Discover The Best Movies and TV Shows Like Ashes to Ashes

Set against the vibrant yet gritty backdrop of 1980s London, *Ashes to Ashes* follows the brilliant and ambitious Detective Inspector Alex Drake. Shot in the chest in 2008 while investigating a sadistic serial killer, Alex suddenly finds herself jolted out of modern reality and waking up in 1981. Highly educated in modern criminal psychology, she initially believes she is trapped in an elaborate, coma-induced hallucination of her own making, yet she interacts with a world that feels aggressively, sensorially real. Driven by a desperate, consuming maternal instinct, Alex’s primary motivation is to solve her psychological puzzle and protect her young daughter, Molly, back in the future, convincing herself that returning to her life requires outsmarting her own subconscious mind.Assigned to Fenchurch East Police Station, Alex is forced to work under the volatile, hyper-masculine, and politically incorrect Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt. Hunt, along with his loyal, punch-first-ask-questions-later sidekicks Ray Carling and Chris Skelton, represents everything Alex despises about old-school, chauvinistic policing. However, as the turbulent cases mount, Alex realizes Gene’s archaic methods hide a fiercely protective nature and a surprisingly sharp investigative instinct. Their dynamic shifts from fierce ideological warfare into a complex, sexually charged, and deeply emotional partnership. Gene challenges Alex’s intellect, while she forces him to adapt to modern psychological profiling, creating an unstoppable investigative duo amidst the era's rampant police corruption, inner-city riots, and organized crime syndicates.As the series progresses, the psychological mystery deepens with the recurring appearance of a sinister, white-suited figure known as the "The Wizard," who taunts Alex and seems to control the rules of her peculiar limbo. Alex becomes increasingly desperate as she realizes that 1981 might not merely be a dream, but a purgatorial waystation for police officers who died on duty. She forms a fragile alliance with a mysterious young policeman, Martin Summers, who claims to share her modern origins, only to discover he is a darker manifestation of her own trauma. The narrative reaches a fever pitch of emotional intensity when Alex uncovers the haunting truth about her parents' tragic deaths in a car bomb decades earlier. Ultimately, Alex must confront her deepest fears, reconcile her lingering grief, and make a profound choice about her destiny. In a heart-wrenching climax, she realizes that this 1980s realm is a shared afterlife for fallen cops, and true peace can only be found by accepting her fate alongside Gene and her loyal colleagues in their perpetual, neon-lit station.