I win. (At Life?)
Finally showed Liz the last two episodes of Life-- I insisted she not watch them without me. Anyone who's seen the show should understand. Dig a hole, fill it up.
I'm left with one simple question:
Why is EVERYBODY ON MY FLIST not watching this show?
'Cause it's fucking amazing. On the shallowest possible level: it's beautifully shot, the music is brilliant, and Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi are hot as hell.
It's also incredibly well-written, well-acted, well-plotted, and (possibly most important, to me at least) funny.
Fear not the writer's strike, people; the first eleven episodes neatly wrap up the first major story arc, while leaving just enough threads dangling to provide fodder for the next season. And we are totally getting a new season because it's been renewed for fall '08.
This, it seems, is me pimping.
EDIT: Now with bonus sound clips!
The Characters
Charlie Crews: "Anger ruins joy, steals the goodness of my mind, forces my mouth to say terrible things. Overcoming anger brings peace of mind, leads to a mind without regrets. If I overcome anger, I will be delightful and loved by everyone." (sound clip)
Our Hero, a former Los Angeles beat cop who was framed for a triple homicide and sent to maximum security federal prison. We don't see much of his life as a cop in jail, but they don't skirt around it either. "They broke nearly every bone in his body," we're told in the first few seconds of the pilot episode. (The NBC website offers more details.) He was convicted in 1995, and stayed in prison for twelve years, until DNA testing proved his innocence and he was released-- along with a settlement from the LAPD that gave him a detective's shield and an undisclosed amount of money (closest estimate: A Shitload).
Charlie found Zen in prison (it was behind the sofa the whole time), and the best part is that he's not tedious about it-- you can see the sheer delight he takes in his new way of looking at the world, and sometimes he uses it like a weapon when he wants to piss people off. But you get the feeling sometimes that it's all just a mask for some real, deep-seated anger. The dangerous kind of anger. He's a little nuts. Not that we can blame him.
He's occasionally rude, very ginger, and has a major hard-on for fresh fruit. Charlie is played by the incomparable Damian Lewis, who's one of those guys who just looks odd until you see him in action, at which point he officially becomes HOT LIKE BURNING.
Reese: "Why exactly would the universe make fun of us all?"
Crews: "Maybe it's insecure." (sound clip)
Dani Reese:
Crews: "But you were a little girl once."
Reese: "There's no proof of that." (sound clip)
Charlie's assigned partner and senior detective; she drew the short straw because she's a recovering alcoholic and former drug addict, as a result of a previous undercover assignment, and so was bumped to the bottom of the totem pole. Dani's tiny and tough as nails. She's also half-Iranian and fluent in Farsi. My favorite thing about Dani, though it's hard to choose, is that she's not written as a woman, not really; she's written as a person who's a cop, first and foremost, with strengths and weaknesses and virtues and flaws, and how sad is it that that's a remarkable thing to find in a female character? But you find it here.
Dani's not quite sure what to make of Charlie. She's not even sure she likes him. But he's her partner, and she'll go to the mat for him, no matter what. She's played by Sarah Shahi, perhaps better known as Carmen from The L Word and the ghost chick from the pilot episode of Supernatural. (Also, she's only three years older than me. Holy crap.)
Crews: "It's all connected, Reese."
Reese: "What is?"
Crews: "It is."
Reese: "Mmm, that's zen."
Crews: "Is it?"
Reese: "That's zen too, isn't it?"
Crews: "Is it?"
Reese: "Say 'is it' one more time and I'll shoot you." (sound clip)
Constance Griffiths: Charlie's lawyer, who helped secure his exoneration and release. Full disclosure: Constance is my least favorite part of the show. She's not bad, exactly, but compared to the awesomeness that is Charlie and Dani and everyone else, there's something lacking. But that may just be me.
Constance and Charlie have an odd relationship; they're clearly attracted to each other, but Connie is married, and as much as Charlie likes her, he's not about to break up her marriage. The NBC site suggests he idolizes her to some extent, and making a move on her would be crossing a line he's not willing to breach. She's significant mainly in that she has spent the past four years trying to get Charlie out of prison; now that he's out, she's having a hard time moving on.
Connie is played by Brooke Langton, who was in The Net with a baby Eric Szmanda, and who I totally didn't recognize until I looked her up.
Ted Earley: Met Charlie in prison after he was convicted of insider trading. Charlie saved his life by convincing some fellow convicts inmates to leave him alone, "in a way I wasn't able to," Ted says (i.e., violently). Now that they're both free, he manages Charlie's settlement money. People think he lives in Charlie's garage. He actually lives in a room above Charlie's garage. It's an important distinction.
