A Televisual Feast

I suppose this episode is an improvement over the last, but only marginally. Lots of time is wasted with Alex worrying she’s dying (cold chills) and that adventure just reminds how superior “Life on Mars” handled the same material. The episode starts–with good music–on a bad dream sequence and it doesn’t get much better. The case is interesting, but ignored a little too much as the episode concentrates on Alex making her peace with her mother….

In short, it’s a return to the Alex fixating on her mother, maybe less obnoxious than before, but it’s painful how uninteresting the ties to the past get in this series. “Life on Mars” did it a whole lot better and this episode just hits the “about to die and in a shock-induced fantasy” nail over and over again.

There is some excellent material with Ray and Chris, though Ray’s jealousy over Chris and Shaz dating is lame (a set-back for the otherwise developing Ray). There’s lots of good Gene stuff here. Basically anything no involving Alex thinking she’s going to die is good. Or any scenes with the mother, everything else is fine. It just doesn’t pay off at the end, when the episode goes as uninteresting as possible. Because she’s in a coma or whatever, not back in time. So interesting, not having any mystery to the show.

Mick Ford’s a new writer for the series and he doesn’t seem to get setting a tenth of the episode away from Alex doesn’t make any sense given the creators close-minded concept. The scenes away from her are great and all, but given the series is just going to end with her waking up and seeing her daughter… they’re kind of cheap and off-target.

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