more Ashes

May 26, 2010 08:55

On the train to Osnabrück, which means time for more ramblings. I've been thinking about why the finale for Life on Mars upset me so much that I fell out of affection (I was never in love, but I liked the first season very much, and while the second one didn't feel as good by comparison, the affection was still there) with the entire series, whereas the finale for Ashes to Ashes, without being perfect, reaffirmed my love (yes, in this case, love) for show and 'verse.

Basically, as most storytelling does, it comes down to buttons pushed, both good and bad, and also the way stories are told. John Simm's performance as Sam Tyler was undeniably fantastic, but LoM was so much Sam's story (probably in the second season Sam's and Gene's), we were so strictly in Sam's pov, Sam was (nearly, there was that one episode where he got to watch some of the team on tv) in every frame, that if you started to lose affection for the character, which in the second season I did, and also, as opposed to most of the fandom, weren't in love with Gene Hunt, there was a problem even before the show finale. Yes, Annie was consistently endearing, but she also was more and more in the background, and (with the caveat I haven't rewatched LoM, and might misremember after years) Chris and Ray never were developed beyond "the nice one and the thuggish one", Gene's sidekicks. (Otoh, Phyllis, as
kalypso_v pointed out to me, had more of a presence and argumentative scenes than Viv ever did.) Then came the finale, which to me seemed basically to say "Life sucks, so I'll just run off and play in my fantasy world instead, never mind my mother, and we already had an episode to show my ex was in a new relationship, and since of course no woman would ever care for someone after their romance was over, my suicide won't affect her, either". Yes, they tried to play it as affirming the ties of friendship as well, with Sam returning to save Gene & Co., but that didn't work for me; instead, it played out as "why bother working on my life when I can have a perfect fantasy world instead?". IMO, perspective may differ, etc.

Meanwhile, AtA from the get go was more of an ensemble show, which appealed to me. Not because I didn't like Alex - which I did, and do - but because the older I get the more I treasure shows that give more than one or two characters room to breathe, especially since often a show may start as more of an ensemble show and then narrows its focus until everyone is just a Greek chorus for the leading couple. (See also: Farscape season 4.) I got to know Ray and Chris in ways I never did on LoM, not least because Alex' relationship with them was different from Sam's, especially with Ray, and Shaz instead of fading into the background like I remember Annie doing in s2 of LoM instead gained more profile; while the third season was the strongest for developing Shaz, Ray and Chris, both as individuals and into an OT3, it was a development that started in the AtA pilot and went through the first two seasons as well. Instead of reducing the ensemble to commentators on the leads, AtA actually heightened its ensemble nature, a rarety on tv. In the finale, everyone contributed to saving the day externally and internally. The "friends come through for each other" idea worked for me here when it was Chris, Shaz and Ray embracing each other after the shattering return of their death memories, Alex building Gene up again by dragging him into the investigation, Gene telling the trio that he's nothing without them, everyone going to the pub at the end when it didn't with Sam showing up at the tunnel to save the gang and everyone hopping in the Cortina in LoM. If I had to come up with one overall message, it would be:yes, life can be bloody unfair, and you can both screw up and get screwed over, and sometimes a fantasy world helps you work through that. But work through it you must, or your fantasy instead of healing you will fall apart. Which I found infinitely more appealing, humanistic and, ironic given the circumstances, life-affirming.

Now, of course it's possible to read the finale and the show far differently, and/or get much more objectionable messages out of it (for example: not supporting a young man's macho, bigoted fantasy self is of the devil), just as you can love the LoM finale, interpret as, say, choosing emotional truth over grey repression. We all "read" texts, be they books or tv, with our individual filters, needs and rejections, and I might read both shows differently when I embark upon a rewatch. Right now, though, this is how they worked out for me in the end and why.

ashes to ashes, meta, life on mars

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