ianmcdonald: We know Major Tom's a junkie

ianmcdonald (

ianmcdonald) wrote,
@ 2008-02-08 11:00:00

We know Major Tom's a junkie
Premature thoughts on last night series opener for Ashes to Ashes. Well, the title doesn't work for a start. Sounds like 'Angela's Ashes' style miserabilism. Now of course there will be tricks up the sleeve, but on first glance it seemed all a bit more of the same thing. I'm not sure Woman/Eighties/London as opposed to Man/Seventies/Manchester is enough to make feel fresh a format that was getting a little tired by the middle of series two of Life on Mars. It all seemed ....rushed out? Philip Glenister of course has the best role in years and is a key part in what I suspect is the Mid-Noughties cultural shift away from Gay'n'Girlie to Wild Boys (see also the unfeasable success of Russell Brand) but DCI Gene Hunt seemed a man out of time even in 1981.

Of course the exemplar is Bodie and Doyle bollocks in The Professionals but the touches of drop-frame semi-slo-mo as DCI Gene Hunt walked out of his office and the hilarious speedboat sene was just pure Miami Vce. But did the camera love him a little too much.

However, the set pieces were a lot of fun, the joke that Gene Hunt had only his name and a game of Pong on the computer was nice. The 'Fire up the Quattro' line is making me chuckle even now.

But the Pierrot?

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	frandowdsofa 2008-02-08 11:52 am UTC (link)
	It was the Bowie costume for Ashes to Ashes - single cover and video. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	ianmcdonald 2008-02-08 11:59 am UTC (link)
	Oh, even I knew that... but was it the same wee Test Card Girl from LoM?? If so, that is freaky. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	frandowdsofa 2008-02-08 12:15 pm UTC (link)
	It's not the same person underneath, it's a young lad. But it was freaky, I didn't care for that look then, and once it had gone through the whole Stephen King / scary clown treatment it's even creepier now. One of my friends at university had one of those really really big pierrot dolls, child-size, and I hated it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

wyldemusick
2008-02-08 01:34 pm UTC (link)

They worked in The A-Team and its ilk very thoroughly as well (all that gunfire, nobody gets hit, plus Gene unloads a machine pistol with an endless clip at their chief suspect, who only gets his face nicked slightly.) I'm seeing more A-Team than Miami Vice here, too, speedboat aside; that would fit in with the 1981 setting (as Miami Vice didn't arrive until 1984.)

The Pierrot clown is hoiked directly from the "Ashes To Ashes" video, meanwhile. It does act as a callback to the Test Card Girl and her clown doll, though.

Another side shot -- Chris shooting the guy in the foot. Very Lethal Weapon, that.

I thought the beastie began a bit grim, and it seemed as though everyone involved had periods of confusion as it tried to make up its mind what it was doing -- having her take the "I know what's going on here" route was a smart move, but there might well be a finite life for how long they can do that...they have a little bit of a mystery going as well, and they'll need to exploit that.

The place where it seemed to fall down rather badly was in the interface to her real life -- they do seem to be rather at a loss there.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	camies 2008-02-08 03:20 pm UTC (link)
	The boat bit was very MV - as was some more of the story - but by setting the story in 1981 you avoid having characters say 'that was a bit Miami Vice' - and with LoM being set in 1973 the characters in that can't refer to 'The Sweeney' (which first aired in 1974). (Reply to this)(Parent)

	davidbarnett 2008-02-08 02:58 pm UTC (link)
	I did miss a bit because of ill-timed phone calls, but I seem to remember that certainly Gene Hunt and possibly Ray Carling were both married in Life on Mars... was any mention made of that during the explanations of how they all wound up in London? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	pennski 2008-02-08 03:55 pm UTC (link)
	We were told Gene's wife had left him. Don't think Ray got any explanation (nor indeed why Ray and Chris went with Gene). Oh it was great fun. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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