Ashes to Ashes 2:4
Fair warning; as I start this I'm more than a bit disappointed by this episode. By the time I get to the end, I hope I won't be, but if you're looking for 100% squee, well I don't think it's going to happen.
- May I start with smugness and remind the multitude of my 'Fire up the Combine Harvester' comment last week? Tee hee.
- It's a funny opening scene, but it plays on the hopes and dreams of the 'Galex' obsessed so obviously it 's a wee bit contrived. And maybe a tiny bit patronising too. Good writing is all about pulling the viewer's strings, but I'd argue it's also about doing it so the viewer isn't so conscious of the tugging - I felt like my leg was going to be pulled right off at many points during this episode.
- Shaz's 'Watch your face, baby!' did make me laugh.
- Now when did Gene change his stance from 'Mac's bent, he's not a murderer' last episode to 'Mac's already killed one of his own foot soldiers'? Are we to presume the transfer to Plymouth has made him realise just what Mac's capable of...?
- Yes, Gene and Alex fast asleep in his office was sweet; the the resulting embarrassment of being found there was funny. I have absolutely no complaints about the level of comedy; there was lots and it was good.
- Right, my first problem - yes, I can imagine Jackie Queen pretending the baby was Gene's to wind him up and embarrass him, but when she needed his help to find her niece? Why should I care about said niece if her own aunt is taking it so lightly that she has time for a side show of Lion Baiting? I'm fairly sure that's why I never got any feelings of empathy, concern or even peril over the central crime-of-the-week. And as that was part of the whole corruption thread, I found that seemed to suck the concern, peril and imminent danger out of that too.
- Was it me, or was a complete stranger managing to put a rose in Alex's pocket strangely unscary? Dr Death started out really strongly in episode one - seriously scary and threatening - but now? He hasn't done anything. I feel a horrible case of 'Dr Death? Meh' come over me.
- 'Right, get yourself back up to Liverpool and have a lovely life stealing hubcaps and being over-sentimental' - apologies to any Scousers, but the Mancunian digs at Liverpudlians were long overdue, and funny.
- Again, I couldn't find myself getting even remotely involved at the threatening of the photographer bloke with the cocktail of chemicals and I don't know why.
- Is 'Told you. Nasty eyes' the correct response for anxious aunt on finding out about dodgy past of man likely to be connected to her niece's whereabouts? The funny lines keep buggering up the tone of the story.
- John Bowe oused nasty greasiness as Jarvis I thought, but he really wasn't given much to do.
- Sorry, but I don't buy Supermac losing it to such an extent he'd yell right across CID about the arrest of Jarvis, or make the mugging clear-up rate thing so bloody obvious. Where's that subtly nasty villain gone? Okay, so it's all getting a bit too close for comfort for him, but Gene spends the whole episode reminding us Mac's not stupid and I don't buy it.
- Anyone notice anything about the names of the officers who's bank statements Gene's acquired? Willis, Crawford, Ferguson and Collins. I draw your attention to the credits - Beth Willis, producer; Anna Ferguson, script executive; Simon Crawford Collins, executive producer. Obviously AP thinks they're earning too much... ;)
- 'Where's the father of my child?' and 'Are you shagging my future husband?' Okay, what...? The former, she knows is not the case; the latter - well he hasn't even asked her yet. However, Alex popping up like that was beautifully done - and they did look guilty.
- Oh look, a sop to the Martians - Sam Tyler, the best. Sigh. Just as unsubtle as the 'Galex' stuff, and equally patronising, imo. I expect I'll go and look at the episode discussions and find they all loved it.
- Shaz is not the most convincing undercover operative I've ever seen; have we been over-estimating her intelligence? Or can't AP write her very well? Discuss.
- "Quick word about police brutality - lots of it'. Nice.
- 'Is this a private conversation or can anyone join in?' - see, I think the potential for Ray being jealous of Alex and Gene has been seriously neglected.
- Speaking as someone in Cornwall, and thus with much the same feeling about Devon as a Manc has about Scousers, 'Five Famous people from Devon' made me chuckle.
- 'Don't do it, Guv'/'We could have a double wedding'/'It's like watching a car crash in slow motion' - reactions that all fit their characters. See? They can write in character sometimes... Keeley's reactions (amused, upset, a bit drunk) are just brilliantly pitched; love 'em.
- 'Thanks for finding my niece, Gene - allow me to humiliate you in front of everyone.' Yeah, nice. Classy. NO! Funny, but ridiculous. Fail.
- I am willing to overlook the unlikeliness of Alex letting Jackie kip on her sofa, 'cos the set up was nice and worked well. It did highlight how Alex really doesn't have any female friend she can talk to. And I could have overlooked the Martian sop of talking about Sam and Annie, if they hadn't gone overboard with 'the most loved man I ever met' stuff. Still strikes me as downright patronising, but hey...
- That really is the most extraordinary bed they've given Alex this series. Sorry, I just felt compelled to say that.
