Life (American TV series)

Life is an American crime drama television series created by Rand Ravich that aired for two seasons on NBC. It was produced by Universal Media Studios under the supervision of executive producers Rand Ravich, Far Shariat, David Semel, and Daniel Sackheim. Semel also directed the pilot.
The series stars Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews, a detective released from prison after serving twelve years for a crime he did not commit. Life premiered on September 26, 2007, on NBC and aired on Wednesday nights at 10:00 ET. On May 4, 2009, NBC announced its cancellation, a month after the final episode had been aired. The series was later made available for streaming through Hulu and Netflix.

Plot

First season

Life centers on Detective Charlie Crews, who at the start of the first season is released from Pelican Bay State Prison after serving twelve years of a life sentence. In 1995, he was wrongfully convicted of the triple murder of his friend and business partner, Tom Seybolt, and all but one of Seybolt's immediate family. Thanks to the efforts of his lawyer Constance Griffiths, DNA evidence exonerates him of the murders. Having lost his job, his wife, his friends, nearly all contact with the outside world and even his grip on reality for a time while in jail, he emerges enlightened by the philosophy of Zen, a fixation with fresh fruit, and an obsession with solving the murders that nearly cost him his life and exposing the conspiracy that framed him for it. After successfully suing the city of Los Angeles and the LAPD, he is reinstated to the police department and receives an undisclosed amount of money, rumored at $50 million.
Crews is partnered with Detective Dani Reese, previously an undercover narcotics agent and now a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. Crews is not well received by Lieutenant Karen Davis, who, during the season, tries to force Reese into offering information that will see Crews suspended and eventually fired. Even though she herself is uncomfortable with her new partner, Reese backs Crews up on numerous occasions, and the two slowly develop a bond.
The overarching story of the first season concerns the murders for which Crews was wrongfully imprisoned, which leads him to confront various figures from his past such as his former patrol partner, his remarried ex-wife, and the detective who solved the triple-murder case and is still convinced of Crews' guilt. Near the end of the season, Crews manages to uncover information that implicates Reese's father in the murder. In the finale, Crews is able to bring the true killer, Kyle Hollis, to justice, but he remains unaware of the reasons behind his having been framed.

Second season

The second season premiered on Monday, September 29, 2008. On July 21, 2008, producers announced the second season would effectively re-launch the series with a new "pilot" episode. Earlier in March 2008, series creator and executive producer Rand Ravich explained that the second season would delve deeper into the conspiracy in the framing of Charlie Crews. Similarly, more of Dani Reese's past would be revealed.
Crews continues to investigate into the conspiracy to frame him and begins tracking some retired cops. He tracks down Rachel Seyboldt, the surviving member of his business partner's family and she moves in with him. Reese begins a relationship with the new captain after her father disappears. Crews eventually learns that he had been watched since the police academy, to eventually replace an aging crime lord. The intent was to corrupt Crews' friend Tom Seyboldt, who owned a bar with Crews and that by corrupting one business partner, they would also corrupt Crews. Mistakes were made, the Seyboldts were inadvertently murdered and Crews framed for the crime. The second season concludes with Crews trading himself for Reese after she is kidnapped by Roman Nevikov. Soon after, Crews kills Nevikov by crushing his windpipe. The last scene of the series shows Crews finally finding peace.

