Life, a new drama series on NBC, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EDT, is a mystery series with a difference. (Journeyman, analyzed yesterday on this site, is another example of this type of show.)
In this case, the difference is that the detective, Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) is a police officer who doesn’t have to work for a living and hence can do things the way he thinks is right, rather than the way department procdures tell him to.
The protagonist was imprisoned for twelve years for a murder he did not commit. While in prison he was brutalized by the other inmates, and thus learned how important it is to make sure the right person is convicted. He was exonerated and received a huge money settlement from the government and has rejoined the force, this time out of desire rather than for need of a job.
While in prison, Charlie read up on Zen Buddhism, and now regularly pronounces pseudo-profound paradoxes while explaining his thinking on the various cases he investigates. He was a by-the-books cop before, but now he understands people much better, and is able to use that knowledge and a kindly attitude to win their trust and get them to help by providing whatever information they have, if they are reluctant to get involved.
That’s a little different from most TV detective characters, but the show as a whole is fairly ordinary, especially the progress of the detection stories, which is pure police procedural, consisting mainly of serial interviews of various suspects and witnesses.
Charlie’s partner is a recovering drug addict, and their boss is using that against her so that she’ll help get him fired from the force. Both Charlie and his partner are sexually promiscuous, he apparently to make up for twelve years of lost time, and she presumably because of the same thus-far unexplained innter torment that motivated her habit of drug abuse.
Charlie is not as full of inner peace has he pretends, however: he is intent on trying to figure out who framed him. He’s a likeable character, but the stories just aren’t particularly compelling. Without a good story, characters simply aren’t worth much.
Charlie Crews is what makes LIFE such an interesting show, he varies from the boring everyday norm tv cops are represented as.
LIFE was aired in Australia and hopefully will return later this year. If you haven’t watched LIFE you really should!
Hey,
I love this show. I typically don’t watch detective shows (Except that one french one from 70’s) and really like this show. The actor I liked in the Band of Brothers series.
When you say that there is no story I disagree. The show hasn’t put everyone’s history on the table yet. Yet, unlike other shows, there is history, just hidden. Many shows expose everything but add stuff rather than expose stuff that was already hidden… if that makes sense.
GL and Watch LIFE! It’s pretty good.