Ashes to Ashes Series 3

[Rad]

Everyone still watching?

The series I think has been pretty good so far but for me it’s been a mix of very interesting timey-wimey hallucination stuff and dull cases. I’ve no idea how they’re going to conclude the show and I don’t understand how the different people’s visions inside a coma can somehow join together but I’m still intrigued enough to keep watching.

Topic

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Watching it, loving it. Wakey wakey Drakey…

[ChrisM]

I thought Alex returned to quickly to the 80s in episode 1. I knew it would happen quite quickly- the right thing to do- but not that quickly, i.e one slap from the guv and she’s back five-ten minutes in.

I’m enjoying it though. Probably my favourite series on the telly at the moment, although granted it’s early yet. Some interesting mind twisting stuff last week with Shaz and the background music there…

[Pete Part Three]

I’m watching it, but it very rarely grabs my undivided attention. The cases are not a patch on the ones in LoM, so only the sheer weirdness and mentions of Sam Tyler are pulling me in. Surely Simm has got to pop up in the next few weeks?

I’d agree that the resolution to the Series 2 cliffhanger was resolved far too quickly. It was a great way to end Series 2, but it was pretty obvious that they couldn’t do much from there…so it was a bit cheap. I assume they wrote out Molly because the actress was either unavailable or too old. No loss because she was annoying.

Now if they could only kill off Shaz, I’d have no problems with the cast. That said, that bit in the bar with her, LoM playing and Nelson (?) laughing, was truly weird. Madder than anything in Lost.

I truly hope they wrap this all up in satisfying way. Ashes to Ashes will always be under LoM’s shadow, but if they can deliver on the promises, it will live long in the memory.

[SkyAndSun]

It’s good but still not as good as LOM, IMO. For a start, Gene Hunt, while fun, seems tame compared to his LOM incarnation. He ‘insults’ people but is no longer offensive – there hasn’t been anything like ‘moving slower than a spastic in a magnet factory’ in A2A. Usually his one-liners these days are more like inventive insults – I can’t imagine A2A Gene Hunt saying ‘get off me, you fairy’. And we all know that behind his rough exterior beats a strong, good heart; in LOM, while definitely a hero, his rough exterior was a lot rougher. Similarly, Chris and Ray are shallower than their LOM counterparts; the stupid yet good one, the inoffensively offensive one. Would A2A go with a storyline where Ray killed a suspect by forcing him to OD on cocaine? I don’t think so – the closest we get is his botching a sting operation because he’s not that bright.

Secondly, yeah, the cases aren’t that interesting, but that’s forgivable.

I’m also not convinced it’s that well written. There seems to be a predictable formula – each season, drop in a mysterious nasty person. Have every third sentence hint at hidden depth. Any radio has to give Alex a message. LOM was better than this; or at least, it was fresher then.

Having said all that, it’s still very watchable, but often it’s the Sam Tyler link that keeps me watching, and Gene Hunt, who isn’t as good as he was.

[Nick R]

As well as the weird shot of Shaz with the background turning black, I was also intrigued by the final moments of the episode – another shot of the disfigured police officer, followed by a quick flash of a weather vane that looked a bit like either a hunchback or a man carrying a heavy pack.

[Carlito]

I have a sinking, though not totally convincing, feeling the whole premise of the show is going to be revealed in the end as some kind of artificial computer reality… not because that’s how the US show ended, but because of the hints in that direction during the first episode, and also because it would kind of make sense.

To be fair, for a non-Who prime time BBC One show that would be quite the ballsy ending, but as a Red Dwarf fan, its far too familiar for my liking. Not fair to judge one on the other at all, I know.

Of course, it could all be the first of many red herrings to get people speculating about the forthcoming conclusion.

Pure speculation, but something makes me think that the half-faced young copper we keep seeing is actually going to turn out to be the youthful Gene Hunt. Hmmm.

[ChrisM]

Similarly, Chris and Ray are shallower than their LOM counterparts; the stupid yet good one, the inoffensively offensive one.

