Life, "One": Apples and oranges

Spoilers for the season -- and, I'm guessing, series -- finale of "Life" coming up just as soon as I book a flight to Spain...

"People live through a lot of things you never thought they could." -Charlie Crews

"Life" has certainly lived longer than most of us assumed that it would. Its ratings in season one were awful, and it only stuck around because NBC couldn't afford to dump any original scripted programming with the writers strike looming. The strike lasted long enough that NBC couldn't have a normal development season, so they renewed it again. And NBC's problems in other areas -- not to mention their awareness that "Life" is a good show -- led to an unexpected full season pick-up. But the ratings have never been better than awful, regardless of the timeslot, or the competition, and I've viewed most of this season as the show living on borrowed time.

I know we all like to hold out hope about the possibility that NBC might order a third season, and Rand Ravich suggested on Monday's conference call that he had some ideas for a third season, but this was an ending. It was absolutely an ending. Among other things Ravich did with "One":

• He killed off the documentary filmmaker who had been an occasional presence in the series from the opening frames of the pilot.

• He killed off Roman, the closest thing Crews has to an arch-nemesis.

• He took us back to Charlie's orange grove, last seen in the pilot.

• He had Mickey Rayborn reveal as much as is possible about the conspiracy, factoring in the time frame of the episode and my suspicions that not even Ravich understands all the details of it.

And, perhaps most importantly...

• He ended with the very strong suggestion that Crews and Reese are starting to think of each other as something more than a work partner.

I want to start with that last point, which was the only really sour note of "One" for me. One of my favorite things about "Life" is how it never, until this episode, even hinted at any kind of attraction between Crews and Reese. This was a partnership, and a friendship of sorts, between two equals who just happened to be of the opposite sex. The few times other characters suggested they might be a couple, Crews looked confused and Reese looked horrified. Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi had great chemistry together, but chemistry doesn't always have to be romantic. If Ravich thinks he was giving some kind of gift to the fans by ending the series (or setting things in motion for an improbable season three) with all those hints -- Crews' reaction when Agent Bodner said he met his wife on the job, the look on Reese's face when she sees Crews has survived his encounter with Roman, the Zen audiobook narrator explaining that when 1+1=1, it's love -- I think his own math may have been off about how the show worked and what its fans wanted to see from it.

Beyond that one miscalculation, I thought "One" was a fine send-off (if that's what it turns out to be) for "Life." Maybe it wasn't quite as viscerally exciting as last season's similar finale, "Fill It Up" -- swapping out cell phones isn't as innately cool as swapping out cars, and we didn't get very much of Damian Lewis with a gun in his hand -- but it was close. It gave us as much closure as was possible (see above). It used the entire ensemble (plus Gabrielle Union and Helen McCrory) well. And, in the final encounter between Charlie and Roman in the Escalade, it showed us once and for all that, no matter how much Charlie likes to pretend that his life is ruled by Zen thinking, what really carried him through 12 years in prison and several very dangerous years back in the real world weren't the koans, or the fruit(*), but the fact that he is one tough, relentless SOB.

(*) And how thematically perfect was it that Crews kills Roman by whacking him in the Adam's apple?

I don't know that the finale makes any more sense than "Fill It Up" did -- whether Roman had FBI agents in his pocket or not, surely there have to be consequences for Charlie going rogue like this again, and for Tidwell's enabling of him -- but up until those final seconds, I felt very Zen about this being the series' swan song. Maybe there won't be episodes after this, but as Crews says, "There can't be nothing." We'll still have the DVDs, our memories of the partnership, and the rest, and I know this won't be the last we see of Damian Lewis on these shores.

Some other thoughts:

• Note the clever use of the bag on Reese's head to allow director Fred Keller to give us several full body shots of her even though Sarah Shahi's pregnant belly is quite noticeable. (Click on the image to the right to get a good look of how those scenes would have looked without a body double.)

• And while Shahi's pregnancy kept her mostly on the sideline these last few episodes, I liked seeing Dani applying the second-hand bits of Zen she picked up from Crews to intimidate Roman: "You're connected to me. I'm connected to Crews. He'll find you."

• Of course Tidwell's ringtone features bagpipes. And, as another "this is the last episode" moment, we had Crews finally figuring out how to use modern technology when he *69'ed Seever's number, then read Stark's text.

• Roman also gave us closure, sort of, on Jack Reese, telling Dani that he killed Jack. He could, of course, be lying, but something tells me that was an easy way to take care of a problematic character, third season or no.

• The biggest thing I still don't understand about the conspiracy: Mickey wanted to use Rachel Seybolt's dad to turn Crews dirty and recruit him as his successor in the criminal conspiracy, right? And Kyle Hollis was somehow affiliated with the conspiracy, right? So even if Hollis somehow goes nuts and slaughters the Seybolt family, minus Rachel, why would Mickey and his guys want to frame Crews for it? And why on Earth would they give Rachel to crazy Kyle to raise?

• With the muscle car wrecked again, and with Agent Bodner's testimonial about all the features of his minivan (which I'm guessing was product integration), if there were to be a third season, do you think we'd see Charlie going for a vehicle with 18 cupholders and a DVD player?

