12 Sci-Fi TV Shows Let Down By Terrible Endings

5. Life On Mars (US)

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ABC

Now, the divisive ending coming from the UK iteration of this sci-fi time travel genre-mashing mystery procedural was controversial enough. But really, was there any way a show with a description as complicated as that was going to have a simple conclusion?

Following 2006 cop Sam Tyler when he wakes up in 1973 and must investigate both a series of crimes and the circumstances of his own inexplicable time travel, the original series wrapped up with an enigmatic conclusion which hinted at numerous interpretations without completely confirming any theories. It split audiences at the time, but boy, was it beaten by the US remake a few years later.

2008’s American edition of Life on Mars took its hero of the same name to the same year via the same “is it a coma or time travel” conceit, but that’s where the similarities end. Primarily because, after endless episodes of police procedural which hinted vaguely at something more sci-fi, the show ended on the insane revelation that our hero was—how’s this for literalism—in hypersleep on his way to the titular red planet, and this has all been a simulation.

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Cathal Gunning hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.