Really? I thought Chris (that’s the skinny younger guy right? I’m frightful with names, even if he does share one with me) actually expanded a bit as a character in Ashes to Ashes. He’s a bit more sure of himself, less dopey… yet he had his dark moment last series too. Yet it wasn’t unbelievable.

Unless you’re talking about just this series, but then we’re only a couple of episodes in.

I agree concerning Gene, now you mention it, although I think in the earlier series he was more offensive. I don’t have much of a problem with it though, it makes sense that he’d change over time. As long as he doesn’t change too much of course!

Overall I’d say I prefer Life On Mars too, although that’s much to do with the earlier setting and the fact it, well, came first, but this is good.

[si]

Last Friday’s episode was brilliant, the best episode of A2A I’ve seen in my opinion, if anyone cares.

[Carlito]

Life On Mars was, as Teatime says, fresher but also quite simply more fun. I guess the 70s were just more gritty and fun than this glossy crappy sterile 80s setting we get for A2A.

Watching Life on Mars made me wish I could go back and live in the 70s. Watching Ashes to Ashes makes me grateful I was too young to remember the 80s.

[pfm]

> Last Friday’s episode was brilliant, the best episode of A2A I’ve seen in my opinion, if anyone cares.

I think this and the Chris corruption one last year have definitely been the best 2 episodes (so far…). The ‘Uptown Girl’ opening was a bit like A2A’s equivalent to Tongue Tied! And somehow it worked, even with Glenister looking like an absolute knob in that getup!

Hunt is a better character now than he was IMO. Too many blatantly ‘offensive’ one-liners just make him seem too cartoony, and this is meant to be 10 years after LoM after all, people change. I can’t wait to find out the truth of his involvement in Sam’s death (if he really is dead in this universe, whatever the universe is, if it even is a universe…..)

[Muzzy]

My dad has this theory they’re all on a spaceship in some kind of stasis/suspended animation and the spaceship is heading for a new life on Mars after the destruction of the Earth. Would explain the stars in the last episode at least.

[Pete Part Three]

Has your Dad been watching the US version of Life on Mars?

[Muzzy]

I think he saw the first episode and hated it. Im guessing that’s what happened in the US version then? Can’t see them going in the same direction in that case.

[Pete Part Three]

>I’m guessing that’s what happened in the US version then?

Indeed it did. It was bloody awful.

From Wikipedia:

“At the end of the series, in what appears to be a deus ex machina, it is revealed that Tyler’s 2008 and 1973 realities were both fictitious, created by the onboard computer of a spacecraft that is carrying Tyler, Hunt, Norris, Carling, and Skelton on the first ever manned mission to the planet Mars, in 2035. The crew he worked with in 1973 were just virtual reality versions of his fellow spaceship crewmembers. His room number, “2B”, is his sleeping unit; his old precinct, “Hyde”, and his new precinct, the “125”, are based on the name of the spacecraft – “Hyde 125”; his neighbor, Windy, is the name of the computer A.I.; Frank Morgan, an FBI agent in the series, is the Mission Control flight director. To sustain the crew, their minds were routinely kept active while asleep using virtual reality “neural stimulation” programs of their own choosing, but Sam’s choice of a scenario where he was a police officer circa 2008 was abruptly changed to a 1973 setting by a meteor-storm induced glitch in the computer. This conclusion is markedly different from the conclusion of the original UK series, but is still left ambiguous as the first step on Mars depicts Gene Hunt’s signature shoe stepping into the sand.

In a twist, Gene Hunt in 1973 turns out to be Astronaut ‘Major Tom’ Tyler – Sam’s father”

[Andrew]

Worth mentioning the most irksome part: they’re headed to Mars on a ‘gene hunt’.

[Danny Stephenson]

to find “Life On Mars”. Do you see?

[Jonathan Capps]

> Do you see?

I’m afraid I don’t.

[Pete Part Three]

>Worth mentioning the most irksome part: they’re headed to Mars on a ‘gene hunt’.