Finally, before we say goodbye to "Life" (for now, if not forever), I have to once again honor my pledge about including a William Atherton '80s movie quote at the end of any episode featuring Atherton. And since reports of Rayborn's demise proved to be greatly exaggerated, let's dip back into the bottomless well of "Real Genius" lines one more time, with Atherton as Jerry Hathaway and Gabe Jarret as young Mitch Taylor:

Jerry Hathaway: Mitch, will you miss your friends?
Mitch: Well, no. I think I intimidate other kids.
Jerry Hathaway: Good boy.

What did everybody else think? And if there were to be a miraculous renewal, what would you want to see out of a third season? (Other than the obvious, which is a return appearance by Christina Hendricks.) Click here to read the full post

Life, "Initiative 38": Little/big man

Belated spoilers for the penultimate episode of "Life" season two -- plus some non-spoiler-y thoughts from Rand Ravich and Damian Lewis on the season finale -- coming up just as soon as I run for Mayor...

"I need a bigger gun." -Charlie Crews

Sorry for the delay, but I didn't get to finish "Initiative 38" until the weekend, and I've been swamped with 16 other things. In fact, I really don't have the time now to be writing about it, but one of those 16 things was a conference call with Damian Lewis and Rand Ravich to discuss the season finale (which I have not seen), and I wanted to pass along a few of the things that came up, after first offering a brief take on the episode itself.

My comments of the post-Shahi-pregnancy episodes have been on lather-rinse-repeat mode, but there were improvements here. For one, with Gabrielle Union having a few episodes under her belt, she and Lewis are starting to work well together; Crews-Seever isn't Crews-Reese, but then, Crews-Reese wasn't Crews-Reese till at least halfway through that brief first season. For another, instead of stranding Ted in his own disconnected subplot (which Ravich admitted on the call that he hates to do), Ted got to be part of the attempt to find Dani, and Adam Arkin plays well off of Damian Lewis' wife.

Still, the murder case itself was as thin as most of them have been of late, particularly in the resolution. I just don't see how the conversation between the husband and the aide would be enough to nab either one, let alone both, on a murder charge.

But the brief glimpses of Crews (with help from Tidwell, Ted and, eventually, the mysterious Amanda) searching for his partner, and the realization that Roman is behind all of this, has me very geeked up for the finale, whether or not it's the end of the series (the more likely possibility) or just the season (hope hope hope). And speaking of which, a few paraphrased highlights from the call (in which Lewis used his native accent, to my surprise):

• Ravich said that he feels the finale will provide enough resolution to things that, "If this were it (cancellation), if I were a viewer I would not feel frustrated... There's still plenty of room to go on, still plenty of doors to open, but we do resolve a few things."

• Despite Amanda telling Ted that Olivia is somewhere in Italy, we won't be seeing Christina Hendricks again until/unless there's a third season. Sigh...

• Ravich said that, for the most part, the story arc of the back half of the season didn't change once Sarah Shahi got pregnant. The season was always heading to this ending, and they just had to rejigger things to get it to that point while Reese wasn't on camera as much.

• Neither man really has any idea whether there might be a third season. Ravich joked that "Life" might return as a series of 30-second interstitials during Jay Leno's new show.

• When one reporter asked for details on the finale, Lewis and Ravich went on a run of jokes about the "Life on Mars" ending. (Ravich: "He ends up on Mars." Lewis: "We've managed to work in time travel.")

Looking forward to the ending, whatever it is. Unfortunately, between the Passover holiday and the usual timeslot conflicts, I don't know exactly when I'll get around to watching and writing about it, but given the likelihood that this is the last episode of "Life" ever, I intend to write quite a bit more than I have lately.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "5 Quarts": Death becomes her

I would do a full review of last night's "Life," but it would just be a rehash of things I've been saying the last few weeks: the case didn't really make sense, the show is suffering badly because Sarah Shahi's pregnancy is keeping Crews and Reese apart, and Ted seems to exist in an entirely different show. So rather than waste time expanding on those same points over and over, I'll just ask: what did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "3 Women": The perfect non-partner

Quick spoilers for last night's "Life" just as soon as I finalize my 12-year plan...

"3 Women" was an improvement on the last few episodes. It gave us a little bit of forward movement on the Raybourn/conspiracy arc (and set up some tension between Crews and Reese, not that we may ever see them on camera at the same time again). It had some nice story beats, like the abrupt cut from Crews with Ted to Crews brawling with Hey, It's That Guy! Jason Beghe in the loft elevator, or the paroled killer trying to turn Crews' celebrity against him. And by giving Charlie a fill-in partner with a personality and some kind of character arc, the episode didn't feel like it was running in place as much as the two Stark episodes.

At the same time, Jane Seever seems more like a collection of tics than a character. Now, Crews seemed the same way in the series' early episodes -- He loves fruit! He says non-sequiturs! Did we mention the fruit? -- and maybe Gabrielle Union will get to deepen her over her remaining episodes, but mostly she was there to set up jokes. (As Crews says to the playwright, in a meta comment on this quirky show, "Are there jokes in it? You should put some jokes in it.")

