Ashes to Ashes 3.05
May. 2nd, 2010 07:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which there are duets and fallouts of sorts.
Seriously, the Shaz-Ray duet was the highlight of the episode for me. First of all, one thing the producers have been consistently good about in both shows is the way they use music. This time, it's Danny Boy, which of course even a foreigner like me knows, but you know, I never paid much attention to the lyrics? So when Shaz and Ray were singing this passage and we could hear them very clearly indeed:
If I am dead, as dead I well may be
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.
I got the chills. (Also: more "they're dead, the lot of them" theory confirmation.) The other reason why I loved the duet and the before and after is that while Ashes to Ashes has well established that Ray in the past resented Shaz to some degree for taking some of Chris' time and attention (as he initiallly resented Alex for becoming Gene's new favourite), we didn't get to see how they felt about each other independently from the Chris factor. So Shaz' overture of friendship, the duet itself and the aftermath in which Ray confesses to being "a bit" lonely were lovely to see. And of course, points for the show to not let Ray regress, which is what I feared at the start of the episode, but no, despite his susceptability to trying to impress other manly men by joining the Neanderthal club, he's first and foremost a copper, notices when his "heroes" are doing someting wrong and acts on it. Yay Ray! (Also, I wonder whether there'll be follow-up on this in regards to Gene shooting Bevin at the end because they did cut to Ray's face there. More about Gene's action later.)
My theory as to why Shaz, Ray and Alex saw stars, but Chris hasn't yet (and didn't get a musical LoM moment, either): because the former three have resolved whatever traumas brought them to cop limbo and could, if Gene let them, move on now (Alex the truth about her parents, Shaz presumably the stabbing-by-killer, Ray the fire and the sense of not being able to fulfill paternal expectations), but Chris hasn't.
Also great to see: Alex and Shaz simply walking in and making the arrest while the guys were busy still posturing and out macho-ing each other outside. Mind you: if bringing in two even more thuggish cops from Manchester was supposed to make Gene look better, it didn't. (Incidentally, given his old pal in LoM and Supermac, is there any former collegue of his who hasn't been revealed as corrupt?) It did, however, underline one of Gene's self delusions, because - so you object to a policeman kicking people to death, Gene, really? This couldn't possibly be exactly what you do and what you teach your staff to do, and then it's "justice"? (Which is what he called it only last episode when Chris did it.) By now, I'm starting to have a faint hope that the show is actually starting to be deliberately critical of Gene because his physical intimidation routine in this episode with Hardwick was utterly pointless and didn't get them anywhere, it just underlined his resemblance to the visitors.
Lytton (spelling?) and Bevins bringing more hints of cover-ups in the ongoing "Whatever happened to Sam Tyler?" mystery was okay, but what I found fascinating was Bevins' death, because he was the first dying copper whom Gene not only did not embrace and give comforting words while he was dying but actively did the opposite. So what happens to dying police folks when Gene Hunt refuses to do his transition helping thing and tells them something ominous instead? Apparantly nothing pleasant, going by Bevins' dying screaming. Gene shooting Bevins at all was just barely ambiguous enough to keep Gene in the heroic department - Bevins did make a move as if reaching for a second weapon - but it still looked like an execution more than anything else. Mind you: if I'm right and everyone is dead anyway (and Sam figured this out and moved on, which is what Gene had to cover up and can't tell Alex because otherwise she could leave as well), he did not kill Bevins any more than Martin Summers did really kill his younger self by shooting him - but given Gene's role in cop limbo, I think what he did do is sent him to a spectacularly worse place.
"Sometimes you have to make a leap of faith." Gene's demands of unconditional faith wouldn't grate so much if I wasn't mostly sure that the show itself shares the view that unconditional faith in Gene is a good thing, although, as mentioned above, I'm starting to have the faint hope it does at least qualify that with deliberately presenting a Gene who lost his way and needs to be confronted with some distrust as a result. Given that Alex knows what happened to Sam Tyler in "her" world, though not in Gene's, the phrasing "leap of faith" is extremely unfortunate - for Gene. It certainly helps, along with his other actions this episode, to make Alex decide to step out of the room for a conversation with Jim Keats at the end.
To conclude on a fun note: that opening sequence of Alex dreaming up a Sam Tyler leather jacket advertisement was another bit of inspired lunacy, like the Uptown Girl segment a few episodes back, and a clever way to let John Simm reappear without actually being able to get him back. Alex, you have a twisted mind, woman. I approve.
