coma, or have I traveled back in time?" - it was a question pondered by Sam Tyler at the beginning of every episode, and one which resonated in the minds of every Life on Mars viewer.

And it's a question which will outlive the series. Life On Mars has departed, but we’ll still be left asking it – 'Was he mad, was he in a coma, or did he travel back in time?'.

I'm probably being too tough on Life On Mars. But when your mind has been active all week, conjuring up different endings and juggling various theories, it doesn't just power-down as soon as the end credits roll. And naturally, that energy is soon applied to picking holes in the plot.

For no matter how hard I try, I'm just not wholly convinced by Sam’s relationship with WDC Cartwright. Yes, I know, things were very different in the seventies - sexual etiquette was a much plainer creative. Desires, I’m told, were expressed in much subtler ways back then. So maybe it’s just my noughties-centricity, but I never really detected that much chemistry between them.

Oh, of course, there was the occasional suggestive bristle or longing stare between them, and Annie always showed faith in Sam's unorthodox methods, but until the closing scenes, there was no evidence that she'd made a real romantic impact on him. And it’s hardly a case of Sam being emotionally reticent - he made no attempt to conceal his feelings for 2006 girlfriend Maya.

But to mull over such questions would ignore the point of Life On Mars. It was a programme which taught us all a lesson - that sometimes it's about getting results, and not asking how. It reminded us that when you get tied down debating niches and niceties, you can take your eyes off the bigger picture.

So, yes, maybe Life on Mars did break a few rules. And maybe there were ends left untied and boxes left unticked, but, my goodness, wasn't it a sublime drama?