Life...

[fajrdrako]

In these long dreary days before series 2 Torchwood and series 4 Doctor Who and the next season of Battlestar Galactica begin, I have taken to watching Life. Without feeling the least little bit fannish about it, I'm enjoying it very much - and it seems that each episode is better than the one before it.

The premise: it's a cop show about a cop, Charlie Crews, who, twelve years earlier, was convicted of the murder of his friend and business parter. He went to jail for the murder, where he was beaten and abused by other prisoners. He got himself through by reading about zen. Eventually his lawyer proved (from DNA evidence) that he was totally innocent of the murder. He got his freedom, a large monetary settlement, and a job on the police force. His new partner is a woman named Dani Reese, a recovered drug addict. Crews wants to know who framed him for the murder.

Crews reminds me a little of David Creegan of Touching Evil though he isn't brain damaged. He's a guy who spent twelve years in a brutal prison, and has to readjust to the world - but who has his own perspective on things. He shares his house with his personal accountant, Ted, whom he met in prison - Ted was guilty of insider trading.

Like Veronica Mars, each episode features a case. And - this is subtler - each episode has a theme or visual image as a motif. "The Fallen Woman", for example, is about a prostitute who was killed when thrown from a high window, wearing angel wings. Angels become a visual and conceptual motif.

And each episode brings in a new clue about the twelve-year-old murder.

The things I like about it are:

1. Detective Dani Reese: I think she's clever and gorgeous and I love her deadpan delivery of clever lines. And the way she has of squinting as she stares into the distance, like Clint Eastwood.
   
   Dani reminds me of three characters I have loved, two from comics, one from a novel. One is Danielle Moonstar from Marvel comics - maybe because she was also called Dani, but she was also a smart, dark-haired, physically capable hero.
   
   The next two are both created by the same author, Greg Rucka, whose stories I like - particularly his female protagonists. One is Renee Montoya of the Gotham City Police Department. The other is Bridgett Logan, female lead of several of Greg Rucka's novels in the Atticus Kodiak series - Bridgett is a private eye and bodyguard who used to have a drug problem.



2. The zen themes - sometimes presented seriously, sometimes ironically. Giving a slightly different view of the mean streets than we're used to.



3. Ted Earley, Crews' financial adviser and prison pal, played by Adam Arkin with just the right touches of humour and intelligence.



4. Constance Griffiths, Crews' lawyer - she's beautiful and Crews owes his freedom to her, and there's great sexual energy between them. But she's married.



I've watched six of the eight episodes aired so far - and there was another one tonight. I'm looking forward to the rest, and hoping that the show isn't cancelled, or that the writers' strike doesn't do it in.

Comments

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Life has been picked up (http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20071126nbc02), so no worries there.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Thank you for the good news.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I am fannish about it. There are two episodes next week, and then I think they've used up the pre-WGA strike work.
a nice fan video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1180469137771821085

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What a great vid!

I hope the strike is over soon. I'm not even through watching the episodes I have now, and I want more!

If this show had slash potential anywhere, it would be more than perfect. As it is, I'm turning into a Charlie/Dani shipper.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Charlie and Dani in the short term have opportunities (that they take) for anonymous sex. What they really need in their lives is someone they can trust
to be there under any circumstances, without judgment. That's what they've found in each other(allowing leeway for Dani's sardonic remarks), in addition
to working towards a common goal (justice, which they amazingly enough still believe in). They really are partners, although not particularly friends. I don't expect them to be lovers, but I think that the intensity of their relationship might interfere with any romances that either of them might embark upon.

I think the most interesting character is their boss. She can't stand Charlie, she wants to be the politico that her job requires her to be, but she also is really interested in solving cases and can't push aside her detective instincts enough to get rid of Crews while he's doing such a good job, or to stop herself from doing bits of work with them. I don't trust her, but she's surprisingly successful at walking a fine line that others might not be able to manage.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Charlie and Dani in the short term have opportunities (that they take) for anonymous sex.

Which, I must confess, I rather like - both that the sex is anonymous and that it isn't particularly meaningful/fulfilling. In most TV shows (except soap operas, and even them to some extent) protagonists are either celibate or monogamous and faithful, and the days of womanizing heroes have faded away with other sexist notions. But. Human sexuality isn't so simple and there's a certain lack of either realism or imagination in television when everyone acts the same.

But of course they need emotional (and intellectual) as well as physical connections and that's one of the reasons the relationship between Charlie and Dani is so much fun - however you play it. They can be on each other's side.

And the relationship between Charlie and Constance is fun because it's so sparky and charged and significant in ways that go infinitely beyond the sexual, and is still impossible.

Their boss interests me less (so far) but you're right, she is interesting, and I'm hoping she will come to defend Crews in the long run. Even if against her better judgement.

