Sometimes it feels like people who make and develop television shows always try to milk a series just a little beyond the ability of the original idea to sustain interest. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't know how many times I've liked the first two, maybe even three, seasons of a show, but after that watched in dismay as it became almost a caricature of itself. Sure, everybody likes a successful television show, and actors need the work, but wouldn't everybody be better served if people were left wanting more than feeling sick to death of something?

Everything needs an ending, of some sort of another, and the failure of so many television shows is their inability to deliver a resolution. Either they fade away from neglect or they are canceled abruptly before they are able to wrap things up. So instead of everybody involved being in demand because they've generated such great memories among the public and the industry, they get shunted aside as either failures or has-beens. The next time you see the former leads from the show they're making guest appearances on something like Celebrity Hollywood Squares and they look like someone whose face used to be famous.

These flaws become glaringly obvious when you encounter a show which is handled properly by being brought to a successful conclusion. Those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing Life On Mars: Series One will be thrilled to know that the producers and writers of the series have not only managed to match what they brought to life in series one, but have surpassed it. They've not only retained all that was fresh and exciting about the first season, but with Life On Mars: Series 2, the complete second season on four DVDs being released by Acorn Media on November 24, they find a way to up the stakes for all involved and bring the series to a resolution that remains true to the characters and the story line.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the recently published What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and online all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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