minorwork
10-01-2007, 10:24 PM
LIFE. After one episode I am eager for the next. 9 central time US, NBC, Wenesdays. The Wall Street Journal Review:
"Life" (10-11 p.m., Wednesdays on NBC) is also about second chances, in this case for a wrongly convicted cop who has been cleared after 12 years in prison. Of all the new shows I've watched, it's also the one I'm most eager to see again.
As "Life" began last Wednesday, Detective Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) was back on the force solving crimes, and trying to find out who framed him for a triple homicide 12 years earlier. He's been paired up with a partner, Dani Reese (Sarah Shah), who has demons of her own, including a habit of going to bed with strange men she meets in bars and a history of drug abuse. The latter makes Dani vulnerable to blackmail by higher-ups in the department who may have something to hide about the murders that once were blamed on Charlie.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AK152A_TV1_20070927184827.jpgDamian Lewis in NBC's "Life."
This week, Charlie discovers more about his old case and also tries to solve a new crime, featuring a bride found killed in her honeymoon suite. Suspects include her combative husband and a jilted suitor. But the similarity to dozens of other detecting shows stops there. What sets "Life" apart, what makes it both more creative and compelling than the competition is the character of Charlie Crews and the performance by Damian Lewis.
When we first meet him, Charlie comes off as quirky, like a police version of TV's Doctor House. He's got an uncanny ability to spot clues and fends off questions with ironic quips. Those habits do not reflect a fraction of his range, however. Charlie passed the time in prison getting into Zen, and he likes to spout mellow phrases like, "You don't have to understand here to be here." He's also into eating fruit, another sign of a man in touch with the nature of the universe. So it's a surprise and a delight to discover that Charlie -- made enormously wealthy by a settlement after his false conviction -- has bought himself a giant mansion and has a stream of babes coming in and out of it. He also has a fast black Bentley, which he guns through the streets while eating grapes and intoning: "I am not attached to this car. I am not attached to this car."
Also in the bundle of contrasts is Charlie's emotional package. He's standoffish with most people, deflecting them with his irony and holding himself apart as a man who has been through the uniquely embittering experience of years behind bars for crimes he didn't commit. His tender side is a revelation then, as when he bends to comfort a terrified criminal as he lies dying, using words a mother might to soothe her fretful child late at night: "It was just a bad dream; go back to sleep."
Seeing and sensing so many layers in a TV character is exhilarating. This week's episode concludes with a reminder that "vengeance is a poison meant for others that we end up swallowing ourselves." Yet as Mr. Zen strides into a firing range and unleashes a deafening volley of pistol shots, the manifestation of his anger is breathtaking, and we're turned on by revenge.
from the LA Times:
A sign of 'Life' on NBC: brilliance
Paul Drinkwater / AP
British actor Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews, an L.A. cop, in a scene from the NBC series "Life."
Damian Lewis is a quirky cop trying to get his life back together. The result: a potentially great show.
By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 26, 2007
NBC's new drama "Life" is the sort of show that makes a person want to write things that will be picked up for ad copy. Like: "If you only watch one new show this fall, watch 'Life.' " Or: "Terrific cast, terrific writing, and even when simply eating a pear, Damian Lewis sets a whole new standard for the broken hero genre." Not for the ad, but because they're true. And since "Life" has gotten zero buzz, there's a chance it will have a hard time finding an audience. Which would be terrible, since it promises to be such a great show.
This despite its obviously derivative nature: Writer Rand Ravich has created the latest "Monk" by way of "House." "Life" follows the strange and painful tale of LAPD detective Charlie Crews. Twelve years ago, Charlie was convicted of a gruesome triple homicide and sentenced to life. Only he didn't do it, see, as his heroic and lovely attorney Constance (Brooke Langton) proved. So now Crews is a free man, or as free as he can be after all the physical and psychological damage done to him in prison, with a $50-million settlement and a chance to return to the force as a detective.
Related Stories-Fall 2007 network TV schedule (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-tv-listings,1,1894088.story?coll=la-entnews-tv)
But that psychological damage is pretty extensive, with the result that Crews is more than a bit strange. Brilliant but strange. "Did you ask the dog?" he asks with an owl-like tilt of his head when officers are looking for a bullet at a crime scene. And, of course, the dog knows.
With the watchful half-smile and soft monotone of a psychopath and the sudden, stilted movements of a space alien, Crews is no sharp-tongued misanthrope or lovable neurotic. He's just Zen to the point of disassociation. "You don't have to understand here to be here," he tells his new partner, Dani (Sarah Shahi), who is teamed with Crews partly as punishment for past drug abuse.
