[SPOILERS] Why do you watch Ashes To Ashes? It's usually down to one of four things: you like cop shows, you love the '80s, you enjoy the Gene Hunt character, or you're fascinated by the coma/time-travel mystery of Alex Drake. For me, I've never been a fan of the police procedural, and that's usually where Ashes To Ashes falls down anyway. It's a show where the premise is far more interesting than the weekly stories, but not even as interesting as it should be because Life On Mars has covered the same ground...Episode 6 finds Gene (Philip Glenister) and Alex (Keeley Hawes) investigating why a missing person, Colin (Jason Haigh), was found dead in a nearby canal. Did weasley loan shark Trevor Riley (Sam Spruell) bump him off for not paying his debts? Did his beautiful wife Donna (Daisy Haggard) have him killed? And how dies this all fit in with Colin's kindly father Stanley (Tom Georgeson), leader of a new neighbourhood watch scheme?
As usual, it takes awhile for the story to tighten its grip, but the last fifteen minutes came together quite well and I didn't guess the culprit this week – which is something to be grateful for. Of course, I'm not sure that's a testament to the writing quality, or just the fact my brain never really engages with the weekly mystery. Maybe it was obvious for armchair detectives well-versed in Agatha Christie and paying closer attention. It is true that Ashes tends to have three main guest-stars each week, and it's often the least likely suspect.Still, there were a few good moments that held my attention and gave us something different to chew on. I particularly liked seeing Gene get beaten up some thugs, and seeing how the ordeal actually shook him up. Sure, he didn't cry and refuse to come into work, but locking himself in a cell for some quiet time spoke volumes for the character. And when he pulled himself together we got retribution in a scene where Gene bundles his prime suspect into a car at a breaker's yard, picks it up using an industrial crane and dangles it above a car-crusher, while bellowing for answers. It was also fun seeing Alex try to teach Ray (Dean Andrews) her psychological profiling techniques, and for her hardwork to payoff in the end when Ray makes a clever deduction.
The coma-moments with Alex are quickly becoming tedious, but there were a few scenes with more imagination than talking televisions this week, with Alex having an "out of body experience" and seeing her 2008 self in a hospital's operating theatre having her bullet extracted. Afterwards, the operation apparently a success, she claims she feels much better and, hopefully, this means we'll see a different attitude from Alex for the remaining episodes to demonstrate that.
The Martin Summers mystery continues, but it's difficult to really care about any of it until we're given some clarity. Her mystery man gives her another call and sends her some dead roses this time, but I'm just irritated about why he's been all cloak-and-dagger about everything, to be honest. I know the show needs to extend its mystery and can't just blurt out all the answers, but Ashes To Ashes just isn't very good at dripfeeding its mystery in a way that's genuinely compelling. A lot of that is because it doesn't feel that the writers can come up with anything that isn't a copy of Life On Mars' reveal, without it feeling incredibly stupid. If Summers is a cop from 2008, why does he need Alex to stay in a coma for him to continue existing in head-'82? None of it really makes sense and, crucially, I don't have faith the writers have sufficiently logical answers. Methinks they just like shoehorning creepy men, mysterious phone calls, and the rose motif into every episode...Overall, I'm just a little bored right now. The promise of the early episodes has disappeared (not helped by the fact they ditched the attention-grabbing police corruption story so early), and everything feels a bit flat and formulaic. And does anyone really cares about Shaz (Montserrat Lombard) and Chris' (Marshall Lancaster) wedding day plans? As comic relief, both are more irritating and cloying than funny and endearing, as intended. Shaz in particular makes my teeth itch, but the creators of Mars and Ashes are clearly fixated with passive policewomen with wishy-washy voices.
25 May 2009
BBC1, 9pm
Writer: Jack Lothian
Director: Philip John
Cast: Philip Glenister (Gene), Keeley Hawes (Alex), Dean Andrews (Ray), Marshall Lancaster (Chris), Montserrat Lombard (Shaz), Adrian Dunbar (Martin Summers), Sam Spruell (Trevor Riley), Tom Georgeson (Stanley), Daisy Haggard (Donna), Joseph Long (Luigi), Geff Francis (Viv), Grace Vance (Molly), Bill Moody (Bill) & Jason Haigh (Colin)
