Life: Season 2

Sorry about the TL;DR length of this review, but there’s a lot to unpack here; some minor spoilers follow. This short ‘lived’ series on the surface looks like it should have been a long running success based on the cast alone. The abridged 11 episode first season introduces Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis), an LAPD police officer who is convicted of murdering a family of three and sentenced to life in prison. Naturally his life is hell, his gorgeous wife (played by Jennifer Siebert Newsom, now the wife of the current California governor IRL) divorces him and remarries and as an ex- cop in Pelican Bay maximum security prison he’s not real popular with his fellow inmates. Then, just like that, he’s exonerated by DNA evidence after serving 12 years and released with a $50M settlement and reinstatement to the LAPD with a promotion to detective in homicide. His new partner Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi) is saddled with Crews because she’s in hot water with the department for developing a substance abuse addiction while serving undercover. Now in recovery, Crews is part of her penance. Nobody is quite sure about Charlie’s motives for returning to the department and wonder if he’s seeking revenge and trying to find out who framed him? Aiding Charlie is his live in investment manager Ted (Adam Arkin), a former white collar criminal Charlie befriended in prison. This running plot is compelling enough and the weekly murders are fairly interesting while watching Crews grapple with his newly won freedom and how much society has changed while he was inside. Unfortunately, season two just doesn’t hold up despite getting 21 episodes to work with. What began as a drama morphs into a dramedy and occasionally is a borderline comedy. While Charlie has caught the person who murdered the family last season, he still doesn’t know who framed him so he continues his off the books investigating. The storylines get sillier and sillier and Charlie’s behavior more bizarre to the point that it’s hard to believe he’s still employed. Sub plots from S1 like Charlie’s father getting remarried to a younger woman (Olivia, played by pre-“Mad Men” Christina Hendricks who is terribly underutilized here) carryover to S2, as well as Charlie’s ongoing obsession with reuniting and sleeping with his remarried ex-wife, which he ultimately does. In this era of endless police procedurals most viewers know the basics of preserving a crime scene and evidence handling and such, but the writers of “Life” must just watch reality shows as many mistakes are made. A favorite of mine is when trying to get a witness to identify a suspect instead of showing her the usual “6-pack” photo array, Charlie just hands her a photo of the guy they like for the crime (it even has the suspect’s name on it): “Is this the guy you saw?” Talk about leading the witness, yikes. Or when Charlie is shot (which by the way should have been fatal based on the anatomical location of the wound) he later gets the bullet, melts it down recasting it and reuses it; I guess the fact that it’s physical evidence in the unsolved shooting of a cop is irrelevant. The problem is that the writers and creators of “Life” opted to make Charlie Crews a ‘quirky’ detective and got a little carried away with his idiosyncrasies. Charlie has a wacky obsession with fruit; he’s constantly spouting Zen Buddhist philosophies, and he disdains furniture. Damien Lewis does the best he can with this stuff but compared with the nuanced portrayals of other unconventional crime busters like Tony Shaloub in “Monk” or Johnny Lee Miller in “Elementary” there is just too much going on and it’s distracting. I could easily see why his partner Reese would be exasperated with him. They double down in S2 and he is even weirder and in one scene he fires three shots into the wall of a bar to prove a point about how cops are trained to shoot tight groups…utterly irresponsible and unbelievable. Season 2 unceremoniously replaces Lt Davis (Robin Weigert, who was incredible as Calamity Jane on “Deadwood”) with Donal Logue as the duo’s new boss, Capt Tidwell. He’s a brash NYC police captain who moves to LA and is able to walk into this supervisory position where he doesn’t know the city or any of the detectives and officers he’s in charge of; I’d think they’d promote from within the department until this newb paid his dues but what do I know? He’s misogynistic and sexist, even though this is 2008 he’d be fired or doing sensitivity training the rest of his career. More preposterous is later on he and Reese develop a romantic relationship; I’m sorry but Logue is a fat schlub and Sarah Shahi is too young (14 years younger IRL) and way out of his league (Shahi’s a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader). Oh, and not to mention that it’s unprofessional, unethical and bad for unit morale to date your subordinates! He’s a buffoon and I hated his character. Relationships like this are part of the Hollywood trend where dorky guys have hot wives or girlfriends; if you believe Courtney Thorne-Smith would really be married to Jim Belushi (“According to Jim”) or that Leah Remini and Kevin James (“King of Queens”) are a likely couple then I guess you’ll buy this twosome but I don’t. Cars, Charlie has a new Bentley which after two episodes Ted runs over with a farm tractor. Charlie then gets a vintage 1987 Buick Grand National GNX tricked out with police lights and a siren (which, since it’s not an official department vehicle I question the likelihood of) which he later gives away in a dubious transaction while trying to elude pursuit. In season two he gets a Maserati and we see him handed the keys at the dealer and guess what? It already has police lights and a siren, who knew Maserati offered a law enforcement package option? Later on a bad guy holding a hostage coerces Crews and Reese to shoot up the Maserati so they can’t pursue him. After pumping the car full of bullets it still drives and we see him cruising around in the bullet riddled sports sedan. A guy with over $50M can afford more than one car and to have his cars repaired so this is just dumb. With today’s CGI and FX technology most crime shows take great pride in the work their production teams can do to create incredibly realistic (and often gruesome) dead bodies with “Bones” being a good example. For whatever reason “Life” features the most unrealistic dead body’s ever seen on television. Usually it’s just some actor posed on the floor, maybe with a little blood, but otherwise they look like someone taking a nap. If you have a budged to rent Maserati and Bentley automobiles maybe you could splurge a bit on some moulage for your corpses to enhance the realism of the scene? Sub plots are introduced and then go nowhere leaving viewers to wonder why they were included to begin with. The previously mentioned obsession of Charlie’s with hooking up with his remarried ex is an example, a fair amount of time is devoted to this story but it ultimately peters out and we never see her or hear about her again. Another one is Ted’s falling in love with Olivia despite her engagement and imminent marriage to Charlie’s father. When Olivia calls off the wedding Charlie’s irate dad shows up at the mansion first to blame Charlie and then finds out about Ted’s involvement but then we don’t hear anything more about it. The teen daughter of the slain family Charlie was accused of killing, Rachel Seybolt, eventually comes to live with him. The two have an interesting dynamic but after 7 episodes she’s packed off to some other relative for her own safety and she receives no further mention. Overall poor writing and a lack of vision by the creators of “Life” doomed it to failure despite two strong lead actors. Damian Lewis has worked steadily in a number of successful shows, most notably “Homeland” so this dud hasn’t impacted his career any. Sarah Shahi likewise has survived quite nicely getting her own series “Fairly Legal” and playing Sameen Shaw (another version of Dani Reese) on “Person of Interest” and she’s presently starring in a ‘mommy porn’ drama, “Sex/Life” which is generating a lot of interest. “Life” is a disappointing show which I cannot recommend and the number of 5-star ratings here is baffling.

