Ashes To Ashes Revisited
May. 15th, 2010 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI loved Life on Mars, but abandoned Ashes to Ashes after the first season. It wasn't that it was particularly bad, just that it wasn't as good as the original- and added nothing to it. Last night I watched the penultimate episode of the third and final season- largely because Radio Times gave it such a glowing write up. All I can say is that if this was "the best ever" I haven't been missing much.
I'll probably watch next week if only because we're promised the truth about Sam Tyler. Ah, Sam Tyler. They really shouldn't have brought that up- because it only serves to remind us why the sequel is inferior.
Philip Glenister as Gene Hunt gets all the attention, but he was half of a double act- and it was John Simm- a better actor in a less showy role- who anchored the earlier show in emotional truth. If we cared about Hunt it was because Tyler cared about Hunt. Released into the wild without his minder, Hunt is much diminished- coarser- cartoony- a Falstaff without his Hal - and everything that happens around him is coarser too.
I'll probably watch next week if only because we're promised the truth about Sam Tyler. Ah, Sam Tyler. They really shouldn't have brought that up- because it only serves to remind us why the sequel is inferior.
Philip Glenister as Gene Hunt gets all the attention, but he was half of a double act- and it was John Simm- a better actor in a less showy role- who anchored the earlier show in emotional truth. If we cared about Hunt it was because Tyler cared about Hunt. Released into the wild without his minder, Hunt is much diminished- coarser- cartoony- a Falstaff without his Hal - and everything that happens around him is coarser too.
