And Gene Hunt Is Still Weirdly Attractive.
Oh, Ashes to Ashes! I loved the opening, then spent quite a lot of the middle trying to remember why I'd been so excited about its return, and then the ending came along and it was awesome and I remembered.
The problem with Ashes to Ashes is that I watch it primarily for the weird psychological time-travel descent-into-madness aspect, and so I become frustrated when it also wants to be a cop show. I was a bit disappointed when Alex returned to the eighties within the first ten minutes, because I was sort of hoping for an entire episode of her breaking down in the present day. My favourite cases are the ones that are directly linked to the main character's condition, such as in the sixth episode of Life on Mars, when Sam becomes convinced that if he saves the hostages he can save his own life.
I should really rewatch Life on Mars at some point.
At the ending, when Jim was saying 'they'll hate me for revealing the truth about you, because they love you', did anyone else have the very strong impression that he was talking about us, about the viewers? Because that's what I heard, and I thought that was awesome. The fourth wall is crumbling slightly at the edges, which rather suits Ashes to Ashes, I feel.
If he is talking about us, though, I hope he's wrong, because I really don't want to hate Gene.
(On the subject of flimsy fourth walls: I was less impressed by his earlier 'The chemistry between you two, it's undeniable'. No, Jim, I shall decide whether Gene and Alex have chemistry. You don't get to tell the audience that they have chemistry. But perhaps we were supposed to react against that? I never know what to believe in this series.
I do think Gene and Alex have chemistry, incidentally, or at least I did in the second series and the latter half of the first; it didn't really strike me last night, but I may well be shouting 'JUST SHAG, YOU TWO' at the screen again before long. If you genuinely feel the need to have a character point out that two other characters have chemistry, though, writers, you're probably not terribly confident in your ability to portray actual chemistry.)
I'm definitely getting the impression that Gene might have had something to do with Sam's death. That could be really interesting. Obviously he'd never have deliberately had a hand in it. Would - would he?
I still desperately hope that Sam will show up. Somehow. SOMEHOW. Even if he doesn't physically appear, it seems that he'll have a role to play in this series. I'm looking forward to finding out more about his fate.
Whilst I'm hoping: I hope Annie hasn't been entirely forgotten about. If Sam is going to have significance in this series, she should as well.
At the moment, I don't like Jim at all, which could be a bit of a problem; villains are more fun when you don't actively resent their onscreen presence. Still, the series is young; perhaps he'll become a more interesting character.
This is the final series, isn't it? I am so interested in seeing how Ashes to Ashes ends.