Ashes to Ashes 3.1
I was of two minds about this episode, partly because of some so-so reviews I'd read beforehand (I am weak and easily led, I confess). Mostly, I enjoyed it, although I liked the bits the reviews didn't like, and didn't like the bits the reviews did like (I am also contrary).
Firstly, the let's get the not so good out of the way:
1. Gene. Oh dear. Did anyone else think that Gene was a little, erm, unbearable this episode? Until the end, that is. At the end comes the Good Bits, but until then he is bullish going forward with his S1/2 interpretation, and ignoring the fact that everyone else has moved on. It makes me wonder if he can't...
2. The kidnapping. There were some good bits, and it was fine as a plot, but it feltrather formulaic. Alex has settled into her role, and the other characters got a chance to do stuff, but it felt like they needed a paint-by-numbers plot in order to not confuse us too much with all the other stuff (Alex's return and the new DCI). Which is a shame, as the episode felt a bit uneven in that respect. That said, I liked certain aspects of it.
But then there is the good, which vastly outweighs it:
1. I like Alex's new look. Maybe it's shallow to start with that, but her unprofessional look throughout S1 made me struggle to take her seriously as a DI, and I was pleased when it was toned down in S2. In this episode she looks smart enough for the office - an 80s office, but an office nonetheless - which helped with my suspension of disbelief.
2. Shaz and Chris. I do ship them, so their break-up is a little upsetting, but overall I was really impressed with Chris's progression (ZOMG she has him reading Doris Lessing!!) and also with Shaz's growing maturity. By the end of the episode she was clearly frustrated with Gene's "cuppa tea, fifteen sugars" shtick, and I was delighted to have her do some surveillance. She's matured as a woman and as a copper, and it was pleasing to see her progress. Also pleasing to see her interact so positively with Drake - their friendship, weak though it may be, is a major highlight for me. Also, they don't tend to discuss the men around them, but rather the case or their careers, or Alex's life... which basically means that any episode where they have a meaty scene gets Ashes a Bechdel pass. Good, no?
3. Asbestos! It's a little thing, but it made me smile to have something so of-the-era incorporated.
4. The music: also of-the-era, the music was starting to cross over into things I'd actually heard as a child (a few years later, to give them time to get across the Iron Curtain), rather than the Adam Ant music, which I confess I had never actually heard before.
5. Ray! Ray as DI! Ray messing it up a little, but otherwise doing ok, and being reasonably good at holding the team together! Ray dressing like a maths teacher! I think this season should have Ray finding out he is gay. I don't think that this should lead to anything, but I am firmly convinced that he is in the closet, and I'd like to see him figure this out. I was very amused at Chris's "three little words", and delighted that Ray got them in the end.
6. Gene and the new DCI (Jim? I missed his name) and there being something not quite right... The new DCI strikes me as someone/something outside of the narrative, as does Gene, in a way. So you have two aspects outside of the narrative but busy driving it forward, and then you have Alex, who is also outside (at this point, but maybe not in the present?) but is dragged into it against her will. And everyone ese is part of the patchwork. It feels a bit like Gene is outside all the narratives, (and maybe so is this DCI), whereas Alex has simply been moved back a few decades, like a characters plucked from the middle of the book and dropped in the beginning, like a loose leaf. If that made any sense...
Gene feels more and more like an extro-textual character, I guess. He's not part of the storyline, he just occasionally interacts with it. Kinda reminds me of the Endless, in a way. Also - Gene can't leave? Oooh, that's lovely. If he's stuck in that space, whatever it is, is he the one bringing people to him, as lots of people have speculated?
7.. SPOILER FOR NEXT EPISODE - PREVIEW!!
OK, that's enough spoiler space. SAM!!! SQUEEEE!!!!!!!!!! we were promised that S3 would finally tied the two series together, and it looks like this might be happening. I like the Sam tie-in, I like the allusion to it by the new DCI (and to what happened three years ago, when Alex arrived), and I like the implication that Gene is actually directly responsible for it, and that we might find out more about that.
I also really, REALLY, liked the teaser for Shaz. I have no idea what's leading to it (maybe the girl she unearths is a friend of hers and she's going undercover, maybe she's being blackmailed, maybe she just wants to get out), but I thought that her character needed a bit of shaking up as she could turn out even more awesome. We got a bit of that in S2, especially with the revelations about Chris, but ultimately I would love a Shaz-centric episode where she can grow outside of the side-effects of other people's trauma, and as her own character.
So roll on next week!