Life: Perfect “Life” Returns

“Life was his sentence, and life was what he got back.”

Normally I would try and write something semi-formal and organized, but I’m just going to get to the point, because we don’t have a lot of time. Here it is: This show freakin’ rocks. Life—created by Rand Ravich and starring the superb Damian Lewis, the wonderful Sara Shahi, and the enchanting Adam Arkin—is one of the most consistently enjoyable, electrifying, clever, creative, original, and just plain amazing television shows I’ve ever seen. Ever. And I watch a lot of TV.

And because it is all those things I just said, it is predestined to be cancelled by the genius suits at NBC, who are afraid of the show and don’t know what to do with it. They will murder it, and I can’t let that happen. We can’t let that happen. I’m asking someone…anyone…everyone: help me save it.

For those who have never seen the show—and there are far, far too many of you—Life revolves around protagonist Charlie Crews, a cop who has returned to the force after serving twelve years in maximum security prison for a crime he didn’t commit: the murder of a fellow cop friend and his family. Advances in DNA evidence cleared Crews of the charges, and, with the invaluable guidance of his loyal (and beautiful) attorney Constance Griffiths (Brooke Langton), Crews secured a multimillion-dollar wrongful imprisonment settlement.

Crews—richer than God and obsessed with fresh fruit after a twelve-year prison sludge diet—rejoins the LAPD to track down and take down the people who killed his friends and set him up for it. Also, as Crews says at one point, when he was locked up and getting beaten to within an inch of his life, thinking that he was still a cop was the only thing that kept him going. Crews turned to Zen in prison to try to stay (barely) sane, and now constantly spouts confounding, philosophical Zeni-sms, much to the irritation of his new partner Dani Reese (Shahi), who was assigned to work with Crews because she was at the bottom of the department’s barrel after getting hooked on drugs while she was undercover and botching up her operation. If you want to make the Lethal Weapon comparison, Crews is to Reese what Riggs was to Murtaugh.

The third principal character is Ted Earley (Arkin), a former CEO who was imprisoned for insider trading. Charlie took Ted under his wing while they were in prison and kept him alive, and as gratitude, Ted now lives in a room above Charlie’s garage and manages his money for him. Life is character-driven to an amazing degree, and the performances are all stellar. Damian Lewis especially is a revelation as Charlie Crews. This show should be on HBO, not a major network. The quality is that strong.

It manages to do what CSI and all of its spin-offs, and the myriad of other procedural shows on the networks cannot: it transcends the procedural formula with the strength and uniqueness of its characters (even more so than House). You’re never aware that you’re watching a cop show when viewing Life, although the weekly crimes are always offbeat and entertaining. The real hook of the show is watching Crews use his Zen mindset to solve the cases and try to decipher the complex conspiracy behind the dirty cops who set him up. There is the A storyline (the crime of the week) and the B storyline (Charlie’s conspiracy), and unlike most shows that involve a complex mythology or serial storyline, with every episode you see Charlie get closer and closer (last season’s finale saw him make a huge leap forward). As a viewer you are rewarded promptly, and that is a tremendously rare and satisfying experience.

If you’ve never watched the show, you will feel a little lost during the second season premiere, which finds Crews and Reese trying to find a killer who is locking people up in numbered boxes all over L.A. until they suffocate and still dealing with the aftermath of last season’s finale. You can definitely still enjoy it, but to really get the character dynamics and complex backstories and interrelationships you owe it to yourself to watch the 11-episode first season (all available for free on hulu.com). I haven’t addressed the show’s style (e.g. showing Charlie always standing in bright light, trying to make up for the darkness of the last dozen years and incorporating Errol Morris-like documentary segments interviewing acquaintances of Charlie into the narrative proceedings) or plot specifics from the season premiere or recapped last season, because I want others to have the chance to feel the surge of excitement I have gotten to feel with every episode of Life. That surge comes from knowing you are discovering a work of art that is fresh, exciting, fun, and original.

Life is endangered. Give it a chance, and let’s band together as lovers of brilliant TV and save it.

Season 2, Episode 1: Find Your Happy Place (original aired 9/27/08)

For another take on Life, see Elma Rahman’s review here.

For more on Life, click here.

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