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]

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.