Life ( - The Universe - Everything)
Nov. 3rd, 2010 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficLife stars Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews, an L.A. cop who's framed for murder and imprisoned for twelve years before DNA evidence exonerates him. As part of his settlement with the LAPD, he gets Bruce Wayne rich and is reinstated as a detective, with badass recovering alcoholic Dani Reese as his partner. The series' core theme is that his time in prison hasn't made Charlie a grim badass (except... well, kinda), but instead he's cultivated an interest in Zen that gives him a unique lookout on life.
It sounds a lot like a precursor to the Castle/Mentalist breed of shows about a wacky genius paired with a no-nonsense action girl... the "Sherlock Holmes with sexual tension" show that seems in vogue lately... but to Life's credit, they give Dani more to do than just make "oh, Charlie, you scamp" faces and there's no romance between Charlie and Dani, possibly because of how hard it would be to come up with a shipping portmanteau. (Creese? Chareese? Reews?) And the more traditional feminine role of Charlie's emotional touchstone/weak point is Ted, a corrupt Wall Street executive who Charlie protected in prison, and who now manages his finances. Perhaps it's for the best that the show was canceled -- I don't know how well the character of a lovable blue-collar criminal would go over these days, even one who's learned his lesson.
For the most part, the show is a procedural, although a surprising amount of force comes from Charlie investigating the conspiracy that sent him away. Just about every episode, he's getting a new clue, so it's not just "case of the week" while you're waiting for the arc to kick in. It's handled very well, even if there are a few glaring narrative shortcuts taken due to the Writer's Strike (like when Charlie is able to identify a suspect based on a child's drawing. "He has facial hair! It's gotta be our man!")
One criticism I have is the show's focus on Charlie's love life. There are three big things there.
1. Charlie has a steady succession of honeys coming by to... what's the polite euphemism?... grind on his junk? Which makes sense, since he did just get out of prison. And is a guy.
2. Charlie has an UST thing going with the attorney who sprung him from prison, but she's married. How can our hero pursue a relationship with another man's wife, after all?
3. Charlie routinely harasses his ex-wife's new husband. There isn't even the figleaf justification that he "stole her" from Charlie. She thought he was guilty, she divorced him, and she met someone new. Unfortunate, sure, but not some injustice that has to be rectified through constant speeding tickets.
I guess the show is trying to show that Charlie isn't as Zen as he says he is, or even wants to be, but I think they could've found a better way to illustrate that.
At the very least, the first season ends with him realizing he's done wrong and apologizing for his actions, so at least they aren't claiming that he's doing it all because he stilllllllll loves her (yeah, fucking a bunch of co-eds, he must still love his wife). Then the second season comes around and Charlie resumes his attentions on her, with the wife reciprocating them.
Charlie, Charlie, Charlie... why would you even want to be in a relationship with someone who thought you were capable of killing an entire family? This isn't a shipping war thing, but I think the relationship with his attorney was more interesting, so I'm not sure why they didn't go with that. The wife thing ends up not going anywhere (among the deleted scenes is one of them breaking it off... again) and on the whole, I think the entire plot was better done by Justified.
The "dickishness equals love" thing continues through the second season, with Dani entering into a relationship with a jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold character. I think it plays out well, owing a lot to the acting of the guy (the naughty-vampire-god dude from Blade), but I can see how it would hit some narrative squicks. For my money, the OTP has to be Ted/Olivia (Christina Hendricks!). He's attracted to her, falls in love with her, but she's in a relationship, so he doesn't pester her or pressure her. The ending gives some hope for them kicking something off, so I really hope they make it.
By the end, there was a "they can't end it there!" point where I was going "they can't end it there!", so in that sense, the story definitely did its job. In the end, I think the series ended a lot like Legend of the Seeker. There's still evil out there, but for now, the deed is done and our heroes can enjoy a well-deserved victory. And yeah, it sucks that we don't get a grand finale, but maybe "the adventure continues" is the best ending. I don't know what more the show could reveal about Charlie and the conspiracy (I wouldn't say no to finding out), unless they were going the Prison Break route of revealing new and more outlandish secrets every season.
"It's true. I have no dick."
As a sidenote, Damian Lewis's wife, Helen McCrory, shows up as a frosty British anti-hero. And Damian Lewis is definitely a very lucky man. She also plays Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies and they must have gone out of their way to make her look like hell, because there is no way that happened by accident.