[maaseru.livejournal.com]

Jean says that she has only seen the actor who plays Crews in villain roles, which makes it very interesting and risky casting. Glad to hear the show has been picked up.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Aside from the Masterpiece Theatre role as Soames Forsyte, he was previously best known in the US as Dick Winters, the center and soul of the HBO series "Band of Brothers" (lots of episodes, but available at many public libraries, at least in the US). I think that was his first US accent. Flawless. Another US role was in the Stephen King movie "Dreamcatcher." I haven't seen it or read it, so I don't know whether he was a villain or not.

There was a series in the UK of acting out poems (sort of hard to describe). Damian Lewis read at least three of them. See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SpVYlxhtdo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr8Z-S5wE2c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu4-nIchhtE&feature=related

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Aside from the Masterpiece Theatre role as Soames Forsyte

My first thought was, "Huh? He's way too young!" but then I remembered that they remade The Forsyte Saga since I was a kid.

I was then going to say there was no chance that my public library would have Band of Brothers, but I looked in the catalogue, and there, to my surprise, it is. They don't usually have TV shows at all, and when they do, it's usually British stuff that has come by way of Masterpiece Theatre. So one can get the Inspector Tennison mysteries, or Hercule Poirot, but not Hill Street Blues or Remington Steele - I've never figured out why this is.

Thanks for the links.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Aside from the Masterpiece Theatre role as Soames Forsyte

My first thought was, "Huh? He's way too young!" but then I remembered that they remade The Forsyte Saga since I was a kid.

Yes. It was an ITV production, about 3 or 4 years ago. It amuses me when people refer to these as Masterpiece Theatre shows: they just buy up serials from the UK, usually from the BBC (some are co-productions).

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Considering that MP is where most Americans see these shows, it's understandable.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Sadly, in Canada, we usually get them from Masterpiece Theatre too, since if they are aired on Canadian TV, it's often long after they're aired on Masterpiece Theatre, and most of our cable packages - in Ottawa, anyway - include at least one PBS station.

Even more sadly, it seems that the PBS station that Ottawa gets is one of the few which which has chosen to never show classic Doctor Who episodes. What's with that?

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

AFAICT, from having lived in (and watched various PBS stations in) many parts of the US, PBS stations that don't rerun old Doctor Who episodes are the rule more than the exception.

Just out of curiosity, do you know the call letters of the PBS station you get? Is it, by any chance, WGBH?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

WGBH sounds awfully familiar. Yes, I think so. But the website seems to say that's out of Boston and I thought the one I watched was from somewhere like Potsdam. Maybe that's just the transmitters - ?

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I don't know of any cities in the US called Potsdam that are big enough to have a PBS station. Doesn't mean there aren't any, I guess.

The reason I thought it might be WGBH (aka W God Bless Harvard, which is why I can remember their letters [g]) is that the Boston PBS station is sort of the flagship PBS station -- most of the big shows, including Masterpiece Theater, originate out of it, although they get broadcast all over the country. The NY, DC, and SF stations do a fair amount of programming, too, but I can't remember their call letters, and besides, the Boston station is closer to you geographically. I know that doesn't matter on a technical level, but the CBC affiliate I get on my cable is the Vancouver one, so it may matter to TPTB in other ways.

Speaking of MT, did you watch The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There's probably a Potsdam transmitter or something - I'm remembering from 30 years ago, and the technology is probably all changed anyway. That's almost certainly the same station. I hardly ever watch PBS now. In fact I watch it so seldom that I thought for years I didn't even get it, but I do. SO I should keep an eye on their shows, since I know from experience some are woth watching.

I never heard of The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard. What is it?

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I never heard of The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard. What is it?

A recently concluded MP miniseries. See http://tinyurl.com/2697fa. I enjoyed it very much, in spite of my extremely limited knowledge of the British parliamentary system. The plot is basically that an extremely unlikely person winds up as the British Prime Minister. It ended in a cliffhanger, though, which did annoy me. I don't know if there's going to be another series [g] of it, but I hope so. I'd like to know how things got resolved.

I may have to see if I can locate the DVD of it one of these days, though, because I ran across it channel-surfing one Sunday night, and so missed most of the first episode, and I'd really like to find out exactly how she did wind up as Prime Minister. Most of the series dealt with what she did once she got there.

[filkferengi]

She was manager of a grocery store in the north of England who got p'd off at the local political candidates making speeches in front of her store & getting in the way. She said she could do better, not being a professional politician, & decided to run, more as a protest than anything else. Next thing she knew, first one, then a few, then a whole avalanche of women candidates had signed on to her platform, & she won the election in a landslide. As the leader of a new political party, she wound up as prime minister.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Sounds good! I like the theme. Too bad that doesn't happen in real life.

[filkferengi]

Real life has its own inadvertencies, which can also be fun [just not usually as well-written].

:)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That sounds like fun! I'll watch it if I get a chance.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm @ his Soames.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, really?

Hmm.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Yes, I own the series and I just adore him in that part. Red head, stiff upper lip Brit, top hat love. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So at some point I'm going to have to watch that, too.

And Sarah Shahi is makes me want to watch The L Word, or at least the episodes she's in.

So much TV, so little time!