The first season of Life was strike abbreviated and just enough to get you hooked on the premise, the characters and the writing. But Season Two of the show was like opening a gift - both in terms of the acting, writing, technical direction, choice of interesting LA venues and wonderful camera work; and advancing the story arc of Crews wrongful imprisonment's genesis. The relationship of Crews and Reese has become stable and supportive, that's not to say that Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) still doesn't irritate, exasperate and often amaze Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi), but they are balanced and he's not constantly rescuing the "maiden in distress". This season you get to see the cracks in Charlie's Zen armor and the effect his trust and confidence has on a very distrusting Dani. And as much as it pains me to admit it, Captain Kevin Tidwell (Donal Logue) has proven to be more than a comedic foil. He's a real person who adds to the story and helps the team through the season, whilst continuing a irregular and illicit romantic relationship with Dani. But he's good for her and that relationship moves Dani toward the season finale reveal that most viewers were looking for with Crews. It's about how you find your faith again, the renewal of trust and the connections we make and the importance and wonder of love (in all forms).The appearance of wonderful guest stars doesn't take the focus off the central relationship in the series, that of Crews and Reese. That being said, the series was really enriched by the choices of guest stars like:Garrett Dillahunt (as the ever slimy Russian thug Roman Nevikov)William Atherton (as the only tangible piece of the conspiracy we see this season- Mickey Rayborne)Helen McCrory (as the security expert Amanda Puryer - hired by Rayborne and used by Crew)Gabrielle Union (as the overachieving junior Detective Jane Seever -who I didn't hate nearly as much as I thought I would when I heard she was replacing Sarah Shahi)I am always amazed at the incredible amount of information conveyed by Damian Lewis' facial expressions and eyes. He continues to say more with just a look than half the actors on TV can with their mouths in 45 minutes. The manner in which the producers dealt with Sarah's pregnancy was inventive and kept her link with Crews alive. It made me realize that I missed Sarah too. She is an integral part of the team and without her presence the show lists and meanders- when Sarah and Damian are together you feel the link, the balance, the connection. Sometimes they don't have to be present in the same shot, but speaking about each other or two each other. It was also very apparent that Crews missed Reese and vice versa. It's very clear that Charlie has one partner and it's Dani. The realization that he comes to in the finale is poignant without being overplayed and leaves much room for growth, drama and conflict in the third season this show richly deserves.It is an ever increasingly disappointing social commentary on us as viewers that talent show TV survives and thrives, when gems like this struggle to win their niche in TV land. Only by respecting and appreciating "gifts' like LIFE can we hope for continued good television. If you haven't seen Life yet, check it out. You are in for a treat, in terms of talent, writing, sheer entertainment value and visually arresting shots and venues.And who knows... if you listen you might just learn something from Crews - that you don't have to understand here to be here. For now, I'll appreciate the now of Life's Second Season and try not to think about where we're going next (......but I'm secretly hoping it is Season Three).

