Maybe an inappropriate comparison, though Ashes to Ashes was certainly better than Demons, Money, The Prisoner, and Bonekickers, four shows that had blocks that ran for less than ten episodes. Demons also co-starred Phillip Glenster as the gruff older sidekick (which Gene Hunt was) and it was shoddy (and soulless) I dropped it in its first episode, its opening titles reminded me of a 1997 CITV show. Bonekickers was made by the same production team that made the vastly superior LoM and AtA but it sucked so hard it divided by zero, perhaps the BBC's finest unintentional comedy in the last three decades. The Prisoner (2009) was well made and acted enough (with Ian McKellen stealing the show as Number 2) to make me watch it for all six episodes, but it had a ending that made less sense than Ashes to Ashes' and was nowhere near as engaging in dialogue, action or humour either. Money a two part comedy-drama also set in the 1980s and starring Nick Frost didn't really work for me either, with bad miscasting and a flat plot. Nothing about Money (based on a popular novel) compelled me to see the concluding episode.El Moose Monstero wrote:Personally, I don't think your comparisons are the 'proper perspective'. I think you're comparing it to the wrong things. Comparing it to Heroes, Flash Forward etc, series which are intended to be sustained with multiple series with 22 odd episodes per show, rather than to the BBC style 6 or 8 part miniseries clearly makes for very different programs.
I can understand that the Italian dude was nothing to write home about apart from his establishment fitted into the tackiness of the early to mid 1980s. I thought Ray was more interesting in AtA than he did in LoM though: he was ostensibly a racist and unlikable corrupt thug that was ultimately revealed to be a very damaged, tragic person with a spark of goodness in him that came up when he protected/saved people and looked out for his comrades, finally succeeding in finding peace in the afterlife. I'm not really obsessed by Ashes to Ashes (not enough to buy on DVD) but I found it solidly entertaining fluff that vindicated what Life on Mars insinuated about the past settings.