It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Life on Mars has a solid story, however it doesn't really deliver in the end, though the serial killer story was intense at the begining. The small cases that took place and created the puzzle of the main story, the relationship between the members of the police team and the performances, were the highlights of the series. Especially the cases were really interesting and entertaining. The bromance and the dynamics of the team were so good that I'm wishing that there would be a second season, taking that epilogue in mind and the fact that they didn't really explained why he went back in time and how. But overall, it was enjoyable.