Ashes to Ashes 2.03
May. 6th, 2009 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I'm in Vienna now, attending a conference on Lion Feuchtwanger, which means little time online. It also meant a train journey from Munich though, and thus I could get my weekly AtA review written.
The threat to die in the present day world has been done several times on both shows, so that was the least interesting thing about the episode. What I did find noteworthy is that Alex didn't just talk to the random clean-up women and tv characters she heard voices from about it; she explicitly asked Gene after getting the target list from Robin, "if I save lives, does that mean I'm worth living?", which together with her "why am I here?" question in the season opener and her affirmation that Gene is real last episode shows that Alex, like many a viewer, took last season finale's events to mean that Gene is at the very least something like her guide in past-world.
On the other hand, the show thankfully takes care not to idealize Gene because of this; in this episode we get another illustration of his violent thug side. And of the fact that beating up the suspect really doesn't work; not only does it get the investigation nowhere but Alex is right when she makes a scathing remark connecting this method with MacIntosh's type of bent-ness and police corruption. Speaking of guides - Gene needed Sam and does need Alex as much as they needed him. I also found it interesting that Ray does obey Alex when she orders him to break open the door to the toilet room where Gene is beating up Adrian; given his association with the masons (and thus in this 'verse apparantly with the dark side of the force) last episode, there was some concern Ray could simply be put back to how he was at the start of LoM, but details like this and his scene with Shaz and Chris at the end illustrate that Ray while being easily the most bloke-ish and prattish of the regulars has developed beyond a stereotype and isn't incapable of learning. Doesn't mean he might not end up in a conflict with the rest of them - as I said in my last review, I suspect much of the appeal of that ultimate old boys' club to Ray is that he feels he's lost Gene first to Sam and then to Alex, and is in the process of losing Chris to Shaz - but it's not inevitable.
80s sexism alert: less blatantly than in the 70s but still there - when Gene gives everyone their tasks and ends up telling Shaz to bring the coffee, and the camera makes sure we see her dissappointed look. (I was half expecting this to be a set-up for Shaz to solve the mystery of the week, but no, though she was shown as clever and observant as always.)
Both the psycho analyst and Robin the hunger-striking terrorist share traits with Alex in this episode - the psychoanalytical language and approach in case of the former, and the near-death situation with awareness of past and future the later. I wonder whether the fact Simon senses Alex is in the process of forgetting things and is between worlds is meant just to freak her out in this episode or whether it's meant to have long term implications. I mean, the cloning of animals could just have been a lucky guess on his part (which Alex took as knowledge of the future she comes from), but on the other hand, the show might be saying something general about near-death and dying experiences. Which makes me wonder: does this time-travel gig for the comatose work only one way... or both? Could there be someone from the past who ended up in the present as well?
Lastly: Da Da Da was a song I really hated in the 80s. Most people in my school were really into it (and played it all through seventh grade), and I hated it with a passion. Now it made me feel weirdly nostalgic. The human mind is truly a strange, strange thing.
The threat to die in the present day world has been done several times on both shows, so that was the least interesting thing about the episode. What I did find noteworthy is that Alex didn't just talk to the random clean-up women and tv characters she heard voices from about it; she explicitly asked Gene after getting the target list from Robin, "if I save lives, does that mean I'm worth living?", which together with her "why am I here?" question in the season opener and her affirmation that Gene is real last episode shows that Alex, like many a viewer, took last season finale's events to mean that Gene is at the very least something like her guide in past-world.
On the other hand, the show thankfully takes care not to idealize Gene because of this; in this episode we get another illustration of his violent thug side. And of the fact that beating up the suspect really doesn't work; not only does it get the investigation nowhere but Alex is right when she makes a scathing remark connecting this method with MacIntosh's type of bent-ness and police corruption. Speaking of guides - Gene needed Sam and does need Alex as much as they needed him. I also found it interesting that Ray does obey Alex when she orders him to break open the door to the toilet room where Gene is beating up Adrian; given his association with the masons (and thus in this 'verse apparantly with the dark side of the force) last episode, there was some concern Ray could simply be put back to how he was at the start of LoM, but details like this and his scene with Shaz and Chris at the end illustrate that Ray while being easily the most bloke-ish and prattish of the regulars has developed beyond a stereotype and isn't incapable of learning. Doesn't mean he might not end up in a conflict with the rest of them - as I said in my last review, I suspect much of the appeal of that ultimate old boys' club to Ray is that he feels he's lost Gene first to Sam and then to Alex, and is in the process of losing Chris to Shaz - but it's not inevitable.
80s sexism alert: less blatantly than in the 70s but still there - when Gene gives everyone their tasks and ends up telling Shaz to bring the coffee, and the camera makes sure we see her dissappointed look. (I was half expecting this to be a set-up for Shaz to solve the mystery of the week, but no, though she was shown as clever and observant as always.)
Both the psycho analyst and Robin the hunger-striking terrorist share traits with Alex in this episode - the psychoanalytical language and approach in case of the former, and the near-death situation with awareness of past and future the later. I wonder whether the fact Simon senses Alex is in the process of forgetting things and is between worlds is meant just to freak her out in this episode or whether it's meant to have long term implications. I mean, the cloning of animals could just have been a lucky guess on his part (which Alex took as knowledge of the future she comes from), but on the other hand, the show might be saying something general about near-death and dying experiences. Which makes me wonder: does this time-travel gig for the comatose work only one way... or both? Could there be someone from the past who ended up in the present as well?
Lastly: Da Da Da was a song I really hated in the 80s. Most people in my school were really into it (and played it all through seventh grade), and I hated it with a passion. Now it made me feel weirdly nostalgic. The human mind is truly a strange, strange thing.