In particular, I'm not sure why an ambitious young woman who thinks she could be mayor one day might want anything to do with Charlie freakin' Crews, who's as infamous as he is famous, who's been involved in a lot of questionable activity even after his conviction was overturned (which she'd know, since she does her research), and who could be a millstone around her neck one day if she wants to use her police record on the campaign trail. I don't know that I would want a repeat of the resentful relationship Reese had with Crews at the start of the series, but I didn't buy that this character, as written here, would be so enthusiastic about working with this guy.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Shelf Life": See my vest! See my vest! Made from real gorilla chest!

Spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I trip a few alarms...

Where I thought parts of the previous Reese-lite episode worked, I found most of "Shelf Life" to be either dull or, when it came to the conspiracy arc, confusing.

On the confusion front, I thought I was paying close attention and I have absolutely no idea how or why the obnoxious military wannabe helped Charlie and Ted get over on the film noir insurance investigator, and the pleasure of seeing Damian Lewis play opposite his wife again wasn't enough to overcome my dumbsquizzlement.

Meanwhile, I feel like these two episodes where Crews was paired with Stark were a missed opportunity. Because he spent so much of the abbreviated first season as a red herring for the conspiracy, and because he's been off to the side so much this season, there hasn't been much opportunity to see him and Crews dealing with each other without the shadow of Stark's possible guilt hanging over them. I think they could have delved a little deeper into how Bobby feels about having given up on his partner, or just the awkwardness that comes from Bobby having lived a life for the 12 years Charlie was away, or anything with more weight than the brief reference to Charlie watching home movies in his head while he was locked up.

I don't know how much of these scripts were written before the producers knew they'd have to put Sarah Shahi off to the side for a while. But obviously, some rewriting got done, so there was a chance to put more of that material in. Instead, Stark goes back to uniform, Crews gets a new temporary partner next week, and the show will likely be canceled before there's another chance to give these two some extended screentime together. Ah, well.

Finally, since William Atherton was technically credited as a guest star, and appeared for all of two seconds in the surveillance footage of him with Reese, does that mean I need to continue with my pledge to include an Atherton-related '80s movie quote? So continue to quote I shall, once again returning to the bottomless well that is "Real Genius" (and if you haven't rented that movie by now, I don't know what to tell you), with Atherton as Dr. Jerry Hathaway talking to the mother of young genius Mitch Taylor:

Mrs. Taylor: Dr. Hathaway, I saw your program on radioactive isotopes last night, and I've got a question.
Jerry Hathaway: Yes?
Mrs. Taylor: Is that your real hair?
Jerry Hathaway: Tell me something. Is Mitch by any chance adopted?
Mrs. Taylor: Why, no!
Jerry Hathaway: Amazing.
Mrs. Taylor: Isn't it?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Hit Me Baby": Tech support

Quick spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I take inventory of objects around the house...

"Hit Me Baby" suffers from one problem that can't be helped and one that could have been.

In case you hadn't realized it by now from all the shots of Reese sitting at a desk, and/or wearing a bulky coat, Sarah Shahi is pregnant, and the show is trying to work around that fact with this storyline of Reese being assigned to this FBI task force. That's a better on-screen solution than some I've seen over the years, especially since it looks like the task force is investigating either Crews himself or the Jack/Mickey/Roman axis of evil, but a large part of this show's appeal is the chemistry between Shahi and Damian Lewis, and I'm disappointed that what would appear to be the show's final half-dozen or so episodes will keep the team largely separate.

Now, what fun there was to be had in "Hit Me Baby" came from the writers playing with Crews' increasing reliance on Reese, as we saw him trying and failing to make Tidwell, Stark and even the patient call center lady into his new sounding board. But that's a good gag once and then the show has to go forward for a while with Crews as a man without a real partner.(*)

(*) Was Stark always supposed to be this stupid? The way he acted in this episode can't simply be written off as him struggling to go from patrolman to detective, as he came off like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel for most of the episode, even before the poisoned mushroom capsule literally made his jaw go slack.

The other problem is that the episode was far too self-consciously goofy and weird, piling on one bizarre, hyper-stylized character after another, from the identically-dressed, pigeon-loving identical twins to the hitman/woman herself, who seemed more like a character out of a comic book (or, at least, "Burn Notice") than someone who should be on "Life." I know the show operates on a frequency that's slightly off of reality, but they took it way too far last night. Instead of finding it all amusing, I started rolling my eyes.

Though, I should admit to continuing to enjoy one especially-stylized performance, as Helen McCrory (aka Mrs. Damian Lewis) returned as the rebel smoker, cleavage barer and all-around badass insurance investigator. Working in her native accent while her husband gets to show off his non-regional American diction, McCrory continues to be a blast to watch, and a nice counterpoint to Ted.