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

You should! I would love to hear your opinion of it. It has Ioan Gruffuld in it too.

I tried watching the L Word. I never could get into it. :( I don't really know why. I might try it again down the line.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What - Ioan Gruffudd too! I can't resist!

I watched part of an episode of The L Word and was frustrated because the couple I liked didn't stay together, so I stopped watching. But I think I might like it if I watched enough to get to know the characters. Maybe in future.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Don't get too excited. He doesn't last the whole series.

I tried watching it when it was on MP, and got so fed up with those people being so stupid (and, once Ioan Gruffudd was gone, so was my main reason for watching) that I quit about a third of the way in.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's a pity! I was well aware of the first series, which aired in the days I was a babysitter - though I don't think I ever actually watched it. Maybe a little, but I hardly remember it.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I never saw the first version. Am not inclined to search it out after what I saw of the second version [g].

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

I was given the series 1 and 2 DVDs of Forsyte Saga by a friend, just recently. DL blows me away as Soames. I just linked to a blog review of Life that contasted the two performances Crews vs Soames. That's acting! :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued!

Nice icon. Very nice icon.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The casting is interesting - I love it that Crews isn't your ordinary cop-type in looks or personal style. In fact, he isn't ordinary, period. But it's obvious, I think, that the creators of the show weren't thinking in terms of stereotypes when they conceived the show.

It's interesting also that Damian Lewis (according to Wikipedia) is British.

If he has played villains in the past, it adds a little meta-level verisimilitude to the idea that people would have thought him guilty of murder when he was actually innocent.

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

I'm fannish about it - posting vid links on my LJ, gathering icons, and all! :-) TWoP has a lively, really quite wonderful, thread for Life in the drama section, and lots of lovely Life motivators in the Rec Room folder.

True there's no slashiness. That's a pity. But all the relationships have so much to offer in other ways, to an unusual degree. Strong women, too.

I just read that the show's creator asked that it be filmed with a lot of light, unlike almost all cop/crime shows. Life uses the LA setting very well. It gives a very different look to the show.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

posting vid links on my LJ, gathering icons, and all!

Wonderful! A world of treats in store for me. I must read TwoP, which I keep forgetting about. Actually, the pattern is, I read it for a bit, find it enormously entertaining, then get irritated by the wankiness and wander away until something else prompts me to go and read.

Strong female characters do a lot to make up for the lack of slash. And I like Crews' relationships with the men, too, even though they're not slashy.

You're right, there is a lot of light. And some very effective use of colour.

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

The Life thread isn't wanky at this point, just full of loooove. :-)

In the Band of Brothers fandom, there's a ton of Winters/Nixon fanfic (Damian Lewis/Ron Livingston).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look into all of this - how nice to know this stuff exists.

Meanwhile, I have more episodes of Life to wach.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Are there other examples of slash fiction about actual living people? Winters is still alive, anyway (he'll be 90 in January). I don't know about Nixon.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Are there other examples of slash fiction about actual living people?

Yes, certainly. Lots of it. It's called RPS (for 'real person slash'). It's a large (but extremely controversial) genre.

Usually the people in it, though, aren't culled from TV shows set in the historical past.

[chazzbanner.livejournal.com]

Nixon died in the 1950s, I think.

TWoP Brand of Brothers posters tend to be squicked by the idea of slashing any of Easy Company, but on LJ I haven't seen such reticence. There is a strong sense that it's DL-as-Winters and RL-as-Nixon, almost as though they are fictional characters.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

on LJ I haven't seen such reticence

You made me laugh out loud and read that statement to my coworker.

Which is to say, I don't often see the words "livejournal" and "reticence" used in the same sentence.

Reticence is to LJ as oil is to water.

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

Oh, man I love Life I just recently mainlined all the eight episodes and fell in love. I love all the characters but particularly because of Reese, she's flawed and damaged but she never allows that fact to interfere with her work. She's incredibly competent and effective and I love the expressions she pulls whenever Crews tries her patience.

Reese is like the new Scully!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I just recently mainlined all the eight episodes and fell in love.

You're ahead of me - I just watched #7 last night.

You're so right about Reese.

I did love Scully, but with X-Files I was mostly a Mulder fan. With Life it's Reese who has won my heart and my devotion. She's... close to perfect in her imperfections.

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

Oh, man you are in for a great ride. This show just keeps getting better and better.

I came into the show because of Damien Lewis, I didn't expect I'd fall for Reese. She's just so... and the partnership between Charlie and Reese-- perfect.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, man you are in for a great ride.

Wonderful!

This show just keeps getting better and better.

Glad to hear it... but is it possible?

Yes, the partnership is wonderful. I never saw either Shahi or Lewis before.

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it... but is it possible?

I know it's just so fantastic they kept notching things up on the show, particularly in regards to the conspiracy.

I haven't seen Shahi's work before but I've loved Lewis ever since I watched Band of Brothers.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I saw "Farthingale" this evening, and loved it. The plots get better and better - and quirkier!