Ashes to Ashes 2:1
It occurred to me it might be a good idea to shove my impressions down on here before reading any opinions elsewhere. So apart from reading one small amount of squee focused exclusively on Gene Hunt, I come to this unsullied by any other forum threads. Ramblings, mutterings, theories and speculation follow. There may well be a good deal of 'WTF?' as well. Spoilers abound if you haven't seen it yet.
- So 11 o'clock? The eleventh hour? And a whole hour since she was last seen - but not, presumably, since she was shot?
- Who's in that bed? First choice is 'Mr Red Herring'. But maybe this Martin Summers character? Gene? Dunno, but there's a classic iPod on the side table there, which made me think of Sam...
- Am loving the sewers. Now that's how you make sewers look mysterious, Demons people. And mixing up 96 and 69 - and Gene's comment of course. Ace.
- Okay, did anyone have the nerve to get Alex cleaning Gene's boots in any fic at all? Is that drawing pin significant? Sailing of Invincible on the telly puts us at Monday 5th April.
- Mrs McClusky is the world's greatest headmistress. I can say no more.
- Going to take me a while to get used to the new intro. Liking the updated title sequence - looks like we're in for another Gene-leaves-the-office-and-magically-all-the-lights-go-out-behind-him scene at some point...
- Right, well, while I have ab-so-lutely no objection to soppy looks per se, this felt a bit... odd. Maybe Smiley!Gene is too novel a thing to get my head round straight away.
- 'You're not going anyway unless I say so. And I don't say so.' There's that thing again. Heads, ours, with, messing - rearrange those words to form a sentence likely to explain it.
- So, happy team in Quattro rushing to crime scene, eh? You just know that's to set them up for forthcoming disintegration. Sigh. 'The call said the man was dead. He's not going to be any more dead if you get there five minutes later'. AP has given Alex some cracking lines in this one. Excellent.
- I assume there was some actual event where Princess Margaret was confronted by that gentleman with his, erm, prop. Either way, it's not often you get a line like 'There's the man with the giant penis' and delivered with such aplomb. Another point to that DI from the future.
- Love the Billy Connolly-alike voiced tramp delivered via the little old lady.
- How is it Chris manages to get it just so wrong? 'A man, just like you'. Hah. My worries over where they're going to go with Ray this series are not going away though. His character is swinging like a pendulum from one series to the next - oddly I would have been marginally less bothered if he hadn't helped himself to the extra cash.
- I'm assuming it is not coincidence that Gene is watching SuperMac's arrival - and thus giving us the distinct impression there's more to this than meets the eye. Unless it's double bluff... God, a mere ten minutes in and already I'm second guessing.
- I fall upon whoever cast Roger Allam as SuperMac with happy cries of gladness - great speech, well delivered and he just looks right. And, it appears, he's up to his neck in something dodgy. Hmmm. Can it really be that straightforward?
- Gene's getting jealous, Gene's getting jealous...
- Masterful breaking of the news by Laurel and Hardy.
- Manc Lion quotes Silver Fox. Tee hee. 'No-one knows anyone, Bolly. The great lie of this life is that we pretend we do.' Which life? And notice the coat belt caught in the door? I'll return to that shortly.
- Okay, what's all that with the girl from Hyde then? Is it just Gene being pleased at the connection with home - which he obviously is. Or more to it than that? And I'm fairly sure Felicity Kendal didn't get where she is by stripping her clothes off, no.
- 'I've seen bacon grilled for longer than that' is just an instant classic - and it's not even Gene who gets to say it. Plus, is it me, or is Keeley playing Alex noticeably less 'posh'?
- Like Alex holding the door open in that pointed way to get Gene to do what she wants, instead of the stand up row they'd have had in series one. I think AP's written the development of that working relationship really well.
- Remember that coat belt caught in the door? Well why've they done that there then?
- No. The talking dog is a step too far, sorry.
- Ah, Luigi - you so would be in there if you were a bit younger, wouldn't you? If she'd share your liking for Emu, of course... The whole scene is a nice exercise in demonstrating 'here is a character who is firmly settled in' but I like it. And the Clown's gone from the mural.
- I have a teeny problem with Gene sending Alex off after the gunman - I fear it's just so they could do the whole Caring!Gene thing.
- Just for a fleeting moment I did almost think he was going to explain why she was there. But, of course, it was a bit of a phoning-the-Wizard-of-Oz moment. D'oh. Silly gullible me.
- Oh ho - so already SuperMac is exhibiting feet of clay. Tsk.
- So, hang on. Both SuperMac and Kevin Hales are busy painting the dead bloke as Bad, yes? But Laurel and Hardy do a quick ask around and easily establish he wasn't. It's not exactly proving to be a tough nut to crack.
- Another WTF moment. Roses? Helicopters? Pont de L'Alma? And can I point out the cricket ball in the mug on Gene's desk? Can I?
- Ah, secret diaries - what a handy plot device... 'Significance' again too.
- Detective!Ray. My favourite. And given the fact many of us will have spent the past year 'firing up' this that and the other, 'firing up the photocopier' made me chuckle.
- That is the flimsiest excuse for getting a character to a place from which they can be kidnapped. Indeed there isn't an excuse. She might as well have said 'I'm just popping off to a deserted location so a nutter can kidnap and drug me. Could you be available to rescue me in, oh, a couple of hours? If you're not too busy.' Fail.
- Having said which, the actual kidnap and subsequent was brilliantly done. Will the blind, dumb, cretins who claim Keeley Hawes can't act please go and take a friggin' eye test? And Dr Death there is just plain creepy, as well as unfathomable. Anyway, all very episode six glass shattering rescue-like. Evidently we're continuing the theme of Gene keeping her in the 80s.
- 'Not unless I'm St Peter, and I find that highly unlikely, don't you?' Are we laying to rest any fears of it being a religious answer to the Bigger Mystery? I do hope so.
- 'You attract nutters. I've noticed that about you.' 'Yeah, so have I.' And so have we - I laughed muchly at this.
- But not as much as I did during the whole scene from 'He shot my car' to Alex going to talk Hales down.
- Hmm. Exactly who was he supposed to be winking at? And Alex has come a long way if she's resorting to punching blokes in the stomach. Possibly too far - not sure about that.
- I believe Chris' strip may be the most cringeworthy thing I've seen - but all credit to Marsh for throwing himself into it. Attractively post-modern indeed. The idea that Gene's already on to SuperMac is rather undermined by his 'If Mac had anything to do with Sean Irvine's death, then everything that I believe in is wrong' comment. Unless he's playing it very, very close to his chest. Or... unless Gene is acting for SuperMac 'cos he's investigating someone else. I mean, if you wanted someone undercover to act as a likely corrupt copper, wouldn't you choose a dinosaur like Gene? Hmm. I think I may be confusing myself now. Maybe Gene's simply just as bent as a bent thing. It's not impossible; he's got form.
- I do believe Alex has just got herself on the 'against me' list as far as SuperMac's concerned. Whoops. And am I hallucinating, or does the photograph to the left of his door look awfully like the ceiling of CID in LoM?
- Talking of for or against lists - 'Are you going to be my partner or my enemy'? Eh? And Diana? Double Eh? With a hefty sprinkling of WTF on top.
- Finally, some great chunes, although the soundtrack album is looking like being more of a 'soundtrack to episode one of series two' rather than the whole of series two ;)