One other complaint: why bother re-introducing the season one muscle car with the new flower power paint job a few episodes back, only to have it repainted by the next time it appears? I had assumed we'd see Charlie driving the thing around as it was, answering questions about it the way he took all those queries about the car with the bullet holes. Seemed pointless.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "I Heart Mom": Take 'em both, and there you have the facts of roof

Spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I say "unfreeze"...

"I don't think I talk differently than anyone else talks. Maybe sometimes I don't not say things that other people don't not say, but most other people don't not say the same things I don't. Know what I'm saying?" -Crews

Most of the press coverage (other than Fienberg) of Fox's decision to move the "American Idol" back to 9 p.m. in a few weeks has focused almost exclusively on what the move means for "Lost." But "Lost" is going away in another season, and ABC sure isn't going to pull the plug before then, so no matter how badly "Idol" beats on it, "Lost" will make it to the finish line.

No, my fear (and Fienberg's) is that this move is going to hasten the death of "Life." I don't think any of us are naive enough at this point to believe there's going to be a third season of this wonderful but abysmally-rated show. It's already something of a miracle that it got renewed at all, and that NBC gave it a full order this season. My only hope at this point is that it makes it to the end of this year, and that Rand Ravich was able to read the writing on the wall enough to provide some kind of closure to Crews' quest for revenge/justice/Zen, and that the series doesn't end on a shot of Crews staring quizzically at the Wall of Blame. And now that "Idol" is about to move into the neighborhood, I fear that the ratings will become so low that NBC won't feel able to justify keeping a boutique show like this(*) on the air any longer, and that the plug will be pulled with several episodes to go.

(*) The shame of it is that "Life" is basically the same show as "The Mentalist" -- and better-executed, at that -- but it's on the wrong network. Other than the "Law & Order"s with their built-in brand loyalty -- and even the mothership isn't doing too hot lately -- people don't think of NBC as a place to find well-done procedural cop shows, and NBC at this point isn't in the position to be able to adequately promote and schedule a show like this. I imagine a lot of the "Mentalist"/"Lie to Me"/"NCIS" audience would dig this show, but they don't know it exists.

An episode like "I Heart Mom" suggests the rest of the season -- assuming we get to see all of it -- could go either way in terms of closure. Crews finally reaches a place where Mickey Rayborn is ready and willing to provide all the answers he wants (and we want) about the conspiracy that put Charlie in prison, but it's unclear just how much Rayborn tells him, or how much Charlie asked. It's implied that the conversation went on for a while after we cut back to the murder investigation, and we'll just have to wait and hope to find out how much Charlie now knows. Or maybe we'll just get a bunch of cool music montages followed by an abrupt cancellation. Sigh...

If, indeed, Rayborn was murdered, then William Atherton got a great farewell episode, as he got to play dead (and laugh about it afterwards), needle Crews about his solemnity and lack of a boat, and even make the guy eat a deep-fried scorpion.

As for the main case, it was amusing to see Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett from "The Facts of Life") as the mother of M.C. Gainey (Tom Friendly from "Lost"), and to see Gainey playing at being an antique-dealing mama's boy. I lost the thread of the mystery after a while, as I usually do with this show, but there were nice individual moments, like the above-quoted scene where Reese complains about the Crews' speech patterns, or Crews getting hung up on them being like a couple (but never, thankfully, in a romantic way), or the blind guy smelling Reese, Crews assuming it was perfume, and then realizing she doesn't wear any and pawning it off on the smell of her "essence."

The Ted subplot was a little thin, as most Ted subplots are. Now that he's out of prison, he again seems so disconnected from the rest of the series that, good as Adam Arkin is in the role, I wish they'd only use him if he's going to interact with Charlie. (Or if Christina Hendricks is going to come back.)

Finally, I promised that in every episode featuring a William Atherton appearance, I'd include a quote from one of Atherton's memorable '80s movie villain roles. As this appears to be the end of the line for him, I figured I'd go back to my favorite Atherton role, as Dr. Jerry Hathaway in "Real Genius." I was tempted to go with another exchange between him and Val Kilmer (maybe the one about popcorn, or the one where Jerry tells Chris to pass the rest of the tests back, just like his IQ was normal), but given the subject of this episode, I couldn't resist Hathaway's rant at the contractors who are renovating his house:

"What are you looking at? You're laborers; you should be laboring. That's what you get for not having an education."

Ah, Atherton. I'll miss him.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Mirror Ball": The big bapple

Spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I try to avoid making a Sharpie reference...

Since Crews spends much of "Mirror Ball" trying to give Reese a nickname, I may as well come up with my own moniker for this type of episode, which featured a lot of good comedy, very little conspiracy arc content (they could have easily deleted the interlude of Crews studying Roman's photo without affecting anything else), but enough Zen qualities to feel like an episode of the show. "Life" Light? "Life" With Laughs? Doc?

I wouldn't want this level of wackiness every week, but when they do them from time to time (see also "Evil... And His Brother Ziggy" or "Badge Bunnies"), they can be almost as satisfying in their own way as the more epic episodes like "Trapdoor."