Playing it long and lugubrious but with a tantalizing twinkle, Lewis (last seen in the States as the hateful husband in "The Forsyte Saga") may well wrest the mantle of sexiest troubled American played by a Brit away from Hugh Laurie. Like House, Crews has been damaged by the profession he serves; like House, he sees things that other people miss. But Crews is working toward transformation. His serenity, however, is obviously self-imposed and at times, barely there, a thin mask of hard-won wisdom veiling the pain and anger within.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" asks the husband of Crews' ex-wife after Crews has pulled him over, yet again, for some minor traffic infraction.
"No, sir," Crews says, taking in the glory of a perfect Los Angeles day. "Not at this moment."
L.A. sparkles in "Life," awash in sunshine and possibility, the perfect second chance Crews is doing his best to enjoy. He lives in a gorgeous mansion with Ted, a CEO busted for insider trading whom Crews met in prison. Apparently the gods were smiling on "Life's" casting director because Ted, who now manages Crews' money, is played by Adam Arkin. "And you live in his garage?" he is asked at one point. "I live in an apartment above his garage," he answers.
Along with Ted, Crews also has some pretty terrific quirks to keep him real -- no furniture, a passion for fresh fruit, a penchant for self-help tapes, a string of happy one-night stands, and a nice, dark sense of humor.
"That's a phone," he tells his former partner who wants to take his picture.
"It's got a camera in it. Where have you been?"
"Me, I've been in federal maximum security prison," Charlie answers with ironic good cheer.
As his feisty, smart partner, Shahi ("The L-Word") matches Lewis beat for beat. "Say 'Is it?' one more time and I'll shoot you," she tells Charlie when he lapses into a Zen-like repetition. Dani has her own troubles, mostly in the form of a Lt. Davis (a wonderfully hard-as-nails Robin Weigert) who seems intent on using Dani's drug issues to coerce her into making a case against Crews -- whom Davis clearly wants off the force.
A lot of people don't think Crews should be back on the force. The show opens as if it were a documentary investigating Crews' life -- here is his former partner, his former wife, explaining why they thought he did it -- and that conceit continues through early episodes, so we learn there are some people who still think he's guilty. But Charlie knows that if he's not, someone is, and the arc of the show, along with the various cases he and Dani solve, will be his quest for answers, and possibly vengeance.
Meanwhile, he's got fruit to eat, $50 mil to spend and a new lease on life. As, it seems, do we.
"Life" (10-11 p.m., Wednesdays on NBC) is also about second chances, in this case for a wrongly convicted cop who has been cleared after 12 years in prison. Of all the new shows I've watched, it's also the one I'm most eager to see again.
As "Life" began last Wednesday, Detective Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) was back on the force solving crimes, and trying to find out who framed him for a triple homicide 12 years earlier. He's been paired up with a partner, Dani Reese (Sarah Shah), who has demons of her own, including a habit of going to bed with strange men she meets in bars and a history of drug abuse. The latter makes Dani vulnerable to blackmail by higher-ups in the department who may have something to hide about the murders that once were blamed on Charlie.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/WK-AK152A_TV1_20070927184827.jpgDamian Lewis in NBC's "Life."
This week, Charlie discovers more about his old case and also tries to solve a new crime, featuring a bride found killed in her honeymoon suite. Suspects include her combative husband and a jilted suitor. But the similarity to dozens of other detecting shows stops there. What sets "Life" apart, what makes it both more creative and compelling than the competition is the character of Charlie Crews and the performance by Damian Lewis.
When we first meet him, Charlie comes off as quirky, like a police version of TV's Doctor House. He's got an uncanny ability to spot clues and fends off questions with ironic quips. Those habits do not reflect a fraction of his range, however. Charlie passed the time in prison getting into Zen, and he likes to spout mellow phrases like, "You don't have to understand here to be here." He's also into eating fruit, another sign of a man in touch with the nature of the universe. So it's a surprise and a delight to discover that Charlie -- made enormously wealthy by a settlement after his false conviction -- has bought himself a giant mansion and has a stream of babes coming in and out of it. He also has a fast black Bentley, which he guns through the streets while eating grapes and intoning: "I am not attached to this car. I am not attached to this car."
Also in the bundle of contrasts is Charlie's emotional package. He's standoffish with most people, deflecting them with his irony and holding himself apart as a man who has been through the uniquely embittering experience of years behind bars for crimes he didn't commit. His tender side is a revelation then, as when he bends to comfort a terrified criminal as he lies dying, using words a mother might to soothe her fretful child late at night: "It was just a bad dream; go back to sleep."
