Ashes To Ashes - Episode 3

Ashes To Ashes just keeps on improving! The show has now surely got its own identity and is moving forward in the right direction, after Life on Mars.

This week, after busting a drugs ring (who stored cocaine in garden gnomes!), Gene and Alex come to blows after he doesn’t believe that ‘a lady of the night’ was raped. I say come to blows, Alex did give him a decent jab on the jaw! But for me, it’s Ray that steals the show. In Life On Mars, he was portrayed as a kind of ‘bad guy’ figure, who really disliked Sam Tyler. I didn’t like the character much but so far in Ashes To Ashes, he’s been great! He’s always got the funny quip and his on-screen ‘partnership’ with Chris is brilliant! In this episode, he shows his softer side when he befriends a rape victim, who is reluctant to tell the police what happened.

Alex gets to meet the younger version of Evan White, who is her Godfather and the person who she left her daughter, Molly, with in 2008. Personally, I think there’s something sneaky about him! Alex also gets to (drunkenly) drop her knickers again after Gene turns her down and she gets with some wine-drinking ponce!

Meanwhile, Gene believes the ‘rape’ is connected to that of a murder, which took place a while previously. After the description given to them by the ‘victim’ they stake out a party, which takes place on a boat. The team get to enjoy themselves, as the party is fancy dress! One of the staff is arrested but lack of evidence and Evan White, scupper them but it’s not long until the culprit takes another prostitute hostage and is caught. We also find out that the ‘victim’ was helping the girl who Ray befriended, as she was too scared to come forward.

Unfortunately, after the hostage makes herself disappear, it seems unlikely that a court will believe the testimony of Ray’s new friend. But he was soon nicked for storing the drugs from earlier, thanks to Ray-mondo!

It was another very good episode, we are starting to learn more about Alex and credit to the writers for resisting the temptation to make her some kind of ‘likeable hero’, just for the sake of it. It gives her a lot more depth if she has a lot of problems to work through and would be just be very boring if she was always right! The same goes with Gene, I suppose!

8.5/10

Next Week: Ray gets to use his ‘James Bond costume’ again, as he goes undercover – as a waiter!