Review: GHTTB: LoM 2.7 and 2.8 (Finale)

The end grows nearer for the twisting tale of Sam Tyler.

Life On Mars, Series Two, Episode Seven
We begin our penultimate pair with an episode that gives Gene his just desserts as a character, putting him on the run and, as in 2.3, a more vulnerable character. However, more focus is given to Sam and his new colleague, acting DCI Frank Morgan.
     After witnessing the trial of crime-lord and briber Terry Haslam, Gene goes out on a drunken bender. Upon waking up in the morning, he rings Sam and tells him how he has woken up in Haslam's house, with his blood-soaked body lying opposite. Gene is arrested but escapes, as the evidence piles up against him. Sam eventually finds Gene, and together they work out the identity of their muderer - the man Terry Haslam was about to be convicted for assaulting.
     The episode often feels... empty, intangible. There isn't much to it; a basic run around with a few snarky remarks here or there. There's no tension, no doubt that Gene is 100% innocent all the way. In fact, it's more of an extended prequel to the finale.

Life On Mars, Series Two, Episode Eight (Finale)
"If you can feel, you're alive. If you don't feel, you're not."

Hour Sixteen, and the show needs a great finale of its two year journey, and for the journey of Sam Tyler. We knew this day would come. So, how does the episode tie up the loose ends left by the series? Well, to put it simply, very badly. Instead of putting all the pieces together to make a pretty picture, the episode prefers to carve the puzzle pieces into new shapes and then cry when they don't fit together any more.
     The main plot with the supporting cast had Gene lose all character development just for the sake of plot, putting his officers on the line in a risky sting operation featuring a train robbery. Sam was, as usual, averse to the idea, this time provoked by his newfound belief that Frank Morgan is in fact the surgeon operating on his brain. Working with Morgen, who tries to convince Sam that this is in fact 197 and that he went mad in the accident, Sam botches the sting and manage to wake up in the present. Worrying for his health, Sam sends off a psychologist's report to DI Alex Drake in London (Ashes to Ashes, here we come!) and then, upon realising that he can't feel his life, commits suicide. This somehow lets him arrive back in 1973, where he sorts out the robbers with a few gunshots and they all drive off into the sunset.
     The episode did absolutely eff all to bring the series to a hilt other than bringing the titular character back to the future, and it even reneged on that side of the bargain. It seems as if this episode was written some time back in Series One, because there is absoultely no character development present from previous episodes. Considering that Gene just got off a murder charge, is it really sane, even for him, to do something as stupid as here? No, it isn't. What a dissappointing end to an otherwise decent series.

Thanks.

P.S. Come on, you know me better than that. The GHTTB returns next week, with Ashes to Ashes!