Seeing and sensing so many layers in a TV character is exhilarating. This week's episode concludes with a reminder that "vengeance is a poison meant for others that we end up swallowing ourselves." Yet as Mr. Zen strides into a firing range and unleashes a deafening volley of pistol shots, the manifestation of his anger is breathtaking, and we're turned on by revenge.
from the LA Times:
A sign of 'Life' on NBC: brilliance
Paul Drinkwater / AP
British actor Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews, an L.A. cop, in a scene from the NBC series "Life."
Damian Lewis is a quirky cop trying to get his life back together. The result: a potentially great show.
By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 26, 2007
NBC's new drama "Life" is the sort of show that makes a person want to write things that will be picked up for ad copy. Like: "If you only watch one new show this fall, watch 'Life.' " Or: "Terrific cast, terrific writing, and even when simply eating a pear, Damian Lewis sets a whole new standard for the broken hero genre." Not for the ad, but because they're true. And since "Life" has gotten zero buzz, there's a chance it will have a hard time finding an audience. Which would be terrible, since it promises to be such a great show.
This despite its obviously derivative nature: Writer Rand Ravich has created the latest "Monk" by way of "House." "Life" follows the strange and painful tale of LAPD detective Charlie Crews. Twelve years ago, Charlie was convicted of a gruesome triple homicide and sentenced to life. Only he didn't do it, see, as his heroic and lovely attorney Constance (Brooke Langton) proved. So now Crews is a free man, or as free as he can be after all the physical and psychological damage done to him in prison, with a $50-million settlement and a chance to return to the force as a detective.
Related Stories-Fall 2007 network TV schedule (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-tv-listings,1,1894088.story?coll=la-entnews-tv)
But that psychological damage is pretty extensive, with the result that Crews is more than a bit strange. Brilliant but strange. "Did you ask the dog?" he asks with an owl-like tilt of his head when officers are looking for a bullet at a crime scene. And, of course, the dog knows.
With the watchful half-smile and soft monotone of a psychopath and the sudden, stilted movements of a space alien, Crews is no sharp-tongued misanthrope or lovable neurotic. He's just Zen to the point of disassociation. "You don't have to understand here to be here," he tells his new partner, Dani (Sarah Shahi), who is teamed with Crews partly as punishment for past drug abuse.
Playing it long and lugubrious but with a tantalizing twinkle, Lewis (last seen in the States as the hateful husband in "The Forsyte Saga") may well wrest the mantle of sexiest troubled American played by a Brit away from Hugh Laurie. Like House, Crews has been damaged by the profession he serves; like House, he sees things that other people miss. But Crews is working toward transformation. His serenity, however, is obviously self-imposed and at times, barely there, a thin mask of hard-won wisdom veiling the pain and anger within.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" asks the husband of Crews' ex-wife after Crews has pulled him over, yet again, for some minor traffic infraction.
"No, sir," Crews says, taking in the glory of a perfect Los Angeles day. "Not at this moment."
L.A. sparkles in "Life," awash in sunshine and possibility, the perfect second chance Crews is doing his best to enjoy. He lives in a gorgeous mansion with Ted, a CEO busted for insider trading whom Crews met in prison. Apparently the gods were smiling on "Life's" casting director because Ted, who now manages Crews' money, is played by Adam Arkin. "And you live in his garage?" he is asked at one point. "I live in an apartment above his garage," he answers.
Along with Ted, Crews also has some pretty terrific quirks to keep him real -- no furniture, a passion for fresh fruit, a penchant for self-help tapes, a string of happy one-night stands, and a nice, dark sense of humor.
"That's a phone," he tells his former partner who wants to take his picture.
"It's got a camera in it. Where have you been?"
"Me, I've been in federal maximum security prison," Charlie answers with ironic good cheer.
As his feisty, smart partner, Shahi ("The L-Word") matches Lewis beat for beat. "Say 'Is it?' one more time and I'll shoot you," she tells Charlie when he lapses into a Zen-like repetition. Dani has her own troubles, mostly in the form of a Lt. Davis (a wonderfully hard-as-nails Robin Weigert) who seems intent on using Dani's drug issues to coerce her into making a case against Crews -- whom Davis clearly wants off the force.
A lot of people don't think Crews should be back on the force. The show opens as if it were a documentary investigating Crews' life -- here is his former partner, his former wife, explaining why they thought he did it -- and that conceit continues through early episodes, so we learn there are some people who still think he's guilty. But Charlie knows that if he's not, someone is, and the arc of the show, along with the various cases he and Dani solve, will be his quest for answers, and possibly vengeance.
Meanwhile, he's got fruit to eat, $50 mil to spend and a new lease on life. As, it seems, do we.