The truth about Sam Tyler

[hmpf]

bistokids sums up the 'new' Sam Tyler rather brilliantly. I have my work cut out for me if I want to reform this man in fic! *is scared*

And it's true, he's always been there, quite out in the open, but we didn't see him properly because we didn't want to, and because we trusted that whatever 'problems' we perceived would be 'fixed' by his experiences in 1973 - that he wasn't *quite* so fundamentally broken. And I'm fairly certain the writers didn't see him properly, either, oddly, although they did write him rather consistently, really. It's a bizarre example of wishful thinking on a grand scale, even the writers largely ignoring a pretty obvious subtext that's been there from day one and never really went away. Everyone, Sam, the audience, the writers, buying into Sam's worldview, when really the signs were always there that it wasn't a healthy one.

Life On Mars: a subconscious tragedy. On so many levels.

I think the 'real' Life On Mars was written entirely by the writers' subconscious...

Comments

[candogirl.livejournal.com]

I followed the link and I thought I'd just post here what I ended up posting there. I'll just say again that I think Sam's been very consistent throughout the show. Of course I don't think he was or is broken or a psychopath, but that's to-may-to/to-mah-to at this point. I'm only posting this here because you said you were looking for a way to soften or redeem him fic wise and I thought it might help to see an opinion that didn't take his end actions as a sign of a deeply disturbing character flaw. This is not an attempt to sway your feelings on the finale.

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I followed the link and I thought I'd just post here what I ended up posting there. I'll just say again that I think Sam's been very consistent throughout the show. Of course I don't think he was or is broken or a psychopath, but that's to-may-to/to-mah-to at this point. I'm only posting this here because you said you were looking for a way to soften or redeem him fic wise and I thought it might help to see an opinion that didn't take his end actions as a sign of a deeply disturbing character flaw. This is not an attempt to sway your feelings on the finale.

<<Imo, Sam makes a mistake in the finale. He uses all of his detecting skills and all that he learned in 1973, and he makes the wrong call. He doesn't know he's making the wrong call, only we do. I can't blame him for the decision he makes, it has been coming all along. If you look back at the first and second episodes of the series you see Sam trying to make heads or tails of where he is by being very tactile. He feels the walls in the morgue, he feels Annie's heart beat, he feels the grit on her hand, he slices his thumb with a razor and it physically hurts. In the finale, he can still feel Annie's heart but when he cuts his thumb again he can't feel it. The problem with Sam isn't so much that he is selfish, it's that he asks the wrong questions. In the pilot he asks Annie why he would make up the detail about the grit on her hand. The real question is why he wouldn't. If your mind is trying to trick you into something, then it would be very thorough. Sam doesn't see the possible trickery at work.

<i>No sign whatsoever that this presumably odious task of destroying a friend caused him any noteable heartache, which for Sam, given to angsting at the drop of a hat, is saying something.</i>
I have to disagree with this, at the beginning of the ep he stands by the window and convinces himself that none of it is real. Then when he does start to think 1973 is real, a teary eyed Sam says to Morgan, "If this is real, then Gene has a life. What's gonna happen to him." Once he starts thinking of the people in 1973 as real, he can not stop. That moment really is the one that leads him to his need to return to save them later on. Once again, he has come to this decision of reality by trusting the papers that his own mind creates. He never questions their validity. He still doesn't understand the game.

I still believe that Sam didn't think he was killing himself. I think at that point, due to his experiences or his brain tumor/surgery, he believes that 2006 is not the real world. I think the audience's reaction to the jump is more about Simm's acting combined with the music and the direction than it is about a character killing himself. It is thrilling to watch someone make such a bold decision. And it is a bold choice, no matter how wrong he is. In Sam's mind it's a leap of faith. Only we realize he's killing himself. Everyone keeps saying that Sam chooses 1973 over 2006, I think that Sam, out of illness or just many months of confusion, thinks he is choosing reality over delusion. The people that think it was a happy ending are a bit daft imo, but it doesn't make a difference as to what I got out of it. It was the darkest ending of a television show I've ever seen, and it was made even darker by the character's ignorance of that fact.>>

<i>Life On Mars: a subconscious tragedy. On so many levels. </i>
Heh.

Ah, sorry.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

I was involved in too many discussions today; forgot to answer to this.

You make some good points I'm going to keep in mind when I'm rewatching the show. (It's not like I *want* to believe Sam's irreparably damaged and/or an asshole, you know... I'd like to be able to continue to fancy him! *g*)

Re: Ah, sorry.

[candogirl.livejournal.com]

Good. I hope it helps a little towards his redemption.
:)