God, I forgot that! You can just imagine the writer rubbing his hands together when he thought of that and congratulating himself. If only someone had been stood by him to smack him round the head.

[ChrisM]

>I’m afraid I don’t.

Gene. Genes. Life. I don’t mind the odd silly pun but… dear me.

[si]

The thought occurred to me the other night that perhaps Gene Hunt is the only ‘real’ character across the whole of LOM/A2A, and both series have been in *his* head, as he sits, an embittered old man, who’s now been pensioned out of the police force, trying to exaggerate past glories.

[Plastic Percy]

Further to that Si, he’s sat behind the wheel of his car remembering the past. Just after crashing into Sam Tyler in 2006.

[Carlito]

I always thought that would have been a good ending to Life on Mars – that Gene would be revealed as the elderly driver that mowed down Sam.

[Tarka Dal]

I was pretty much thinking the same thing just the other day. Perhaps someone could cut some footage together of Sam getting hit with Gene flying down the road in his Audi.

[Squeaky Gibson]

Would be nice if the Mk 3 Cortina could return for the final show. as nice as the Audi is, I miss the Ford. would be neat if Sam was the driver!

I’m really enjoying this final series, I’m loving the way it is starting to link back more to Life on Mars. it will be sad once it’s gone though :(

[Ben Paddon]

This is, what, series three?

[ChrisM]

Yes.

[Carlito]

This is by far the best series of Ashes to Ashes yet. I was thoroughly underwhelmed by series 1, less so by series 2, but this is nearly up there with Life on Mars.

And it’s all down to the mystifying series arc rather than the crime-of-the-week stories. They’ve really cranked things up a gear. The whole series has been positively pregnant with little hidden clues, red herrings, knowing nods… the whole premise of “Life On Mars bleeding through into Ashes to Ashes” is great… and if there’s no Sam Tyler appearance in the finale I will be most surprised.

I’m still convinced the ghost copper is Gene Hunt. But I’m no longer fearing the US ending (they even mocked me with it, during the ‘seeing stars’ sequence on last weeks episode “RAY: It’s like we’re astronauts!”) but the show creator said this was just to wind people up.

Just what did Gene say to Bevan at the end of last weeks episode?? What is with the stars?? Why does Alex seem to have completely forgotten about her daughter and getting home?? What is with the half-faced copper?? What happened with Gene and Sam?? Does Ray and Shaz (who both had ‘Life On Mars Moments’ earlier in the series) singing Danny Boy have any significance?? Especially as they have both been seeing stars since having their LOM moment… was the LOM moment maybe the moment they died?? Are they all in comas in that case?? why hasn’t Chris had one yet?? Who is Keats?? What is the significance of the two sets of numbers that keep coming up?

Arrrgh it’s awesome.

[Muzzy]

> Does Ray and Shaz (who both had ‘Life On Mars Moments’ earlier in the series) singing Danny Boy have any significance??

I did think them singing the line “and I am dead, as dead I well may be” might be quite telling.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I know, I love it, this series is kicking my arse on a weekly basis!

[Nick R]

> and if there’s no Sam Tyler appearance in the finale I will be most surprised.

That’s a given. The real question is whether David Bowie’ll appear. :)

[ChrisM]

>Why does Alex seem to have completely forgotten about her daughter and getting home??

I don’t think she has forgotten Molly, I just think she’s so immersed in this world now. I think she still thinks about her, even misses her, they’re just not making as big a deal of it on-screen so to speak, particularly as it’s very much the other folks’ stories too.

Even if Alex has forgotten Molly, that world hasn’t. Did you see the graffiti on the wall a couple of episodes back? Under the bridge with the junkie? Things are still bleeding through…

[Carlito]

I think the graffitti and stuff is there to try and remind her. She’s even been vague when discussing her feeling of needing to get back to something. There have been no messages from the ‘real’ world, no messages down telephones or through the radio etc. No real mention of her 2008 life, bar the very opening moments of episode 1. It’s almost as if the writers have deliberately taken this approach. Almost unnoticable unless you think about it… is Alex now completely immersed in the ‘Geneiverse’? Does she even really remember her 2008 life anymore?