All the running jokes were working well in this one -- "Bapple?," the uncapping of the Sharpie, Doc, Patty the redhead's split personalities with and without the makeup -- and yet the case felt very much like a "Life" case, and the use of some of the greatest hits of the hair band era (particularly the epic piano intro on "Sister Christian") in lieu of the show's usual indie pop soundtrack was a nice touch.

I only have two complaints. One is my ongoing cringe reflex whenever the show uses too much of its cheapo green screen tech, as it did both during the opening car scene and in the montage of Jude wannabes showing up at Crews' doorstep. The other was the lame fakeout of Tidwell saying "You know I love you" to his bottles of booze as he poured them out. Reese's realization of what he was doing, and why, was a very nice moment -- one of the few that had me more than tolerating this whole relationship -- and yet the fakeout soured the taste of it for me. Tidwell's enough of That Guy that he might have some kind of running monologue as he poured out the liquor, but to use the exact words that would give Dani the wrong idea was just dumb.

Oh, and I almost forgot: big props to them for casting Patrick Fabian in a murder mystery and not having him be the killer for once.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Re-Entry": Gleaming the cube

Spoilers for last night's return of "Life" coming up just as soon as I make my own bullets...

After going out with both a literal and metaphorical bang in 2008 with the abundance of pleasures that was "Trapdoor," "Life" returns in 2009 with a more standard-issue hour in the aptly-titled "Re-Entry." Not a bad episode by any means -- at this point, I'd probably be willing to watch Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi go to the dry cleaner together -- but after "Trapdoor" suggested the series might be kicking itself into a higher gear, "Re-Entry" brought us back to the previous speed.

My favorite part, in fact, didn't involve Crews and Reese at all. Ted's jailhouse economics lectures were a highlight, as he finally found a large and attentive class, and as he realized, as both a teacher himself and as a student of Charlie Crews, that he had no choice but to let the hillbilly beat on him for the stolen dinner roll.

The case itself was pretty good, though I don't think the role play exercise in the squadroom with Crews and Josh Randall imagining they were in the plane led anywhere useful. Crews needed to go to all that trouble to realize the killer must have had to train for the mission? But the visuals -- the plane in the middle of the suburban street, the mysterious orange cube, Crews forging his own ammo in the middle of his kitchen -- were cool as usual.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Trapdoor": Russian underground

Spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I get some more pie...

That? That was 44 minutes or so of concentrated awesomeness.

Obviously, you can't do an episode like "Trapdoor" -- one with seismic shifts in virtually every corner of Charlie Crews' world -- every week, but on those occasions when you do make a show like this... damn.

"Trapdoor" is one of those episodes where I have to invoke my "dayeenu"(*) rule, which comes from a traditional Passover song about all the wonderful things God did for the Jewish people during the story of the exodus from Egypt. If God had only freed the slaves, you sing, dayeenu (it would have been enough). If God had only freed the slaves and taken us out of Egypt, dayeenu. If God had only freed the slaves, taken us out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea, dayeenu. Etc., etc.

(*) Pronounced "DIE-ay-noo" for our non-Semitic friends.

I invoke the dayeenu rule for episodes like this because if it had just featured the return of Garret Dillahunt as the pure, concentrated evil that is Roman Nevikov, dayeenu. If it had only featured Reese finally entering Charlie's house, or finally meeting Rachel Seybolt, dayeenu. If it had only had Reese falling off the wagon, dayeenu. If it had only finally introduced us to Crews' dad -- and had Crews accidentally shoot his dad and not feel bad about it -- dayeenu. If Charlie had only gotten shot at the end, dayeenu. Any of those elements on their own would have led to a memorable episode. All of them together? Sweet.

Really, the only thing that could have possibly made the episode better was if Christina Hendricks had actually been one of the many people at the door before Crews got shot and woke up in whatever the Zen equivalent of Limbo is.

One question: is this the first time this year that we've seen the documentary crew? And are you glad to have them back to help glide over expository bits like Stark explaining who Nevikov is, or would you rather not see them again? (Okay, so that's two questions, but they're related.)

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Canyon Flowers": Serial boxes

Brief spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I run a red light...

Charlie Crews is such an interesting character, and Damian Lewis such a compelling actor, that it's easy to ignore the basic procedural format of "Life." But if the crime story of the week isn't working, then the episode isn't working, and the story of the infamous killer and his descendants lost me about 10 minutes in and never got me back. Dutch's speech from "The Shield" finale about LA's celebrity serial killer culture should have had me primed for a story on this topic, but it just seemed flat and overly complicated.

In fact, I was tempted to skip reviewing this episode altogether, or just get around to it when I had a few other things backlogged for a grab-bag review, but I did promise to include a bit of William Atherton '80s movie dialogue in every review until he wrapped up his stint, so this week, I give you arguably the most famous scene of his career, from "Ghostbusters," with Atherton in the role of Walter Peck, and Bill Murray as Peter Venkman:

Dr Ray Stantz: Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.
Walter Peck: They caused an explosion!
Mayor: Is this true?
Dr. Peter Venkman: Yes it's true. This man has no dick.

