The Medium is Not Enough TV blog: Microfeed for "Season finale: Ashes to Ashes" http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/2008/03/season_finale_ashes_to_ashes.php Comments for the entry "Season finale: Ashes to Ashes" en-us Movable Type v4.32-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:48:58 +00:00 Comment from TemplarJ A bit of a disappointment I agree, although the sequence leading up to the car bomb was extremely well directed. I just wonder where there is for the series to really to go, the 'am I in a coma or a dream' aspect isn't gripping this time, the series still lacks the conflict of philosophy that made Life on Mars work and the whole 'is Ray a Gay?' sub plot should be buried in cement in a docklands development.
Still, the legs on that Keeley Hawes, eh?

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23406 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:48:58 +00:00 Comment from Toby OB Heh heh. Pink tank. Oh wait. Isn't that supposed to be a euphemism?

(And in a perfect MINE world, is "Rullsenberg" the one who first posts a comment to Tuesday's news? Or am I getting the party faithful mixed up?)

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23408 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:39:44 +00:00 Comment from Jane Henry I may be in a minority of one here, but I liked Alex's bad tempered haranguing of her imaginary constructs (I love that phrase!) I agree it probably wasn't as strong as LOM, but then we are used to the whole idea now, whereas LOM had the advantage of being new. I actually liked Gene more in this, and I loved it at the end when he said I come when I'm needed, which rather suggested to me this is some kind of parallel universe which people fall into when they are in dire straits. I didn't see the dad thing coming, as I was convinced it was the godfather, and I enjoyed the twist of it. I don't think the plot here is all that important in a way - because it is the situation first Sam and now Alex find themselves in which is so interesting. Alex has an advantage over Sam in that she's read his file, so if she's a bit clever clever sometimes, it's because she thinks it's not real and all a figment of her imagination, whereas Sam was never really sure.

I loved the tank. I loved them putting first Chris and then her parents in the cells, and I really loved Gene's speech to Scarman, which surely comes from some Western, doesn't it? In fact, with Gene's cowboy boots being given much prominence throughout I wonder if there haven't been other sneaky western hommages I may have missed...

Anyway, I enjoyed it alot, and I related hugely to Alex's desperation to get back to her daughter, and her feelings about her mum. I thought it was very touching when she found out her mum did love her - but then if it is all her imagination, perhaps that's what her psyche would say to her, it may not still be true. In fact this may not be the actual answer to what happened to her parents, but her fevered coma induced version. Which is what is so fun about the whole concept of this.

And well done on spotting the clown/dad thing. Yes you are immensely clever... I didn't get that at all. But I would have liked to have seen more of the clown as I thought he was wonderfully spooky.

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23409 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:46:59 +00:00 Comment from MediumRob That would be Miss Anna. Ms Rullsenberg doesn't get up early enough, it turns out, to be betrothed to Mr Tennant - there may be an update on that at about 12pm...

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23410 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:01:48 +00:00 Comment from AnnaWaits What updates are there? I'm engaged and that's it.

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23411 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:11:18 +00:00 Comment from MediumRob I think the show, now it doesn't have the car bomb theme to play with (just as Life on Mars lost its parent plot at the end of the first series) will need to play with the "is she dead or isn't she theme" more and get a good deal more creepy for it to be enjoyable next series. It might even be interesting if it's revealed that Gene Hunt and co were real people, buried in both John Simm's and Alex Drake's subsconcious from their youths. Or that he's an angel.

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23413 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:46:02 +00:00 Comment from stu-n " It might even be interesting if it's revealed that Gene Hunt and co were real people, buried in both John Simm's and Alex Drake's subsconcious from their youths. "

They'd have to stretch a bit for that one, because if both Sam and Alex knew a 'real' Gene, Ray and Chris, they'd be a lot older when Alex knew them.

"Or that he's an angel"

That'll be the American remake.

I hope they find something to do with Shaz in the second series, because there was no reason for her to exist in this one.

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23416 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:29:53 +00:00 Comment from MediumRob Well, eight years or so (73-81) doesn't result, necessarily in huge ageing for everyone (cf Cliff Richard). Plus we're talking about coma dreams, so Alex could have based her poorly remembered Gene on Sam's description. It's either that or she's dead and in the afterlife, because you then have to explain why someone in one dream looks identical to someone in another dream.

Shaz was a little bit useless. I thought she was there mainly for Alex to patronise and look down on. If you consider that Shaz is probably a figment of Alex's imagination, you have to wonder why she created a WPC who was largely there to not do any work, mess around with the detectives, be a comedy sidekick and be saved by Alex. Bah!

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23417 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:39:17 +00:00 Comment from stu-n I thought it was a bit odd that Sam wasn't mentioned at all after the first episode, as well. Alex only knew about Gene and Co via Sam's report, and Gene was apparently so broken up by Sam's death that he'd moved away from his beloved Manchester and still kept a cutting about Sam on his noticeboard — and yet, with another apparently delusional time-travelling detective knocking around, nobody says 'I had enough of this crap with Tyler!' or 'Sam might have been bonkers, but at least he didn't burst into tears in front of arsey Commie briefs!'

And nobody ever said what happened to Annie. Central part of Sam's fantasy! Where was she?

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23422 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:31:34 +00:00 Comment from Stuart I've tended to think through Ashes to Ashes that the main problem is that the writers aren't as clever as the mass intelligence of the show's fans. As with LoM where all sorts of great ideas were thrown up as possible conclusions to the series, only for Matthew Graham to come out at the end and say "He was in a coma and having a dream, we never thought of anything else". I alos seem to remember that John Simm had to insist on a last minute re-write to introduce a touch of mystery into the final episode, all of which makes me suspect that Sam's not being mentioned is just because that would make things a bit complicated and/or the writers just never thought about it.

Personally I lean towards thinking that both LoM and AtoA are Gene's coma dreams and Sam and Alex are both constructs of DCI Hunt.

]]> 3923@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c23431 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:30:28 +00:00