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Ashes to Ashes (2008)

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  • Broken Base: The switch from Manchester and The '70s setting to London and The '80s, which bring about a number of changes. For most the changes are appreciated for making A2A distinct from LoM, but others feel that London is a too typical setting for a tv series and that the fashions of the seventies are less commonly focused on compared to the eighties.
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Literally. When Gene starts to remember who he is, he describes the world the series is set in as "Somewhere we go to sort ourselves... Coppers." Nelson (from Life On Mars) is the gatekeeper, and Gene guides lost souls to him.
  • Fan Nickname: Often given the shortened name of "A2A".
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Life on Mars fans don't hate Ashes to Ashes, but given that the first episode gives Sam a Happy Ending Override and the final episode gives a definitive answer about what was happening, it's not that surprising that a few prefer to not treat Ashes to Ashes to canon.
  • Growing the Beard: With some exceptions, series 1 in general has a much more frivolous feel to it, particularly in the behaviour of Alex's character. The drama gets much better when she becomes more the serious police officer from series 2 onwards.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In the very first episode. Remember how confident Alex was about getting home to see her daughter and "I am not going to die."? Yeah...
    • Also, during episode 3.06, Ray tells Viv to go to Hell. It's later implied that thanks to Keats, that's exactly where he went.
    • Richard Hammond in the Children in Need special, after he told a story years later that during his car crash induced coma, he'd dreamed that he was walking up a hill and around a tree, and felt that if he just kept going further up the hill past the tree, he'd have moved on to the other side.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight:
    Gene: I remember when we were evicted from Paradise, and sent down to this southern shithole...
  • Les Yay: Shaz and Alex, considering Shaz's appreciation of Alex's hooker dress and insistence that she'd pay for a night with Alex.
  • Misaimed Fandom:
    • Or is it? Who's the star of this show, anyway? Seems like Drake and Hunt are actively dueling for that right; the narration, all the private introspection scenes are Drake's, but the Gene Genie acts like he's in charge (justified, perhaps, because he is), so often and so strongly that he often winds up as the dominant character. This wouldn't be confusing if it was Law & Order, but Gene's strength of acting is strange considering Alex is supposed to be locked in her own mind. (Although the fact that even in the first season there are scenes where Alex isn't present suggest it might not be as simple as that. It isn't.) Note:
    • Arguably the easiest way to put it is that while Alex is the main character, Gene is the central character.
    • Thanks to some advertising in the run-up to the 2010 general election, the misaimed fandom apparently includes the UK's two largest political parties. On the morning of 3rd April 2010, the Labour party put out an advertisement claiming that then-opposition leader David Cameron would "take Britain back to the 1980s", showing him Photoshopped on the front of an Audi Quattro a la Gene Hunt. Later that same day, the Conservatives responded with a re-Shopped version announcing: "Fire up the Quattro. It's time for change". It later turned out that neither party had sought permission from the BBC or the production company for the adverts, and they were both asked to stop using them. It's not clear why Labour (generally perceived as being weak on crime) thought that likening the other guy to everyone's favourite Cowboy Cop was a smart plan.
  • Narm:
    • The scene in 1x1 where Alex, explaining her situation to Chris and Shaz, writes four of their suggestions on the board and rhetorically asks, "Where does that leave me?", only to notice that the initials of the words she's written spell out "DEAD". This is supposed to be chilling but the execution plus the Fridge Logic that Alex apparently didn't notice that while she was writing just comes off as unintentionally funny.
    • The suicide bombing at the end of 1x2 is intended to be a dramatic and heartbreaking moment. Unfortunately, the bomber's battle cry is a stilted-sounding "We are all prostitutes!" It Makes Sense in Context, but it still makes the moment a little hard to take seriously.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
    • Adrien Dunbar as the bent copper Martin Summers 3 years before becoming Superintendent Ted Hastings in Line of Duty.
    • Rupert Graves as a Thatcherite Wanker in 1x02.
    • Jim Keats popped up on Outcasts as an Anti-Hero security officer and on Doctor Who as Alex, the dad in "Night Terrors".
    • Caroline Price is now Sgt. Murray on Scott and Bailey.
    • Watching The Borgias can get very uncomfortable if you're used to seeing Sean Harris (Micheletto) as Arthur Leyton.
      • Particularly given his, er, brief relationship with Maria, the maid played by Montserrat Lombard, a.k.a. Shaz. (If it helps, they're friends in Real Life and have also made a few short films together).

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