So there you have it. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Evil... and his Brother Ziggy": She ain't heavy, she's his brother

Spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I enjoy some days-old deer stew...

Time for a new ad campaign: "Life: The year's funniest police procedural!"

This show has always had a comic side, thanks to its leading man (and now thanks to Donal Logue), but the last couple of episodes have been especially, almost refreshingly silly, highlighted by the mistaken identity business with Tidwell's call to the hotel, and then the awkward dinner where Ted tried to serve Indian (as in South Asian) food to an Indian (as in Native American) person, who then had to witness various bits of Crews family strife.

And yet, none of the laugh moments in any way undermined the show's usual Zen cool, whether it was Crews and William Atherton(*) chatting on his swank rooftop lounge or Crews staring down a gang of angry locals in the middle of the desert.

(*) I should have started this last week, but I make a vow that from now until whenever Atherton's guest stint on this show is done, I will include one random exchange from an Atherton '80s movie in my "Life" reviews. This week, courtesy of the underappreciated "Real Genius," with Atherton as Prof. Hathaway and Tom Swerdlow as Bodie:

Bodie: He said he didn't feel like it. And I said, "You'd better!" And he said, "Or what?" And I said, "Or else you're gonna be in trouble." And he said, "Jam it."
Professor Hathaway: That's a wonderful story, Bodie. I noticed you've stopped stuttering.
Bodie: I've been giving myself shock treatments.
Professor Hathaway: Up the voltage.

I do have to keep reminding myself that the Tidwell/Reese scenes (like the one pictured above) aren't supposed to be Tidwell fantasies, but that subplot has become worth it if solely for Crews' reaction to it, like him ferreting out Reese's "indulgence" using nothing but the powers of the taxi cab.

We have two more episodes until the show goes on a Christmas-through-January hiatus, but after worrying about much of the season, the last few episodes have been very satisfying.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Badge Bunnies": Young officers in love

Spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I swap guns with a friend...

Much better. Much, much better. This is the first one since the Stanford Prison Experiment episode to live up to how brilliant the show was towards the end of last season.

The focus on police culture -- and the badge bunny subculture -- was interesting, particularly as Crews and Reese are both outcasts within the department, and Victoria Pratt did some particularly nice work as the bunny-turned-wife-turned-fellow-outcast.

The shooting range scene was the first time I actually enjoyed the Reese/Tidwell thing, and not just because it then led to the hilariously awkward scene where the two of them arrived at the drug dealer's house at the same time as Stark and a glitter-faced Crews and none of them wanted to talk about what they had just been doing.

It was a really funny episode, in general, with the return of Reese's "Did you just say (sexist jargon)?" running gag, and the introduction of a new one about Reese's "superpower" for identifying fellow addicts.

My only real complaint comes from the Ted subplot. By most objective standards, I should always be happy with a story that puts Christina Hendricks on my TV set, but it's clear the writers have no idea what to do with Ted and keep trotting out these various subplots (Ted's a teacher, Ted's in love with Crews' future stepmom) just because they have Adam Arkin under contract. If they're going to keep bringing Olivia back, I'd like to see her have some more interaction with Crews, if for no other reason than that it's rare to see multiple, unrelated redheads in a single scene on television. (I'm all about hair color diversity.)

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Black Friday": Let's go to the mall (today)

Spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I note that the two other shows to have shared a timeslot with the show this year -- "My Own Worst Enemy" and "Lipstick Jungle" -- have apparently been canceled, while Charlie Crews and company are sitting relatively pretty with a full-season order...

"Black Friday" was a definite improvement over the last few episodes. The humor was really strong -- as with "House," the leading man's comedy chops become a useful crutch when other things aren't working -- and I especially enjoyed Charlie going all Crocodile Dundee(*) with the fruitcake.

(*) Hi, I'm old. Is there a more contemporary reference for a hero taking out a fleeing bad guy by throwing produce at him than a 22-year-old movie starring a walking tourism ad?

I also thought the world of the mall and the terrifying culture of Black Friday created fit the off-kilter sensibilities of "Life" very well, but as with the Stanford Prison Experiment episode, I feel like the episode dropped its main hook after about 10 or 15 minutes. Once we cut from Crews and Reese frantically searching for the body to Crews looking into another Wall of Blame candidate (played by legendary '80s movie sleazeball William Atherton!), all the tension of having to work a case on a day like this fell out. By the time we got back to the mall, the pace was far too leisurely.

Also, I could really do without either Crews romancing his ex or, as I've said, Reese contemplating a Tidwell hook-up. I suppose I should be grateful that the creative team has been wise enough to never so much as hint at a Crews/Reese romance, and so these storylines serve a purpose in making sure we understand the show isn't going to Go There, but they do little for me beyond that.

Still, it was an overall strong episode, and yet another entry in guest star Kyle Gallner's clip reel to make sure he monopolizes every homicidal teenager role on television.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

NBC gives 'Life' the back nine

NBC has ordered a full season of "Life," even though the first Wednesday episode, as expected, got clobbered by "Criminal Minds" (and everything else in the timeslot, for that matter.) Let's hope Rand Ravich and company can relax with the added security and get the show back to the quality of late season one. Click here to read the full post

Life, "Jackpot": Sucker Ponch

Spoilers for the return of "Life" to Wednesday nights coming up just as soon as I buy a kitchen table...

