You Should Be Watching...


BBC America's Ashes to Ashes, starring Keeley Hawes and Philip Glenister. It's a sequel of sorts to BBC's original Life on Mars (not to be confused with inferior American/U.S. version). Life on Mars chronicled the curious adventures of a contemporary cop who's hit by car and is suddenly transported, once he wakes up, in the location where his accident was, but in the 1960. It's there where Sam meets the take-no-prisoners, gristly, old-school Gene Hunt (Glenister). In Ashes to Ashes, Hawes plays police psychologist /detective inspector Alex Drake, who had treated Sam and was familiar with what she assumed was his "fantasy" of Hunt and his staff. When Alex is suddenly shot in the face, she awakes to London, July 1981 and encounters the "characters" of Sam's stories. She's convinced her injured mind has somehow transported her there and often makes references to her fellow officers as "figments of her imagination."

This show is witty and smart and there is genuine chemistry between the stars, and it's just as enjoyable as Life in Mars, but wholly fresh. Check it out. Saturday nights, BBC America