I loved this show. Only a couple of years but it hasn't aged. Would have loved to see it continue. This was because of the writers stike and then the show that was picked up for more seasons was let go that mid season. But at least they had the opportunity to finish the questions of who really killed his best freind. When this cop was locked up in prison for his murder, he get out by errors made at the police and gets his job back plus 50 plus million in restitution. The line I will never forget? I KNEW MY FREIND.when it comes your time to judge; can you say that?

I liked that drama and the way they approached closing the storylines because they hadn't been ren

Liked it a lot 😁👍

Parfait. Référence très difficile à se procurer à l’état neuf. J’ai eu la chance de trouver un super vendeur qui vendait la saison à son prix de sortie. Certes, je regrette de ne pas avoir saisi les offres aux alentours de 15 € de l’époque, mais cette référence Brand New Sealed pour moins de 22 € en 2019 reste une aubaine. Concernant cette saison 2, le seul reproche est qu’on sent que les scénaristes ont dû, passé la mi-saison, faire tenir le contenu de ce qui aurait pu être Une ou Deux saisons supplémentaires, dans moins de 6 épisodes. Sûrement parce qu’on venait de les informer qu’il n’y aurait pas de saison 3. Heureusement cela n’altère pas trop la série (en dehors de quelques rares Américanniaiseries, du genre cadres avec postures héroïques ou encore répliques qui font mouche et autres effets de manche), ni son dénouement, et permet ainsi à cette série de finir avec toute la sobriété de la philosophie Zen ...ou pas ! (Je n’irai pas plus loin, m’étant moi même spolié à l’époque de sa 1ère diffusion sur le PAF, après avoir raté 2 ou 3 épisodes, et ne souhaitant pas en voir plus avant d’avoir refait mon retard, je ne résistais pourtant pas à la tentation de zapper et jeter un oeil ...vite fait ...2 mn ...pas plus ...et ...?!! Je vous laisse découvrir la fin).

Like "Pushing Daisies", "Life" was a brilliant piece of work, well written, expertly acted.And then NBC got suicidal...again. To make matters worse, the filmed conclusion of the show is missing - the producers were a lot smarter than the NBC people - a deadground hog is a lot smarter - and they wrote a concluding program. It is talked about as if here, but it isn't. You see, NBC never ran it. So it wasn't made available as part of the Second Season. As so often the case, television screwed up a good show by leaving it hanging when there was no need to do so. Maybe they think we'll all believe that it was a dream like the "Dallas" disaster - now, if only they had had to 'think'. (Someone get them a dictionary...) But it is a good show, and in a more perfect world someone else would have picked it up and run it for a few more years. It is most watchable, a neat puzzle inside a maze, well done, and deserving of a better treatment than given here.So go buy some fresh fruit, sit back, and enjoy what they have left us with. It certainly beats what they replaced it with...and NBC got just what NBC deserved to get.

I first came across Damian Lewis in the HBO series "Bank of Brothers" ( if you are interested in WW2 and you have not watched it this is a must as well ) and he was brilliant as Major Richard Winters, well in his role as Charlie Crews he is addictive. I was given Season 1 as a present and my wife and I watched all nine episodes in two or three nights and immediately at the end ordered season 2 which arrived a few days ago. This time we are rationing ourselves to an episode a night ( well, we cheated last night already and watched two ) so if you enjoy a detective series with a twist this is definitely one to watch.As I said, Damian Lewis is great but behind a great lead actor a number of very good supporting ones: Sarah Shahi as Dani Reese besides being gorgeous plays a great role as Charlie's partner and Adam Arkin as his live-in friend Ted Early adds his bit to the spectrum of characters. The new police boss is Donal Logue as Captain Kevin Tidwell is great as their boss.

Life Season 2 [DVD] [2008 ]Charlie Crews continues his quest to clear his name. After finding the Seaboulds real killer Crews continues his investigation into why he was framed & who by. This is complicated by the fact that his partner, Reese, may or may not have a connection to the case. Reese has become more acceptable of Crews their new boss however takes sometime to come to terms with Crews little quirks & methodology. Tidwell is as a character is better than his predesesor who was reluctant to give Crews any leaway & wanted rid of him though she did eventually come around. This show had it all great storylines, good humour & excellent actors so why NBC saw fit to finish it is astonishing given some of the programmes they have recommisioned (how much longer does Law & Order plus it's spin-offs need to be kept alive). Plus I miss Ted who despite being so worldly wise seemed such an innocent at time & an excellent foil for Charlie. Life Season 2 [DVD] [2008

I bought this as it was on special offer. I had seen none of them on TV so I did not know what to expect. I really enjoyed the quirky nature of the show and the way every episode featured a new crime but also incorporated another step in the mystery of who framed Charlie Crews for murder.I found the series absolutely mesmerising and I really cannot understand why it was cancelled so quickly. There are a few things left dangling at the end but on the whole there is a satisfying end to the central mystery. To be honest though, the aspect of the series I enjoyed the most was the relationship between the characters and the humour in the situations they found themselves in. It was often the little details that had me chortling, Crews's cars, Ted and his relationship with Charlie's dad's fiancee are just a couple of the things to watch out for.Excellent value - wish there was more