"Dale was right. It does help with the solving of crimes." -Crews

I wasn't in love with a lot of "Jackpot" -- like too much of "Life" season two, the case felt like something we could have seen on almost any other crime procedural -- but it definitely brought the funny, whether it was the meta joke about the fruit, or the self-satisfied look on Crews' face when he realized he could stay at the lotto support group or when Erik Estrada claimed to be a fan, or the silent exchange between Reese and Crews about the heavyset con woman being a phone sex worker.

But, again, the mystery felt lacking (the bodyguard screamed "BAD GUY!" from his first appearance), and I'd like the bonding between Crews and Rachel Seybolt more if I had a better grasp of the conspiracy story and the chronology. (For instance, how could Rachel remember the murder well enough and yet not realize she was being raised by her parents' killer?) And every time Tidwell and Reese have a conversation, I cringe.

Still, Damian Lewis is wonderful, particularly in those moments where Crews has to speak the absolute truth to a stranger -- for instance, repeating to gun nut Tom that if the door closes, somebody dies -- that I'm still watching, waiting for the rest of the show to catch up to him the way it did late last year.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Sepinwall on TV: 'Life' review

In today's column, I talk about the move of "Life" to Wednesdays at 9 and about some of my frustrations with this season. Click here to read the full post

Life, "Did You Feel That?": The quake escape

Spoilers for Friday night's "Life" -- plus some thoughts on the show's new timeslot -- coming up just as soon as I enjoy The Beatles' second movie...

I'm of two minds about an episode like "Did You Feel That?" On the one hand, it's nice to have a change-of-pace episode now and then, and Damian Lewis is kind of brilliant at the action hero stuff. (I may be going overboard in my praise here, but between "Band of Brothers" and this show, he looks as good with a gun in his hands as any actor since Steve McQueen.)

On the other hand, you only get to do this kind of episode once or twice before it starts to get cheesey, and counting last year's finale, we're already up to two of these thrill ride episodes. And I don't know that I bought the guy from the pilot becoming this kind of ruthless criminal mastermind, despite all of Tidwell's talk about how prison changes men for the worse.

Also, I thought a lot of the green screen work looked really cheap, which can be okay on a stylized show like "Pushing Daisies" or even "Heroes" (sometimes) but not so much on a more naturalistic show like "Life." I'm also displeased with Reese kissing Tidwell, and wish there was more of a point to the story of Ted's pencil-impaled hand. (Though if it's a set up for Christina Hendricks to make a whole bunch of future appearances, no complaints whatsoever. Where it's strange to see some of the other "Mad Men" actors -- notably January Jones -- looking contemporary, Hendricks seems to work in both the past and the present.)

But dammit, Damian Lewis is mesmerizing in episodes like this one, and so I'll ignore all my concerns for now.

Now, in case you missed it on Friday, NBC is doing a major shakeup of its Wednesday lineup due to the ongoing ratings disaster that is "Lipstick Jungle." That show airs twice this week, first Wednesdays at 10 and then taking over for "Life" Fridays at 10. Then next week, "Life" moves to Wednesdays at 9, followed by the return of "Law & Order" to its birthright timeslot.

For the most part, this is good news for "Life," as Friday is now a network graveyard. But expectations were also much lower on Fridays than on Wednesdays, and I imagine "Criminal Minds" will be even tougher crime competition than "Numb3rs" was. So this move could help prolong the show's lifespan or it could shorten it.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Post-weekend catch-up: Life, ER, Entourage, Crusoe and Easy Money

Time for another ever-unpopular grab-bag post, in which I attempt to briefly address the latest episodes of, in order, "Life," "ER," "Entourage," "Crusoe" and "Easy Money," just as soon as I tear the nameplate off my locker...

Not one of the better "Life"s of the season, I thought. The image of the guy crushed inside the car wasn't as disturbingly pretty as the show usually goes for, and Bethany's lookalike mom (who's also playing a nasty mom on "90210," I believe) was the obvious killer at least 20 minutes before they revealed the truth. Not a very engaging major case, and my interest in the conspiracy isn't very strong at the moment. Other than some isolated moments like Ted's students being impressed by his real resume (which I assumed would have come up back when the class was full of laptop-wielders) or Charlie's ex messing with his head at the storage locker, it was forgettable, and a real comedown after the great Stanford Prison Experiment ep the week before.

I wasn't wild about Maura Tierney's "ER" farewell, either. I've always loved Tierney, though my like for Abby has waxed and waned over the years. The period when she was just a black hole of misery -- I want to say around the time she got beat up by her neighbor and started drinking again, but all the mishaps of that era all blend together, which is part of the problem -- was what led me to kick the "ER" habit for a while. But I recognize that she's a terrific actress, that she has one of the longest tenures in the history of the show (I'm guessing, though I haven't done the math, that only Noah Wyle and Laura Innes put in more time at County) and that, once the writers let Abby smile now and again, she could be a very appealing character.

