Life: Watch This Freakin’ Show

“That was your partner. She says there’s a dead guy. She wants to know if you’d like to catch who killed him.”

Ted Earley reports this to Charlie Crews at the beginning of the latest episode of Life, thus summoning Charlie to work. Yes, for Charlie Crews, work must always intrude on leisure time-though Charlie’s idea of leisure time is listening to the covert wiretap he placed on Jack Reese’s car last week and trying to identify the other members of the conspiracy that framed him for murder and sent him to prison for twelve years.

And yes, I’m aware of the fact that I just cited the protagonist’s name four times in the above paragraph. I’m hoping that if I repeat the name enough, the character will become ingrained in peoples’ minds and they will watch the show. Of course that would only work if people are reading my rave reviews of Life, and clearly no one is because no one is watching the show except me and it’s about to be cancelled. It’s probably futile for me to even bother writing about the show anymore, since it won’t be here much longer and will soon be forgotten. But Charlie Crews wouldn’t give up, so neither will I. (Did I mention the name Charlie Crews? Because that’s the name of the wonderfully complex and entertaining cop played masterfully by Damian Lewis in the wonderfully complex and entertaining Life. And you have no life if you don’t watch Life).

We get to see the intense, edgy and slightly warped side of Charlie in this episode because Charlie and his partner Dani Reese are called in to investigate the murder of a prison guard. Except he wasn’t really a prison guard, just one of a large group of college students participating in a sociological experiment that is the brainchild of a creepy professor. Basically the guy convinced a slew of students to role-play as guards and prisoners in a real prison setting for five days. Yikes, and I thought my professors were bad.

The catch is that when Charlie and Dani arrive at the crime scene, all of the “guards” and “prisoners” are accounted for, which means that the murderer is still there. They have to figure out who the culprit is and find the MIA murder weapon within two hours, before legal council arrives and sets everyone free. It’s an economical and ingenious setup, just like the start of every other episode of Life. People: watch the freakin’ show, is that really too much to ask?

The inner tension that Charlie feels being forced to spend time in a prison-like setting is palpable, and Damian Lewis is never short of riveting to watch. This whole investigation is in the hands of Charlie, Dani, and Charlie’s old partner Bobby (Brent Sexton), because the rest of the LAPD has their hands tied with other crises. Captain Tidwell (the increasingly-impressive Donal Logue) himself has to deal with a suicidal cop who discharged his weapon in a bar after finding out his wife is leaving him. And here’s where a pleasant surprise comes in: the partner of this suicidal cop is Karen Davis (Deadwood’s Robin Weigert), who was the precinct captain last season who may or may not have been involved in the conspiracy against Charlie.

It was revealed in the second season premier that Davis had been demoted, presumably by the evil higher-ups, because she failed to get Charlie kicked off the force after he returned post-prison. I assumed the character was a closed book, so it was great to see her return for this episode, especially because Weigert brings such presence to the role. She has a couple of great, funny scenes with Logue, and it’s still unclear if she was involved in the conspiracy or not. At the very least, this episode reveals that she is close to one of the conspiracy members.

Everyone plays a significant role in the proceedings, including Ted, who helps Charlie’s investigation by going through the security footage of the prison. It’s another skillfully constructed and engrossing episode that I wish people would check out.

Season 2, Episode 4: Not For Nothing  (originally aired 10/10/08)

For another take on this episode, read Elma Rahman’s review here.

You can read all Poptimal reviews of Life here.

Wednesdays at 9/8c, NBC
Photographs courtesy of www.nbc.com