- Surely either Gene was so angry about the dead girl he'd have been focused on that, or else he'd have noted the bed/embrace/potential smutty comment opportunity and taken it. That was sort of neither one thing nor the other and felt... odd. Again with the odd vibes to certain scenes; they're doing me 'ead in. And was Kudos strapped for cash at that point in filming or what? 'Cos that was a montage of Quattro footage from series one and jarred terribly.
- Gene remembering it was 'Debbie' was telling, but otherwise again I got no real emotion going on there. I think I was actually looking at the clock at that point. And in the confrontation with Mac in the Gents, again it was 'meh'. Now I don't believe PG suddenly decided to go through the motions just on this episode, so I'm thinking we've got a director issue again.
- 'Drake. Hanging round men's toilets? You'll get a reputation' - oh why, oh why, oh why didn't they have a stand up set-to between Mac and Alex? It would have been brill.
- Sigh. You wouldn't think there'd ever been that Masonic-based episode really, would you? I was thinking Ray could have a really good case of divided loyalties, and he didn't even so much as mention it. Yet another wasted opportunity. I could cry.
- WTF? Alex is arrested and we get everybody's reaction apart from Gene's. What on earth were they thinking? He didn't tell her originally because he was trying to protect her, and now his fear has been realised... And it goes on while they're searching her flat too - where's the spark? Big helpings of manufactured comedy 'Galex' and the real thing is conspicuous by its absence. I go upstairs; shoot myself.
- 'Isn't this when you engage in some magnificent piece of physical intimidation?' Okay, now if that wasn't asking for a witty comeback, what was? head/desk
- Ray asking about the telly didn't sound like a man with doubts, but like a man who spends too much time with Chris. But that's all right; I've resigned myself to Ray having no consistency in his character now.
- 'Scuse me - why, if Jarvis has wotshername, does he want her to ring JQ? I don't get that. And another monumental lack of reaction from Gene as Alex is escorted out of CID.
- Roland Rat. Sigh. Am fed up with all these kiddie's telly characters now. Sorry, but it's unimaginative.
- The cloud of cigarette smoke coming out of the Quattro was amusing. And look, that transfer to Plymouth must be taking time - it's autumn already!
- You just know that JQ left in the car was going to either wander into trouble or trouble would find her, didn't you? It's a telly convention.
- Never mind about Gene having a perv at Alex - I rather enjoyed Raymondo's athletic prowess... And frankly I would have expected slightly more of a reaction from Gene, given that she was over the fence at that point and wouldn't have known anyway. I mean he's human, innee? Well, currently. We assume.
- First good use of music all this series - Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag stopping abruptly as Gene punches out the glass. And Scooby Doo again - AP should really stop reading the forums.
- He shot a dog. Oh, there'll be letters...
- The idea of a picture being worth a thousand words taken to the max. I like it. But on the other hand Mac knew they knew about that house - surely he'd have made a bit of effort to remove any connection to himself? Remember, as Gene keeps pointing out, he's not stupid.
- Scarf. LoM. I groaned. I tried not to, but it escaped unbidden.
- 'Uncle Deano will take care of you' and cut to Ray. Ho de ho. And 'Armed bastards' - yay! Never let it be said a popular catch phrase was allowed to go unmilked.
- I suppose, on the third viewing, the confrontation with Mac works better than I felt it did on the first two. Having said which, from the first I thought Roger Allam did the reaction to the news of the scarf's discovery brilliantly - an involuntary nervous lick of the lips then rallying again. I dunno, I suppose I can't help thinking that with three actors at the top of their game that scene should have really grabbed me, and it simply didn't.
- Not 100% convinced by wotshername changing her mind, but did manage to actually feel a bit of 'Oh shit, no' when she did it, which was good.
- Supermac deserved better than that end. I haven't watched any of LoM for months and months, but I was inclined to mutter Harry Woolfe. I didn't want to be muttering that; I wanted to have my jaw on the floor and going 'What the...?' I'm really rather disappointed about it, but unfortunately not surprised. Regrettably, that meant I also wasn't going 'Ooo, ahh' about 'Operation Rose is coming'. Instead I was trying to remember what that tedious Doctor Who thing was. Bad Wolf? I think it's the Rose Tyler thing buggering everything up. What real Whovians confusion must be, I dread to think.
- Think I neglected to mention on here that big chunks of Supermac's speech in episode one could have been written for Gene, and now here he is echoing it. Love Chris' glance at Ray about not taking one single bent penny.
- I will readily admit to the fact that, shortly before broadcast, I alluded to the floated idea of JQ making some comment to Alex about whether there was something going on between Alex and Gene as 'cheesy'. It was - a bit. But it was okay. Maybe I've upped my cheddar intake without realising...
- Sigh. Final scene in Luigi's didn't grab me either - felt a bit flat all round, including Mr Interflora's interruption. Someone point out what I'm missing. And they didn't use 'Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime' well. But then that's pretty much gone for all the music this series.