Seriously, the Shaz-Ray duet was the highlight of the episode for me. First of all, one thing the producers have been consistently good about in both shows is the way they use music. This time, it's Danny Boy, which of course even a foreigner like me knows, but you know, I never paid much attention to the lyrics? So when Shaz and Ray were singing this passage and we could hear them very clearly indeed:
If I am dead, as dead I well may be
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.
I got the chills. (Also: more "they're dead, the lot of them" theory confirmation.) The other reason why I loved the duet and the before and after is that while Ashes to Ashes has well established that Ray in the past resented Shaz to some degree for taking some of Chris' time and attention (as he initiallly resented Alex for becoming Gene's new favourite), we didn't get to see how they felt about each other independently from the Chris factor. So Shaz' overture of friendship, the duet itself and the aftermath in which Ray confesses to being "a bit" lonely were lovely to see. And of course, points for the show to not let Ray regress, which is what I feared at the start of the episode, but no, despite his susceptability to trying to impress other manly men by joining the Neanderthal club, he's first and foremost a copper, notices when his "heroes" are doing someting wrong and acts on it. Yay Ray! (Also, I wonder whether there'll be follow-up on this in regards to Gene shooting Bevin at the end because they did cut to Ray's face there. More about Gene's action later.)
My theory as to why Shaz, Ray and Alex saw stars, but Chris hasn't yet (and didn't get a musical LoM moment, either): because the former three have resolved whatever traumas brought them to cop limbo and could, if Gene let them, move on now (Alex the truth about her parents, Shaz presumably the stabbing-by-killer, Ray the fire and the sense of not being able to fulfill paternal expectations), but Chris hasn't.
Also great to see: Alex and Shaz simply walking in and making the arrest while the guys were busy still posturing and out macho-ing each other outside. Mind you: if bringing in two even more thuggish cops from Manchester was supposed to make Gene look better, it didn't. (Incidentally, given his old pal in LoM and Supermac, is there any former collegue of his who hasn't been revealed as corrupt?) It did, however, underline one of Gene's self delusions, because - so you object to a policeman kicking people to death, Gene, really? This couldn't possibly be exactly what you do and what you teach your staff to do, and then it's "justice"? (Which is what he called it only last episode when Chris did it.) By now, I'm starting to have a faint hope that the show is actually starting to be deliberately critical of Gene because his physical intimidation routine in this episode with Hardwick was utterly pointless and didn't get them anywhere, it just underlined his resemblance to the visitors.
Lytton (spelling?) and Bevins bringing more hints of cover-ups in the ongoing "Whatever happened to Sam Tyler?" mystery was okay, but what I found fascinating was Bevins' death, because he was the first dying copper whom Gene not only did not embrace and give comforting words while he was dying but actively did the opposite. So what happens to dying police folks when Gene Hunt refuses to do his transition helping thing and tells them something ominous instead? Apparantly nothing pleasant, going by Bevins' dying screaming. Gene shooting Bevins at all was just barely ambiguous enough to keep Gene in the heroic department - Bevins did make a move as if reaching for a second weapon - but it still looked like an execution more than anything else. Mind you: if I'm right and everyone is dead anyway (and Sam figured this out and moved on, which is what Gene had to cover up and can't tell Alex because otherwise she could leave as well), he did not kill Bevins any more than Martin Summers did really kill his younger self by shooting him - but given Gene's role in cop limbo, I think what he did do is sent him to a spectacularly worse place.
"Sometimes you have to make a leap of faith." Gene's demands of unconditional faith wouldn't grate so much if I wasn't mostly sure that the show itself shares the view that unconditional faith in Gene is a good thing, although, as mentioned above, I'm starting to have the faint hope it does at least qualify that with deliberately presenting a Gene who lost his way and needs to be confronted with some distrust as a result. Given that Alex knows what happened to Sam Tyler in "her" world, though not in Gene's, the phrasing "leap of faith" is extremely unfortunate - for Gene. It certainly helps, along with his other actions this episode, to make Alex decide to step out of the room for a conversation with Jim Keats at the end.
To conclude on a fun note: that opening sequence of Alex dreaming up a Sam Tyler leather jacket advertisement was another bit of inspired lunacy, like the Uptown Girl segment a few episodes back, and a clever way to let John Simm reappear without actually being able to get him back. Alex, you have a twisted mind, woman. I approve.