I just prefer the less-is-more approach to "ER" character exits. I was always fond of the way that Jeannie just walked out of the ER one day, or how what was supposed to be our last glimpse of Peter Benton (until some executive decided to make Eriq La Salle earn every cent of his contract) was him jogging away from Carter after cracking a joke at his protege's expense. For that matter, I really liked the first of the two Mark Greene exits -- Mark's last day in the hospital, which was also Pratt's first day -- and if that had been Anthony Edwards' final appearance (before the flashback he's doing later this season), followed by the episode where the ER got the letter about his death, people might think more fondly on that story arc.

So doing a whole hour of Abby unfiltered, and of every single character getting an individual goodbye scene with her, seemed a bit much. I liked several of them individually -- particularly the bit with Haleh and the nameplates(*) -- but I think the writers needed to pick just one or two and scrap the rest.

(*) If you freeze-framed the nameplates, you'd see not only the name of every former regular character, but most of the show's long-time former producers, like Lydia Woodward and Jack Orman. The entire thing works better as a meta moment than an actual in-character bit -- it's hard to imagine the nurses caring enough to put Dave Malucci's name up there, for instance.

I really don't have anything to say about "Entourage," but I know a lot of you are like me and can't stop watching. Other than being amused that Alan Dale now must play every high-powered CEO on television, there wasn't anything worth laughing at, and Ari's job offer mainly seems like yet another excuse for the writers to put Vince into "Smoke Jumpers" -- which, for some reason, is the only project of interest to him in all of Hollywood.

I also don't have much to say about "Crusoe" other than what was in my initial review, but since I did have a surprising amount of fun watching it -- and since nobody had much to say on the initial post, I thought I'd bring it up here. I can see this one taking a steep dive off a cliff (much like both Crusoe and Friday did at various points in the pilot) starting with episode two, but this one played like a higher-end Robert Halmi production.

Finally, I'm not even sure there's much point about writing about "Easy Money." Even by the historical standards of how both the CW and the WB previously did on Sunday nights, this outsourced lineup is a ratings catastrophe. All the shows are well under a million total viewers, and "Easy Money" got a zero share of the 18-49 demo. Zero. Both "Easy Money" and "Valentine, Inc." have already shut down production in a move that's billed as "temporary." Uh-huh.

But I bring it up because three episodes in, "Easy Money" is one of the few newbies still holding my interest. Laurie Metcalfe is doing really strong work as the conniving Bobette (as soon as the blonde showed up, you just knew Bobette was going to lop off that braid, didn't you?), and this world continues to interest me enough that I'll be disappointed but not surprised when the episodes run out.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Life, "Not For Nothing": Playing prison

Spoilers for Friday night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I melt a plastic bag...

Though there were a couple of flaws that I'll get to in a minute, "Not For Nothing" was easily the strongest episode of season two. (And unless the numbers take a dramatic uptick soon, it may be one of the last. Sigh...) No university would ever allow someone to conduct the Stanford Prison Experiment today, but if you suspend your disbelief on that, the scenario was a powerful way to spotlight just how much Crews learned during his time in a real prison.

Three superb moments: Crews tries to silence Nate the poseur, realizing how close he is to starting a riot; Charlie and Ted putting on their hard prison faces to scare the bad professor into showing them the hidden footage; and, especially, Crews sitting down with the killer to prepare him for the rest of his life ("The first three years will be the hardest"). Damian Lewis is always terrific, but the writing really played to his strengths in those moments.

The B-story in which the new boss met the old boss finally started to give Tidwell some humanity, and I liked Lt. Davis a lot more here than I ever did last season, where the writers didn't know what to do with her. (I think they introduced her, like Stark, as a red herring for the conspiracy, and once that story moved away from her, they had no plan B.) I particularly liked that Tidwell had photos of all his exes in his wallet, as well as his disbelief that Davis' partner had married a stripper for his first wife.

As for the two flaws, the first was the lack of urgency displayed by Crews, Reese and the writers. Despite Tidwell making a big deal that they had two hours to close the case before the university lawyered up all the kids, the detectives never acted like they were on a tight deadline, and the story seemed to take place over a much longer span. (The trips to the mascot's dorm room, her boyfriend's house, and the frat(ernity) house, plus waiting for the pizza and fruit delivery should have been almost two hours by themselves.) If the writers weren't going to really deal with the deadline, they shouldn't have introduced it in the first place, since I spent a lot of scenes during the episode wondering why Charlie and Dani were acting like they had all the time in the world.

Second, Charlie and Ted realizing that "there could easily be four" was a threat wasn't quite the stunning revelation that the episode seemed to think it was. It was obvious Jack Reese was being threatened when the line was first uttered on Monday.

Still, one of the show's stronger episodes overall, and I'm gonna miss it when it's gone. Right now, the only thing it has going for it is that virtually everything on NBC is doing terribly -- the network can't cancel everything, right?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post