WRITER: Ashley Pharoah[SPOILERS] The second episode was better than the premiere, mainly because it had more time to do a proper job with the week's investigation. Ashes To Ashes remains an entertaining mosaic of cop drama, ironic '80s comedy and sci-fi fantasy, but at this stage I feel like all its tricks have run their course. I can enjoy seeing Gene (Philip Glenister), Ray (Dean Andrews), Chris (Marshall Lancaster) and Alex (Keeley Hawes) re-enact Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" as much as the next man, and as a Life On Mars fan I'm hardwired to get a chill whenever someone mentions Sam Tyler's name, but I sometimes find myself growing impatient with Ashes as a police procedural, and the clues we're getting toward the finale's answers are always so deliberately vague or confusing as to be more annoying than compelling. That said, there was at least one clue this week that worked so brilliantly that it overshadowed everything around it.
DIRECTOR: David Drury
GUEST CAST: Beth Goddard, Joseph Long, Geff Francis, Nick Sidi, Nick Haverson, Rupert Simionian, Flaminia Cinque, Adam Shipway, Dean Nolan, Charlie Roe, Frog Stone & Reece Beaumont
No offence to Montserrat Lombard, but Shaz is by far my least favourite character on the show, partly because her personality's as wishy-washy as her simpering voice. Shaz's sudden hatred for her job came out of nowhere, too, which was a problem for me. Her character has always felt designed to be a typical '80s woman in the workplace, who would look on Alex as something of a mentor/idol, so to see her inexplicably lose her gumption over, well, nothing just saddened me. I guess nothing about Alex has rubbed off on her. Still, it was interesting to note how Keats (Daniel Mays) appeared to nudge Shaz's decision to leve through seemingly kind words ("I think you know exactly what you should do..."), which made me think Keats' intention is to tear apart Gene's "world" by ripping apart his support group of friends/colleagues. After all, who is the mighty "Gene Genie" if he has nobody to boss about, but a lonely ogre?
I wonder if Keats will be dripping poison into Ray or Chris' ears in the weeks to come? Mind you, Shaz eventually didn't go through with her decision to quit the force, so either Keats lost a battle there or making her quit wasn't part of his plan to begin with. I guess one thing the third series is doing well, so far, is making you ponder what Keats' purpose is. Is he going to be of help to Alex, as he's the one pushing her to investigate Sam Tyler's death, which does seem to have some unanswered questions? Or should we trust in Gene and believe Keats is just stirring up trouble? I have a tough time believing Ashes To Ashes would unmask Gene as Sam Tyler's killer, no matter how likely that sometimes feels. It would retroactively spoil both shows if we discovered he's the villain, no matter how often the show plays with with that possibility.
Perhaps the biggest clue towards the finale came via Shaz, whose role in the show might perhaps hold the key to The Answers. When she finally agreed to keep her job, the background around her melted to black, she stared into the camera, and David Bowie's "Life On Mars" started to play eerily. Was that signifying that Shaz, like Sam Tyler, has decided to stay in this world (inferring that she's similarly existing in a mindscape?) She did see The Clown in series 1, remember? Actually, maybe everyone on the show are comatose dreamers, but have since forgotten that fact? Yes, I'm proposing that there were pre-Life On Mars shows we've never seen,o one involving Ray (a no-nonsense cop from the '90s) joining the police force circa 1964. I'd watch that.
Overall, a decent episode, again because there were some good clues to the overall mystery, although I'm not as interested as I used to be. I know Ashes has only been on-air for three years, but if you include the two years of Life On Mars, and the year of the US remake, this basic story of a contemporary cop struggling to make sense of a timeslip has been beaten to death. I'm actually relieved Ashes is coming to an end. I just hope it can do so in a way that feels earned, surprising and emotional. I'd also appreciate some stronger storylines for the cop show element, because the whole "police corruption" angle of series 2 was one of the reasons that year felt like a huge improvement. As fun as the sci-fi stuff is, the cop drama still takes up 95% of every episode's narrative, so it needs to be strong. And so far this series, I'm not that excited by Keats and the Sam Tyler case. Hopefully there'll be a big breakthrough soon.
Asides
- Guest star Beth Goddard, playing the dating agency's owner, is Philip Glenister's wife in real life, which gave her enquiry about Gene Hunt's wife ("poor, poor woman") a meta level of comedy.
- Alex references Jeffrey Dahmer as a serial killer, which Keats acknowledges. But as Dahmer wasn't even arrested until 1991, that seems to suggest that Keats (like Summers last series) isn't from 1983.
- A few questions to ponder: Is Sam Tyler dead? Who scratched 6-6-20 into Alex's desk and what does it mean? What will Alex finds amongst his personal effects, beyond his leather jacket? Did Gene, Ray and Chris fake Sam's death? If so, why? And who is the young phantom policeman with the deformed face, and is he connected to Sam's mystery?
