coalescent | Ashes to Ashes (Reply)

On balance, I think they made it work. The end credits were a nice touch.

The early eighties just aren't as iconic as the seventies, are they? And they have a worse soundtrack. It's weird, in a way -- I'd expected to get more of the references, but in fact I got fewer. What was the clown all about?

So there's no suggestion that Alex is actually back in time -- but there is a suggestion that the Gene-verse might have some independent existence. Evidence: they included scenes from other characters' points of view, which (correct me if I'm wrong) they were very careful never to do on Life on Mars.

The fact that Ray told Alex Sam came back is possible evidence, since if the whole thing is a death-dream it makes sense that her subconscious would give her a way of believing she can live for many years yet.

I'm not sure why she was so quick to believe that arresting one guy would get the job done, what with the way he'd been banging on about "the truth about what happened to [your] parents" in the present.

Gene Hunt drinking wine! Truly the end times are upon us. Actually, I liked what they did with Gene, making it clear that he's a dinosaur on the way out; this time, he's almost the outsider the way Sam was before. And it helps make the inevitable romance easier to swallow, if he starts showing signs of self-awareness ...

I also like Alex, at least in principle -- smart, analytical, etc. I think it will take a couple of episodes to see whether she actually matches up to the billing. I'm also wondering where they're going to go with her, as a character; at first I assumed it would be analogous to Sam's journey (the modern world forced Sam to deny his masculinity vs the modern world forced Alex to deny her femininity), but she actually seemed to be much more comfortable in her own skin than Sam was (having rewatched the pilot of LoM quite recently). So now I'm not sure, unless they're going to go with a denial angle. Which they could, I suppose.

In other news, I've seen last week's Torchwood ("To the Last Man"). It's really not getting any better, is it?

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