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

[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.