Ashes to Ashes, opinions wanted

Boston

Some having recently watched the first to seasons of Life on Mars I'm eager for more of the same. However I don't want to ruin a good thing so I'm wondering what the general opinion is towards this show.

aidan_dunne

Caught most of the episodes of 'Ashes To Ashes' and thought it was decent enough. Keeley Hawes was quite annoying at times, though, and did get on my nerves a bit with her constant psycho-babble.

I was led to believe from everything I'd read and heard in the lead up to the show that 'Ashes' was meant to be more based on the Gene Hunt character and the show was really a platform to keep his character going after the end of 'L.O.M.' but it turns out they didn't focus on him as much as I thought they would and it's a shame because he really made both series, in my opinion.

Still, though, Gene Genie being more over the top than ever, a red Audi Quattro tearing around the place, Keeley Hawes looking quite hot (shame she had to open her mouth! :rolleyes:), a great 80's soundtrack and

quite an unusual and unexpected twist at the end

........ what more could you want? It's well worth a look anyway.

"Right! Let's fire up the Quattro!"

Mr E

Alex (Keeley's character) kind of overplayed the whole "figment of my imagination" thing, particularly in the earlier episodes. She had read Sam's notes, so she knew she had to do something to get out of the 80s. Something tragic happened to her in her childhood and she believed that she was there to stop it from happening.

I don't think its was as good as LOM, but it is still miles better than alot of other TV shows.

Oh, and

the twist that Aidan speaks of made my jaw drop completely - it came from nowhere and redeemed the whole series.

DublinWriter

I loved LOM but Ashes to Ashes is a bit too self-aware for my liking. It took all the successful elements from the first series and exaggerated them to the point of almost pastiche.

Another criticism is that the sets don't invoke a feeling of the era in the same way that LOM was able to recreate the vibe of early 70's UK North-East. It looks like they just slapped a few Adam and the Ants and Kim Wilde posters about the place in a very forced attempt to recreate 80's London.

iguana

Don't people think maybe they should spoiler the fact that there

is a twist. I hate when I know there is a twist, it spoils the series.

Basq

iguana wrote: »

Don't people think maybe they should spoiler the fact that there

is a twist. I hate when I know there is a twist, it spoils the series.

Good point.. done!

I enjoyed 'Ashes to Ashes' but thought it wasn't nearly as good as 'Life on Mars'.

Found Alex Drake quite irritating as a character, and Gene Hunt hasn't nearly as many great lines in it as he did in 'Life on Mars'.

Worth a watch.. it's a worthy follow-up to 'Life on Mars' but in my opinion, don't watch it with very high expectations.

Mr E

Thanks basquille....

DeepBlue

I thought it reduced all the main characters to caricatures and had all the flaws of LOM (mainly the boring, tedious "cases") with none of the redeeming features (Sam's likeability, Hunt's 70's character, the sense of "wtf is going on").

A lot of the blame has to be pointed at Alex Drake/Keeley Hawes as both the character and the actress were irritating and very poor.

Then again I only watched the first three episodes and gave up on it after that.

sweetie

anyone fancy telling me what the ending is? not bothered watching to find out.

Mr E

sweetie - PM sent. No way am I posting it here.

BlitzKrieg

sorry to dig a thread up. But I just bought the boxset to this and watched it.

I loved the first season of Life on Mars, but I felt it faltered a bit in the second season.


This on the other hand is sort of mixed.


Firstly I am happy that they were quicker in getting through the modern setting, and that they had a better set up tieing more direct links to the past and present.

Life on Mars started very weak with a long drawn out modern setting bit before an absolutely fantastic scene change into the past.

Ashes to Ashes handled the modern bit better, but the transfer from present to past is nowhere near as fantastic as the life on mars one, actually the intro for gene etc was actually rather weak.

And that was Ashes to Ashes for the first half of the season, a weaker version of life on mars with a a much less likeable main character and gene and co not being as much on form as they were in Life on Mars.

But from episode 4 onwards.

It got good

it got really good.

first the clown, what an awesome piece of work, I love test card girl from life on mars, but the clown (i hate clowns) was so much creepier and actually felt like a force in this one rather then an observer (especially

when he is revealed in the ending

)

secondly the episodes started to run together better, more elements of 80's vs 00's, a couple of subplots between Even, Gene and Alex, interesting cases and unlike Life on Mars, a finale that is well worth watching it through for.

I always felt that the revel of sam tylers mysterious dreams was rather weak, but the clown, car bomb ending to ashes to ashes was brilliant, I only hope the clown is not taken out of the show that his plotpoint is done.

overall I am happy. Though the question now is what will they do with season 2. Obviously they cant repeat how season 2 for life on mars, alex and sam are very different in their determination to get back home, I hope elements from life on mars though come in more

having the officer from hayes showing up like he did in life on mars would be a nice tieing point, even better would be if Sam shows up.

Cassiel

Opening episodes did grate a little with the too clever by half Ms. Drake and her 'constructs'. Can only blame the creative team for poor effort there but then again as it was her fantasy, it did allow for some memorable OTT scenes which couldn't have happened in Life on Mars. Second half on it cracked on. Still loved it and practically watched the whole series over two nights. John Simm/Sam Tyler and Life on Mars is still the benchmark though by which all telly will be judged

I think this programme had to be a bit different to Life on Mars because there wasn't so much of WTF element to play against.We knew what was happening much faster than we did in LOM and that was the reasoning behind the self reverantial 'construct' line of thinking.

How frustrating would it have been to sit through the whole "whats going on?" theme again?

And on a personal note, Alex Drake is undoubtedly the sexiest tv character ever!!!;)

Cassiel

Without a doubt. +1 for Bolly Knickers.

jayhaitch2 wrote: »

...
And on a personal note, Alex Drake is undoubtedly the sexiest tv character ever!!!;)

grumpytrousers

i think for the gag about the boy bands/car thieves at one point, the show deserves some degree of respect.

It wasn't as good as LOM, but it wasn't the steaming pile it could have been. The shows problem was that the first episodes weren't good enough to get the non-diehards to commit to it. A friends mum enjoyed LOM but gave up on A2A after episode 1 just didn't 'do it', and i could see her point. I've got a sky plus box, so i could just watch it as i wanted, but if you'd made A2A as 'appointment' telly and had to make it your business to sit down and watch it live, you could well be disappointed.

I loved life on mars, but I suffered my way through ashes to ashes. It could have been worse but it has none of the charm or fun that life on mars did.
Bolly knickers annoyed the hell out of me most of the time. Gene went soft in my opinion. The show has it's moments but they are few and far between.

MattEmulsion

Think they were playing this one for laughs as opposed to LOM. Also I'm disturbed by the relationship between Drake and Hunt - makes me think that one day in the LOM producution office they thought 'what if Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt had sexual chemistry' and that makes me shudder.

is_that_so

Compared to LOM , it was disappointing, but as a TV show, head and shoulders above a lot that is shown. I personally found it patchy and some of the episodes I thought were poor. Even so I liked the fact that the minor characters got more screen time. Ray in particular stood out for me and I thought his character developed lot more than the others.