I like to give shows a chance to find their footing, and usually, by episode 5, there’s a concrete identity and cadence established in a show.
Aiming for Ashes is a perfect title because the hosts (mostly one of them) seems motivated to make this show as bad as possible.
The hosts: Ashley could be completely removed from the show and not much would change. Aimee barely lets her talk and what little airtime she is allowed is relegated to 2000’s style references and “funny voices,” and besides the pilot, she’s given nothing of value.
Aimee is the classic problem of “a microphone makes me smart” trope, because she thinks she has all the answers and solutions merely because she’s talking. Also, consider that all of her stories are of other people acting wrongly, and she’s never to blame? Consider every time she talks about her “son” who, she revealed in episode 4, is not actually hers by blood nor marriage. So she is an ex stepmom who’s been victimized by others. She obviously did nothing wrong.
The show: What is our identity here? They seems to be gravitating towards reading Reddit posts (an extremely original and novel idea, of course), but their insight is surface level and benign. I can’t even remember if they finished reading the posts before Aimee goes off on a tangent about something she thinks she knows about. This show has no aim and no future if the hosts (or rather, Aimee) can’t figure out why they’re doing it.
The schedule: Absolutely no consistency here. No release schedule and big promises of future episodes just makes me think the hosts (again, mostly Aimee) will do ~10 episodes spaced out over 3 months and then they will quietly leave the digital space.
If I’m wrong, I hope this show takes a step back to figure out why it’s producing and putting out content, and I hope Aimee gives Ashley a chance at talking. Finally, there needs to be honesty on this show. Based on what I’ve heard and what I know about the type of person Aimee could be, I don’t trust anything she says about the people in her life.
One star and more energy than I wanted to spend on this.
