Life: Season Two Review

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(More customer reviews)The quirky NBC crime drama "Life" gets a second season, featuring understated British actor Damian Lewis as LA detective Charlie Crews, who spent 12 years in prison for a mass murder he didn't commit before returning to duty anchored by the Zen Buddism he learned to survive his incarceration. His partner is detective Dani Reese (Sara Shahi), recovering substance abuser and daughter of the policeman who may have helped frame Crews. The pair are assisted by Bobby Stark (Brent Sexton), Crews' last buddy from his former days on the force. Their new boss is Lieutenant Kevin Tidwell (Donal Logue), a transfer from New York who seems out of place in laid-back LA but who learns to appreciate Crews and Reese for very different reasons. Adam Arkin returns as Ted Early, once Charlie's white collar criminal cellmate.
The new season follows a familar formula: the detectives each week are handed a new case that proves far more complicated than first appearances. Crews' Zen Buddist approach invariably provides unique, unexpected, and often humorous insights to cases involving, for example, a murder during a student prison experiment, the landing of a plane by a dead astronaut, and the suffocation of a rock star impersonator.
The weekly cases also allow the viewer to watch the slow blossoming of the relationship between Crews and a once skeptical Reese. Crews is by turns a quirky but kind searcher for truth and a shockingly tough cop, a combination Reese learns to value. As Reese learns the truth about her father, she and Crews will discover they have more in common than just a badge.
In a parallel story arc, Crews secretly unravels clues to the conspiracy responsible for his frameup. That conspiracy has expanded to include a mysterious group of retired policemen, one or more rogue FBI agents, and a charming but ruthless Russian mob boss. The conspiracy seems uncannily aware of Crews' every move, and acts ruthlessly to protect itself by attacking Crews, sending Ted Early unjustly back to prison, and endangering Dani Reese. In the outstanding season finale, Crews will combine his Zen and his cop skills to ransom a kidnapped Dani and finally confront a ruthless killer. Series fans will not be disappointed.
"Life: Season Two" on DVD is very highly recommended to fans of this unique police procedural. This reviewer hopes against the ratings numbers that "Life" will get a third season.

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Life: Season One Review

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(More customer reviews)Prison changes a man, and it certainly changed former LAPD police officer Charlie Crews. From 1995 to 2007 he served hard time for murders he didn't commit. When DNA evidence surfaces proving his innocence, Crews is released and reinstated in the force (he also lands some serious settlement money). Now Detective Crews finds himself working with a new partner even as he covertly seeks answers to what the hell happened.
LIFE looks to be a very promising cop detective show, and not because the mysteries themselves are dynamite stuff or anything. No, the viewing addiction lies in watching the lead actor work his craft. Britisher Damian Lewis is simply fabulous as the wounded, brooding protagonist, trying to piece his life back together. It's fun watching Crews apply his askewed perspective on his cases. I'm normally not a fan of folks who sling zen about, but Lewis makes it such a quirky and integral part of his character. And if it's a loose cannon with an agenda slinging that zen, all the better. After all, zen helped Crews survive the penitentiary. I also like the little touches which remind us that Crews is still coping with his new found freedom, whether it's his habit of munching on fresh fruit (they never have fresh fruit in prison) or his preference for light and open air or the fact that he still doesn't have furniture in his home.
Lewis's supporting cast is so-so. I do enjoy Sarah Shahi, who's a former Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. She plays the no-nonsense Dani Reese, Crews' new partner and not ecstatic about it. It's true that her character tends to fall in the generic character-saddled-with-demons category, so, yeah, nothing new from that angle. But I think she has very good chemistry with Damian Lewis, and I just love her bemused or irritated reactions to Crews' barrage of philosophical quirk. Two other actors who nicely play off Lewis are sexy Brooke Langton as Crews' smitten attorney and Adam Arkin as Crews' former inmate and current best friend and financial adviser.
I like the show's use of interview clips. They reveal certain insights and usher several sub-plots into the light. We learn, for instance, that Crews' former partner didn't stand up for him and that Crews' beautiful wife had divorced him while he was serving out his time. We even get a teeny whiff of the conspiracy surrounding Crews' frame-up. More layers and foreshadowings, thanks to these interview clips.
SPOILERS now.
With the steady influx of crime drama on TV, I wasn't planning on tuning in to this show. Then the pilot changed my mind. Other standout episodes? "Powerless" is the powerful sixth episode, focusing on Dani as she pursues a rapist who'd been haunting her AA meetings. "Farthingale" (episode 8) is a fun one, an intriguing mystery which begins with a man having been half blown off by an exploding stove. Then there's the intense two-part, season closing story arc (episodes 10 & 11: "Dig A Hole" & "Fill It Up") as Crews finally tracks down the man who committed the murders for which he was incarcerated. In "Dig A Hole" we also get to see a showdown of sorts between Crews' new and former partners.
SPOILERS end.
I can't stress enough how good Damian Lewis is on this show. I remember him from HBO's great wartime mini-series, Band of Brothers, and he made big noise back then, too, and was even nominated for a Golden Globe (although he didn't win). Damian Lewis, with his complex performance here, elevates LIFE from a humdrum procedural into a riveting police drama. And since NBC has already indicated that this wonderful drama series will be picked up for a second season, well, LIFE is good.

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Life was his sentence. Life is what he got back. Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers) stars as the unconventional police officer-turned-convict-turned-detective with a second chance in each compelling Season One episode of the critically acclaimed mystery series Life. After twelve years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, offbeat Charlie Crews has returned to the force with a $50 million settlement, a new spiritual outlook, a strong fondness for fruit, and a highly unusual approach to solving crime. With the aid of his skeptical and demanding new partner, Dani Reese, played by Sarah Shahi (Rush Hour 3), he’s turning police procedure upside down in this unique and fast-paced series with a “terrific cast [and] terrific writing” (Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times).

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