Ashes to Ashes - The sequel to the hit UK series Life on Mars premiered Saturday, March 7 at PM ET/PT on BBC AMERICA. Starring Philip Glenister as DCI Gene Hunt and Keeley Hawes as DI Alex Drake. For more info, visit http://www.bbcamerica.com/ashestoashes
Have you watched BBC America's Ashes to Ashes yet? It is, as explained under the video above, the sequel to a hit UK series, Life On Mars. "Life" did not fare so well here in the States and has now ended but "Ashes" does pick up a number of plot pieces, most importantly the popular character DCI Gene Hunt, played by Philip Glenister. Keeley Hawes is the eye candy mixed with intelligence and angst and though Hunt is a curmudgeon, DI Alex Drake is the most somber having been shot in the year 2008 and instead of dying (we think) she is in some alternative reality world set in 1981.
This is where the show, which is quite funny-vulgar, takes on a "tailored just for me" feel as I was just-turned 21 years-old in '81 so "Ashes," which is accurately described by the LATimes as a "polarized backdrop of anarchists and yuppies, with florid New Romantics in between...(with) shout-outs to Pong and the neutron bomb, along with a soundtrack dominated by jittery post-punk and synth-pop" offers up some welcome "remember whens."
Ashes to Ashes has a familiar resonance for both me and my spouse and we many times are unaware that we are humming along to the many tunes we recognize. 1981 was not the best time in the world of fashion tho' and so I'm fervently hoping that DI Drake is allowed to shed some of the hideous off-shoulder get-ups that she seems to live in. I think getting her out of the really bad perm is going to be more of a challenge, poor thing.
My son tells me that it is quite common for UK series to be so small in number per season as generally the shows are written by far fewer writers than their American counterparts. I think that is a clever was of scripting a series as I've found that the more bloated with writers a series is,the more uneven the quality is and sometimes characters that you thought you knew act completely "wrong" and I do think that's is due to sloppy continuity.
The 8-episode first season of Ashes to Ashes has just concluded, moving the plot forward quite satisfyingly. Happily, the second season picks up on May 2 without skipping a week, so it will seem a bit more like a traditional American broadcast television schedule.
Comments