FYI, if you buy today's Daily Star and then sign up for a 30-day free trial with Lovefilm, they'll send you a free copy of the first series of Life on Mars. You can keep it and everything.
Which is nice. Or would be if I weren't a member already.
Actually, I caught an episode of the first series of Life on Mars on Bravo the other night and it's weird how it's so much better and Gene Hunt is such a better character compared with Ashes to Ashes.
Still, Phillip Glenister says it really gets going with episode three, and episode two was very good, so I'm going to go with that recommendation for now.
February 18, 2008 | Reply
I don't think it's wierd that LoM is so much better, both because Simm is so much better than Hawes and because Sam in 1973 involved a mystery (is he in a coma, back in time etc) which the writers played with and used consistently (though the ending was disappointing), whereas AtoA doesn't and Alex constantly going round psychobabbling her coma state simply isn't as interesting.
What they need to do is inject the mystery back in by having something happen when Alex isn't there which comes as a surprise to her later on (or something like that - there's a good reason I'm not a writer :)
Oh, and hope and pray that Glenister manages to rake up some chemistry with Hawes from somewhere...