Looking forward to the last episode on Thursday, but I am wondering if Alex will get home since there was a mention in a national newspaper a few days ago of a possible second series. I'm currently listening to the shows soundtrack CD and it's bringing back memories of my youth!
Just in time for the finale tonight, the BBC have announced they're picked up the show for another series.
Well, that was actually a far more satisfying conclusion to the first series than I expected. But again they're playing up the mystery angle, so theres more questions again.
I really enjoyed the episode. Spoiler: The clown I had guessed that the dad was the clown and that the clown represented death. I didn't suspect that the dad tried to kill them though. I thought it would be Evan. So Layton was on the phone with Evan in 2008? Is Gene supposed to be God? That doesn't fit with Gene's police brutality in last weeks episode though. Is alex dead? Is that why she's Shaz' Guardian angel?
^I thought it was going to be Evan too, so I was surprised that it was her dad. The way it turned out it was Gene holding her hand, and how he doesn't even bat an eye when he's told he's not real, and when he said something along the lines of "There's more you need to learn", makes me think that he knows more than it seems. But I suppose there's always the fact that it's in her mind, so things will happen as she wants them to, rather than how they really are.
Yes it got all spooky and mystical at the end. The Gene Genie is always there when you need him. In a way it was a bit disappointing since it's the first time he has explicitly suggested that he knows he's not real.
And as with the S1 finale of Life On Mars, we get no clue as to the truth of the main character's "time travel or dream?" situation. I can't say I'm disappointed, as this is what I figured would happen. And will S2 of Ashes To Ashes have the same shite resolution as Life On Mars did, or will we get a good metaphysical mind-blower? I think I can guess. But I hope I'm wrong.
It ended the same way that LoM S1 ended, which is nice. A fundamental truth is revealed and the "past" is unchangeable. The thing is, S2 of LoM turned into the mystery show completely, with him wrapping up parts of his "present" in order to fully embrace his imaginary 70s world. Without her parents, it's just Molly I suppose... and you have Chaz standing in as surrogate daughter. This weird Hunt as father figure/lover is just so Freudian it's weird. Also, there is the question of whether or not this was a fundamental truth or just a construction of her mind. In Sam's case, he was able to save Annie - who his father stabbed or shot - in this case, I dunno... she constructs Hunt and makes him part of her past.
We know it's a dream. We knew since day one. The only way it isn't is if the entire premise of the universe is a sham and, like I suggested, this was all Gene Hunt's day dream. The struggle is, and I imagine will be, to get back to her daughter.
I just wish it wasn't a dream. If that's all it is, then the insight that it was Alex's dad who did the deed is no insight at all, as it's just a dream construct.
Or, it's learning a fundamental truth. Sam's father was a douchebag, Alex's father was crazy. It just depends on how you want to read it, I guess.
^ isnt trying to understand this series, like understanding the female mind? near impossible? it is very odd, on one hand the whole thing is a total dream, and Alex has added him to her past, or Gene Hunt is real all along, and she only realises it at the end, the Gene Hunt is real thing would be an easier sell if Life on Mars hadn't had happened. as to her dad, im not too surprised he always seemed dominated by his wife, and on TV, that normally ends in him killing the wife, im guessing it was a repressed memory she was remembering when she saw her dad do that.
I don't think so. Young Alex saw her mother and Evan having an affair while on the staircase. She would have seen how weird her father behaved. As a psychologist, on some unconscious level, she must have wondered if her father was the cause of the car blowing up. This dream or construct is alex's mind putting all of the pieces together. What does gene play in it, is the real question. The father/lover aspect of Gene is definitely creepy and freudian, but then so is Evan.
Agreed on all counts. I think Gene is now the real mystery, is he real? As in a guardian angel, or is/was he a real person who Sam and Alex both encountered at some point? I hope they have something like that in mind, and make it something more interesting than she wakes up and it was all just a dream.
Bob, one interesting theory I read somewhere, suggested that "Gene" were different real people to Sam and Alex during their lives. But the mind has made them one person.
Well, Alex has Gene because of Sam's report... and since he found the dream so vivid, he probably described everything in detail. As for why Sam created Gene, I suppose he imagined a 70s cop to be racist, sexist and pig headed.
I'm sure I remember a moment in Life on Mars when Gene told Sam he was there because he wanted him and he wouldn't leave until he was done with him. On the whole a nice finale, even if it was just a retread of S1 of LOM (father as killer etc) I hadn't guessed about the clown. Happy to se it come back, but I worry that the second series will be as rudderless as S2 of LOM was. Loved Gene's speach to Lord Scarman, loved Chris in the cells and anyone else think Raymondo might be somewhat repressed?!