Ted is fucking awesome, and is, he is assured, neither Robin nor Alfred to Charlie's Batman. He's played by Adam Arkin.
Lieutenant Karen Davis: Charlie and Dani's boss; the former partner of Dani's father, retired cop Jack Reese. She's suspicious of Charlie's motives for returning to the force-- why wouldn't he just take the settlement money and retire? Has a history with Dani, and takes a more than professional interest in her recovery from addiction. Played by Robin Weigert.
Officer Bobby Stark:
Stark: "Hey, can I get a picture? You know, on account of you being a celebrity detective and all."
Crews: "That's a phone, Bobby."
Officer: "It's got a camera in it. Where have you been?"
Crews: "Me? I've been in federal maximum security prison." (sound clip)
Charlie's partner before he was arrested. He's a dubious figure throughout the series; Charlie's never quite sure if Bobby can be trusted or not. He's old school, a bit of a misogynist, and very eager to make up for not defending Charlie at his trial. He and Dani... don't get along. To put it mildly. Played by Brent Sexton.
Then there's
The Plot
So Charlie's been released from prison, cleared of all charges, and given A Shitload of cash. Why, you might ask, doesn't he just retire somewhere warm and sunny?
Charlie: "Do I look like I tan?"
He'll tell you it's because being a cop is just who he is. And maybe part of that's true, but the real reason is that he wants to find out who killed his friends-- Tom Seybolt, Tom's wife and son-- and framed him for the murders. Because he knows it's gotta be someone in the LAPD.
Nobody else knows what he really wants, but everyone wants something from him. Davis wants Dani to find out why Charlie's sticking around. Dani wants him to shut the hell up. Bobby wants to get back on Charlie's good side. Connie wants her relationship with Charlie to become either more or less than what it currently is. Ted just wants to know if he and Charlie should get a dog.
When he's not fighting crime, Charlie enjoys shiny cars, female company, consuming metric tons of fruit, harassing his ex-wife's new husband, and pissing off his new partner by simply existing. He wants to be reincarnated as either a Flemish rabbit ("fifteen pounds of pure bunny!"), a whale, or a panda ("they just look cute. They're really very mean").
My new show, people.
You can watch the first eleven episodes at the NBC site. You can and you should. You really, really should.
I'm left with one simple question:
Why is EVERYBODY ON MY FLIST not watching this show?
'Cause it's fucking amazing. On the shallowest possible level: it's beautifully shot, the music is brilliant, and Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi are hot as hell.
It's also incredibly well-written, well-acted, well-plotted, and (possibly most important, to me at least) funny.
Fear not the writer's strike, people; the first eleven episodes neatly wrap up the first major story arc, while leaving just enough threads dangling to provide fodder for the next season. And we are totally getting a new season because it's been renewed for fall '08.
This, it seems, is me pimping.
EDIT: Now with bonus sound clips!
The Characters
Charlie Crews: "Anger ruins joy, steals the goodness of my mind, forces my mouth to say terrible things. Overcoming anger brings peace of mind, leads to a mind without regrets. If I overcome anger, I will be delightful and loved by everyone." (sound clip)
Our Hero, a former Los Angeles beat cop who was framed for a triple homicide and sent to maximum security federal prison. We don't see much of his life as a cop in jail, but they don't skirt around it either. "They broke nearly every bone in his body," we're told in the first few seconds of the pilot episode. (The NBC website offers more details.) He was convicted in 1995, and stayed in prison for twelve years, until DNA testing proved his innocence and he was released-- along with a settlement from the LAPD that gave him a detective's shield and an undisclosed amount of money (closest estimate: A Shitload).
Charlie found Zen in prison (it was behind the sofa the whole time), and the best part is that he's not tedious about it-- you can see the sheer delight he takes in his new way of looking at the world, and sometimes he uses it like a weapon when he wants to piss people off. But you get the feeling sometimes that it's all just a mask for some real, deep-seated anger. The dangerous kind of anger. He's a little nuts. Not that we can blame him.
He's occasionally rude, very ginger, and has a major hard-on for fresh fruit. Charlie is played by the incomparable Damian Lewis, who's one of those guys who just looks odd until you see him in action, at which point he officially becomes HOT LIKE BURNING.
Reese: "Why exactly would the universe make fun of us all?"
Crews: "Maybe it's insecure." (sound clip)
Dani Reese:
Crews: "But you were a little girl once."
