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

[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.