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 Cop shows are always looking for new ways to speak in a fresh voice. We’ve had them with psychics, mathematicians, anthropologists, dogs – even musical cop shows and aliens who partner with earthlings. Yet, it’s hard to recall even one where the cop was once a criminal, the premise of NBC’s new drama, Life.
Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers) plays a cop who was unjustly imprisoned for 12 long years. Upon being cleared he receives a hefty compensation (think millions) and his badge restored. But now, after years being treated as a criminal, he thinks like one. It gives him an edge in crime-solving unlike any other.
Pivotal to this deft idea is the casting, and ginger-haired Lewis is impressive as the offbeat, unconventional Charlie Crews. He has a ‘zen-like’ attention to detail for evidence that evades his peers. His methodology in talking to witnesses is anything but by the book. He can’t get his head around technology that has advanced while he has been locked away (he laughs off a colleague attempting to take his photo –with a phone). Crews has more money than he knows what to do with. But his values are aptly left-of-centre; he is given to poetic moments of philosophy at the most inopportune moments. All of which elevates Charlie to an intriguing mix, shooting for the individuality of Dr Gregory House or Monk.
But at heart he remains a cop, and one with an agenda. Finding out who framed him will comprise an on-going series arc.
Crews’ crime-solving buddy is the no-fuss Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi), who played the sexy DJ Carmen in The L Word. Now she’s straight and works to departmental protocol with a Scully-like need for procedure and evidence.
Stylistically, the series is also punctuated by doco-style interviews profiling the history of Crews’ wrongful imprisonment.
As with similar network programming, Life will debut here only a week after its US premiere. Created by Rand Ravich (The Astronaut’s Wife, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind), Life seeps off the screen with a confidence that suggests it is here to stay. Doubled with House by TEN in a highly-competitive timeslot, it’s more than worth a look if you like cop shows that are smart, stylish and proffer some fresh new faces.
And don’t miss the comic closing scene in the credits.
Life premieres 9:30pm Wednesday October 4 on TEN.
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