Reese: "There's no proof of that." (sound clip)
Charlie's assigned partner and senior detective; she drew the short straw because she's a recovering alcoholic and former drug addict, as a result of a previous undercover assignment, and so was bumped to the bottom of the totem pole. Dani's tiny and tough as nails. She's also half-Iranian and fluent in Farsi. My favorite thing about Dani, though it's hard to choose, is that she's not written as a woman, not really; she's written as a person who's a cop, first and foremost, with strengths and weaknesses and virtues and flaws, and how sad is it that that's a remarkable thing to find in a female character? But you find it here.
Dani's not quite sure what to make of Charlie. She's not even sure she likes him. But he's her partner, and she'll go to the mat for him, no matter what. She's played by Sarah Shahi, perhaps better known as Carmen from The L Word and the ghost chick from the pilot episode of Supernatural. (Also, she's only three years older than me. Holy crap.)
Crews: "It's all connected, Reese."
Reese: "What is?"
Crews: "It is."
Reese: "Mmm, that's zen."
Crews: "Is it?"
Reese: "That's zen too, isn't it?"
Crews: "Is it?"
Reese: "Say 'is it' one more time and I'll shoot you." (sound clip)
Constance Griffiths: Charlie's lawyer, who helped secure his exoneration and release. Full disclosure: Constance is my least favorite part of the show. She's not bad, exactly, but compared to the awesomeness that is Charlie and Dani and everyone else, there's something lacking. But that may just be me.
Constance and Charlie have an odd relationship; they're clearly attracted to each other, but Connie is married, and as much as Charlie likes her, he's not about to break up her marriage. The NBC site suggests he idolizes her to some extent, and making a move on her would be crossing a line he's not willing to breach. She's significant mainly in that she has spent the past four years trying to get Charlie out of prison; now that he's out, she's having a hard time moving on.
Connie is played by Brooke Langton, who was in The Net with a baby Eric Szmanda, and who I totally didn't recognize until I looked her up.
Ted Earley: Met Charlie in prison after he was convicted of insider trading. Charlie saved his life by convincing some fellow convicts inmates to leave him alone, "in a way I wasn't able to," Ted says (i.e., violently). Now that they're both free, he manages Charlie's settlement money. People think he lives in Charlie's garage. He actually lives in a room above Charlie's garage. It's an important distinction.
Ted is fucking awesome, and is, he is assured, neither Robin nor Alfred to Charlie's Batman. He's played by Adam Arkin.
Lieutenant Karen Davis: Charlie and Dani's boss; the former partner of Dani's father, retired cop Jack Reese. She's suspicious of Charlie's motives for returning to the force-- why wouldn't he just take the settlement money and retire? Has a history with Dani, and takes a more than professional interest in her recovery from addiction. Played by Robin Weigert.
Officer Bobby Stark:
Stark: "Hey, can I get a picture? You know, on account of you being a celebrity detective and all."
Crews: "That's a phone, Bobby."
Officer: "It's got a camera in it. Where have you been?"
Crews: "Me? I've been in federal maximum security prison." (sound clip)
Charlie's partner before he was arrested. He's a dubious figure throughout the series; Charlie's never quite sure if Bobby can be trusted or not. He's old school, a bit of a misogynist, and very eager to make up for not defending Charlie at his trial. He and Dani... don't get along. To put it mildly. Played by Brent Sexton.
Then there's
The Plot
So Charlie's been released from prison, cleared of all charges, and given A Shitload of cash. Why, you might ask, doesn't he just retire somewhere warm and sunny?
Charlie: "Do I look like I tan?"
He'll tell you it's because being a cop is just who he is. And maybe part of that's true, but the real reason is that he wants to find out who killed his friends-- Tom Seybolt, Tom's wife and son-- and framed him for the murders. Because he knows it's gotta be someone in the LAPD.
Nobody else knows what he really wants, but everyone wants something from him. Davis wants Dani to find out why Charlie's sticking around. Dani wants him to shut the hell up. Bobby wants to get back on Charlie's good side. Connie wants her relationship with Charlie to become either more or less than what it currently is. Ted just wants to know if he and Charlie should get a dog.
When he's not fighting crime, Charlie enjoys shiny cars, female company, consuming metric tons of fruit, harassing his ex-wife's new husband, and pissing off his new partner by simply existing. He wants to be reincarnated as either a Flemish rabbit ("fifteen pounds of pure bunny!"), a whale, or a panda ("they just look cute. They're really very mean").
My new show, people.
You can watch the first eleven episodes at the NBC site. You can and you should. You really, really should.