A Televisual Feast

The “Ashes to Ashes” upswing continues with an episode involving, once again, Alex’s mother, but also a government conspiracy. Unlike the last episode with Alex’s mother, this one features a lot fewer obnoxious scenes between Alex and her mother and a different focus. Instead of harping on the melodrama and sentimentalism, this episode features the mother both as a story point for the immediate question and introducing complications for her future significance.

But that improvement isn’t what makes the episode better. Instead, it’s the emphasis on the case again. It’s the emphasis on the detectives detecting. Again, Ray gets a great moment–with Chris now firmly relegated to scenes involving his position as Shaz’s goofy boyfriend–and the big change for “Ashes to Ashes” seems to be making Ray make a little sense, instead of just being a brute dinosaur.

Unfortunately, since the episode is so busy and so much time is spent on Alex, Gene Hunt is going unexplored. Glenister seems perfectly capable of juggling the iconic Hunt with a more human one, but he’s not given the opportunity here (even though there are a couple great moments for it).

As for the music… it’s a bunch of mediocre selections. According to the list online, a lot of the soundtrack is inaudible, apparently, as I never heard it.

But the show’s certainly shaping up, mid-section, a lot better than the front would have suggested.

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