Ashes to Ashes: Series 3 (2010)

The final series of the Ashes to Ashes/Life on Mars family came to an end recently, and it was a fantastic final episode that explained the previous 5 series in a way that was convincing and was very entertaining. 

I liked Life on Mars, but John Simm's Sam Tyler, who's name has hovered over the 3rd series of Ashes to Ashes in the form of so many red herrings and clues, wasn't my favourite character. I much prefer Keeley Hawes' Alex Drake, and the dynamic that having a female lead to bounce off Phillip Glenister's Gene Hunt gave to A2A. Initially a little irritating, Drake's experience of Tyler's memories of being 'back in time' in the seventies meant that she felt cockily above it all, that she knew Gene, Ray and Chris were just 'constructs' of her imagination, but as doubts began to creep in the character became more sympathetic. 

I was a little disappointed with Gene's character this series, as he was too often made out to be a bad guy, or reduced to spouting comedy lines, with no real warmth as he'd displayed in previous series. There was too much of the 'is he or isn't he a villain', because it was inconceivable that such an iconic 'hero' could be so utterly evil as to have killed Sam Tyler. But then in the shocking final episode, we found out that everyone in this world was already dead, and that Gene had been keeping them there in some kind of limbo, after all, he too was a 'ghost'. And the new character, Jim (played by an actor I really don't like, Daniel Mays), this series turned out to be the devil, tempting Alex, Ray, Chris and Shaz into betraying Gene and going to 'hell' (I assume, though it wasn't exactly explicit). The redemption at the end of the episode, when the aforementioned 4 enter the pub that doubles for 'heaven' was touching, although Gene is left in his own limbo to greet another lost soul, bemoaning the lack of his iPhone...

Ashes to Ashes was often laugh-out-loud hilarious, and I really liked Chris especially, who got less dozy this year, standing up to Gene a couple of times. Ray was also given more depth, although he was still a neanderthal underneath, he was a loveable one. The stand alone police case aspects of each episode varied in quality, and often it was only the ongoing visions and bizarre goings-on that Alex experienced as she tried to work out what was happening that made some episodes gripping. I'm glad the makers of the show have seen fit to end the show properly, and that the ending they proved was brave and memorable.