[Plastic Percy]

>Just what did Gene say to Bevan at the end of last weeks episode??

Gene explained to Alex that he told Bevan the horrifying truth – that Manchester City were going to kick Manchester United’s arse.

[Ian Symes]

Yes, he was lying, it’s a technique he’s picked up.

[Carlito]

Phew…that was… awesome

[Ian Symes]

Yes, I was quite pleased with that post.

[Carlito]

Last night’s episode was almost as good as Ian Symes’ post.

[Muzzy]

It was very good. What the fuck is Keats?! Whatever he did to Viv, it certainly looked like Viv was trying to fight it rather than it being a case of Keats putting him out of his pain and helping him. There’s no way that guy was Sam though. And they just can’t make the big reveal be that Gene has been the bad guy all along. It’d destroy both shows. Really, desperately want John Simm to turn up now.

[Jonathan Capps]

I can’t remember if anyone posted this at the time we were talking about, but this is the ending for Life on Mars US:

This is the first time I’ve seen it and now I’m convinced this is how I want Ashes to Ashes to finish, just so I can see the Internet explode.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Two eps to go…. gah, this series is frying my mind and yet I don’t want it to end!

[Carlito]

I’m kinda ready for it end, mainly due to the two weak series that preceeded this one. If only it had been this good all along…

Extremely psyched about the two-part finale. Best thing on television this year!

[Jonathan Capps]

apart fropm doctor who, which ois alwaus the besy thiong on tv this year OR ANY YEAR good night.

[Danny Stephenson]

Are you pissed?

[Jonathan Capps]

I was then and am still little bit now.

[Carlito]

I have to disagree re: Doctor Who. I’ve become a big fan of the show the last few months and, when on form, is top-notch (I’ve been steadily working my way through the back catalogue of post-2005 Who).

But this year’s series of Doctor Who hasn’t been better than this year’s Ashes to Ashes in my mind (as of yet). I find my attention wandering watching the new series of Who, it’s not all that captivating at all. Matt Smith is very good… Karen Gillan is okay but only has that one bug-eyed sulky little girl expression… but the only episode I’ve REALLY liked was the Weeping Angels two-parter. (It’s only my opinion….)

Whereas every episode of Ashes S3 has been excellent.

[Ben Paddon]

Fun Fact: “It’s only my opinion” is not a Get Out Of Jail Free card for being Wrong.

[Carlito]

erm…

[Carlito]

Another awesome episode… only one to go. And was that really Sam Tyler in the preview for next week, or just one big mean tease?

[Muzzy]

The silhouette was clearly meant to be Sam I but whether John Simm is actually gonna turn up I’m not sure now. I think if he was going to it would have been a cliffhanger in this episode. Wanted the knock on the door that interrupted Alex and Gene to be him! Here’s a screengrab of that bit in the preview – http://www.flickr.com/photos/36392412@N08/4607573640/

Really good episode again though I am dubious about how they’re gonna manage to wrap everything up in one more hour.

[Carlito]

It doesn’t really look like John Simm in that screengrab (somebody on Gallifrey Base has brightened it up and it looks even less like him) but if Simm filmed a secret appearance I would have thought it may be one day of filming, therefore they may well use a double for extracurricular stuff like the shadw knocking on the window… I am torn on the chances of a Sam Tyler appearance. On the one hand, this is the finale to Ashes to Ashes not Life on Mars, and it has been The Alex Show for the last three years, so it is understandable if Sam doesn’t show up and would ordinarily be an irrational expectation that will only lead to lots of disappointment.

But conversely there has been SO much mention of Tyler this series, he has been such an integral part of the story arc, that for him not to show up now would be a massive anticlimax in many ways. Would the writers really choose to focus so much on the Sam Tyler mystery if they knew John Simm was not going to show up at all?

[Author]

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