It sounds a lot like a precursor to the Castle/Mentalist breed of shows about a wacky genius paired with a no-nonsense action girl... the "Sherlock Holmes with sexual tension" show that seems in vogue lately... but to Life's credit, they give Dani more to do than just make "oh, Charlie, you scamp" faces and there's no romance between Charlie and Dani, possibly because of how hard it would be to come up with a shipping portmanteau. (Creese? Chareese? Reews?) And the more traditional feminine role of Charlie's emotional touchstone/weak point is Ted, a corrupt Wall Street executive who Charlie protected in prison, and who now manages his finances. Perhaps it's for the best that the show was canceled -- I don't know how well the character of a lovable blue-collar criminal would go over these days, even one who's learned his lesson.
For the most part, the show is a procedural, although a surprising amount of force comes from Charlie investigating the conspiracy that sent him away. Just about every episode, he's getting a new clue, so it's not just "case of the week" while you're waiting for the arc to kick in. It's handled very well, even if there are a few glaring narrative shortcuts taken due to the Writer's Strike (like when Charlie is able to identify a suspect based on a child's drawing. "He has facial hair! It's gotta be our man!")
One criticism I have is the show's focus on Charlie's love life. There are three big things there.
1. Charlie has a steady succession of honeys coming by to... what's the polite euphemism?... grind on his junk? Which makes sense, since he did just get out of prison. And is a guy.
2. Charlie has an UST thing going with the attorney who sprung him from prison, but she's married. How can our hero pursue a relationship with another man's wife, after all?
3. Charlie routinely harasses his ex-wife's new husband. There isn't even the figleaf justification that he "stole her" from Charlie. She thought he was guilty, she divorced him, and she met someone new. Unfortunate, sure, but not some injustice that has to be rectified through constant speeding tickets.
I guess the show is trying to show that Charlie isn't as Zen as he says he is, or even wants to be, but I think they could've found a better way to illustrate that.
At the very least, the first season ends with him realizing he's done wrong and apologizing for his actions, so at least they aren't claiming that he's doing it all because he stilllllllll loves her (yeah, fucking a bunch of co-eds, he must still love his wife). Then the second season comes around and Charlie resumes his attentions on her, with the wife reciprocating them.
Charlie, Charlie, Charlie... why would you even want to be in a relationship with someone who thought you were capable of killing an entire family? This isn't a shipping war thing, but I think the relationship with his attorney was more interesting, so I'm not sure why they didn't go with that. The wife thing ends up not going anywhere (among the deleted scenes is one of them breaking it off... again) and on the whole, I think the entire plot was better done by Justified.
The "dickishness equals love" thing continues through the second season, with Dani entering into a relationship with a jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold character. I think it plays out well, owing a lot to the acting of the guy (the naughty-vampire-god dude from Blade), but I can see how it would hit some narrative squicks. For my money, the OTP has to be Ted/Olivia (Christina Hendricks!). He's attracted to her, falls in love with her, but she's in a relationship, so he doesn't pester her or pressure her. The ending gives some hope for them kicking something off, so I really hope they make it.
By the end, there was a "they can't end it there!" point where I was going "they can't end it there!", so in that sense, the story definitely did its job. In the end, I think the series ended a lot like Legend of the Seeker. There's still evil out there, but for now, the deed is done and our heroes can enjoy a well-deserved victory. And yeah, it sucks that we don't get a grand finale, but maybe "the adventure continues" is the best ending. I don't know what more the show could reveal about Charlie and the conspiracy (I wouldn't say no to finding out), unless they were going the Prison Break route of revealing new and more outlandish secrets every season.
"It's true. I have no dick."
As a sidenote, Damian Lewis's wife, Helen McCrory, shows up as a frosty British anti-hero. And Damian Lewis is definitely a very lucky man. She also plays Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies and they must have gone out of their way to make her look like hell, because there is no way that happened by accident.
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 12:29 am (UTC)"Dig a hole...fill it up." I think there was a good chance he was going to kill the guy.
Off Topic; this may be relevant to your interests
Date: 2010-11-04 12:06 pm (UTC)Re: Off Topic; this may be relevant to your interests
Date: 2010-11-04 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-04 02:03 pm (UTC)