So That's What It Was All About

[poliphilo]

If you care about spoilers and haven't yet seen the final episode of Ashes to Ashes, hurry on by.

I suppose the series title was always a socking great clue. It's not just a hip Bowie reference, it's telling us that this is a show about death and dead people. I don't withdraw my opinion that Life on Mars was all we needed-  but I do think the final reveal is satisfying and ingenious; I just wish it had come three seasons earlier. So the Gene Genie is running a school for dead coppers in the afterlife- from which they will eventually graduate to either heaven or hell. Yes, I can buy that.

It's a lot better than the conclusion to the US adaption in which the characters turned out to be- *slaps face*-  actually on Mars.

There are things that don't quite make sense.  Probably lots of them if one were to go over the surface with a magnifying glass. For instance, if Gene Hunt was killed on Coronation Day in 1954, how come the virtual reality he has created around himself replicates a future he never knew? Do they watch the Sweeney in Limbo? And another is, however I juggle it, I can't quite make Sam Tyler's suicide fit the scheme.  I'm guessing that was a fudge, caused by Simm's decision to quit the show before the pips began to squeak.  His fault.  Boo to him. Only he made the right call, didn't he?

Comments

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I hadn't understoood that A to A was a sequel. On the whole, I think that I'm quite glad that I missed it
LoM began to jar on me towards the end - I stopped being interested in what was "really" happening

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Two seasons of Life on Mars was about right, I think. But I know what you mean, it becomes wearisome to be teased by a show for year after year. That's the main reason I decided not to watch Lost.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Here's my take.

Gene didn't create the reality - Sam and Alex did. Sam created a 1970s world based on being a cop in the Manchester he knew as a young lad, and also, in the first ep of the second series, there is a TV showing "The Sweeney", which made me think he was creating a reality, in which his mother was young and beautiful and his dad still a hero to him, and Gene a "father figure."

As for Alex, a young woman, its entirely possibly she was creating that 80s reality based on her own childhood, and wanting to be a cop in an era where you could wear pixie boots to work and go clubbing at the Blitz. The characters of Gene, Ray, and Chris were there to help guide them, but the realites were made by those who joined them.

I think I'm overthinking this.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think you could be right.

I like the idea, anyway, because it removes the stumbling block- and I'd like to think the show's creators had properly thought things through.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

It also would answer why Tyler committed suicide. My take is that after having "lived" (whilst comatose, and therefore on the periphery of life and death) in a world where people seemed to have feelings and express them, and with a boss who looked after his own, and where police work meant being on the beat, returning to the 00s vacuum packed world was too much - so he killed himself in the real world, but couldn't accept that this meant he would eventually have to leave his chosen one.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

That's the conclusion I'd reached. While Sam was hovering between life and death, he found a life that, while flawed, needed him, which the present day reality didn't. (Especially as due to his injuries, he'd be on light duties, pushing paper around and filling out ever increasing numbers of forms). He never settled back into his real life and longed for the older, simpler dream.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Also, he had no-one to back for. Unlike Alex, a divorcee with a child, Sam was single with a broken relationship behind him.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was discussing this with Ailz- and she said people who have had near death experiences are routinely put on suicide watch, because it's common for them to want to get back to wherever it is they've been.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

That makes a lot of sense!

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I'd given up on Ashes. Just didn't impel me the way Mars did.

That ending makes me want to go back and watch the series now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Me too. I want to give the opening episodes of Mars another spin- to see if there are clues there that I missed.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

One massive clue is when Tyler and Drake both demand to know why they're in Hunt's world. The response of Hunt is "you requested a transfer."

[aellia.livejournal.com]

I was lost but now I'm found...ish.
Thank you,Tony
x

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My pleasure. :)