Characters

Main

Detective Charles "Charlie" Crews Jr. is the main character of Life. Crews was an ordinary police officer whose simple life came to an abrupt end when his friends, the Seybolt family, were brutally murdered. The sole survivor was the daughter, Rachel Seybolt. Charlie and Tom Seybolt owned a bar together. Crews was put on trial and convicted for the murders. Stripped of his badge and innocence, Crews was given a life sentence, where he suffered horribly. Because he had been a police officer, the prisoners were eager to beat him regularly and brutally. His depression worsened as his friends and loved ones turned on him, believing him guilty, and the world at large moved on without him. After twelve years, Crews's lawyer proves his innocence, he is exonerated, given a substantial settlement which Ted Earley manages and expands over the course of the series. Additionally, he is reinstated to the LAPD, and promoted to detective in the homicide division. While fulfilling his police responsibilities, Crews attempts to reconnect with his friends and loved ones, working to put his life back together and come to grips with his place in the world. He is most successful with his former partner, Officer Bobby Stark, enlisting his help on cases and even briefly re-partnering with him in an unofficial capacity. Crews also attempts to reconnect with his ex-wife Jennifer, who believed him guilty, divorcing him and remarrying while Crews was still in prison. Unknown to anyone except Ted, Crews is pursuing an unauthorized and illegal investigation to uncover the truth about his conviction and incarceration. Charlie displays an intense enjoyment of fruit and eats different kinds of fruit repeatedly in each episode. While incarcerated, Crews began reading The Way of Zen by Alan Watts, leading to his adoption of a zen Buddhist outlook. While he often appears dreamily preoccupied and makes esoteric zen remarks, Crews is still deeply troubled and exhibits conflict between following Buddhist precepts and seeking retribution for his imprisonment. Crews has a particularly difficult relationship with his father, Charles Sr., showing him open contempt, as his father was among the first to believe Charlie guilty, and went so far as to forbid Charlie's mother from visiting her son in prison, which Charlie believes led to her death. Crews's father broke into his son's house to deliver a wedding invitation and was shot by Crews, who believed him to be a home invader. The wound was minor and his father recovered, but their relationship is still strained. Crews's investigations gradually gained more and more attention, most notably from The Group. In response, they sent FBI Special Agent Paul Bodner, one of their operatives, to kill Crews. Bodner shot Crews as he answered the door. Crews nearly died and had an out-of-body experience. Once he recovered, he re-cast the bullet Bodner shot him with, and shot Bodner in the leg with it to "get even."
Detective Dani Reese is Crews's skeptical but loyal partner and immediate superior. Over the course of the series, the two develop a strong working relationship, despite Reese's frustration at Crews's eccentricities and her discomfort at being caught between him and their first-season boss, Lt. Davis, who wants her help getting Crews off the force. Reese also has serious problems of her own, as a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who seeks out anonymous sex. The episode "Tear Asunder" suggests that she sees self-destructive behavior as a way of punishing herself. Reese's drug addiction dates to an undercover assignment on a narcotics case, and there is no indication that she continues to use. By contrast, it is immediately clear that she is still drinking. Her alcoholism is central to the first-season episode "Powerless," which ends with her apparently sincere embrace of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the second-season episode "Trapdoor," however, Reese falls off the wagon, when her then-boyfriend, Captain Tidwell, pushes her about meeting his father. Although this lapse suggests that Reese has not truly dealt with the underlying causes of her addictions, there is no indication that she is drinking for the remainder of the series. Reese's troubles also include a strained, resentful relationship with her father, Jack Reese. She confides to Crews in the episode "Serious Control Issues" that she spent her childhood trying to figure out if her father was "only mean, or just plain bad." There are other clues suggesting an unpleasant upbringing. Although Reese is bilingual, having learned Persian from her mother, she tells Crews in the episode "A Civil War" that her father forbade them to use the language in his presence. Reese is seemingly unaware of her father's involvement in the conspiracy to imprison Crews. In the final episode of season one, Crews is about to tell her but is interrupted. Reese's being "in the know" is teased through season two, but there is never a full disclosure. Reese does eventually confront Crews about her father's involvement during "Trapdoor," but Crews is shot in the chest before they can complete the conversation.
Ted Earley is Crews' housemate and financial advisor. Ted met Crews in prison, having originally been a wealthy CEO of a powerful company, who lost his job and was imprisoned for insider trading, something he now regrets. Crews saved Ted's life in prison, and Ted was there to support Crews upon his release. Ted discovered Crews' unauthorized and illegal investigation behind the conspiracy that led to his frame-up, and prevented a DA investigation from discovering it.
Officer Robert "Bobby" Stark is a uniform police officer and former partner of Charlie Crews. When Crews was put on trial for the murder of the Seybolt family, Bobby was unable to support his partner as he was threatened with imprisonment if he testified for his defense. Twelve years later, after Crews' release, Bobby made successful attempts to reconnect with him, and regularly aids him on cases. He managed to get a hold of Crews' old badge and service revolver and returns them to Charlie soon after he rejoins the LAPD. Bobby regularly clashes with Crews' new partner, Dani Reese, for a variety of reasons Bobby has a wife, Leslie, three kids, and a sister, Kathy, who is a "badge bunny" and has made romantic advances on Crews.
Captain Kevin Tidwell is the head of the LAPD homicide division and Crews and Reese's new commanding officer following Karen Davis' demotion. Originally from New York, Tidwell is portrayed as having a very easy-going attitude, but takes his work very seriously when needed, excelling in situations of extreme chaos. Over the course of Season 2, Tidwell made romantic advances on Reese. Initially she rebuffed him, but eventually the two began an intimate relationship. Tidwell has three ex-wives, who all still love him, and is extremely paranoid and afraid of earthquakes. He has the habit of speaking of himself in third person at times, and once mentioned in "Crushed" to have played the trombone in a marching band for 13 years, but it is not known if he still plays. Logue was added to the cast in Season 2, as an effort to lighten Damian Lewis' workload.
ADA Constance Griffiths was Charlie Crews' attorney who was instrumental in finding and proving his innocence, leading to his release. As a result, Constance was asked to become an Assistant District Attorney, which she accepted. Constance and Crews are seen to greatly care for one another; both in turn make references to a potential relationship, if Constance had not been married. Constance was a main character in Season 1. Originally, Melissa Sagemiller was cast to play the role, but she was replaced by Langton in July 2007.
Lt./Sgt. Karen Davis is the head of LAPD homicide, and commanding officer of Crews and Reese during season 1. In cases she participates in, Davis is uptight, by-the-book and cares about enforcing the law; yet during the entirety of the first season she uses her power to attempt to get Crews kicked off the force by getting Reese to reveal any misbehaviour by Crews, true or not. Between Season 1 and Season 2, Davis, for reasons apparently affiliated with the mishandling of the Ames case, is demoted and returned to field work. While Davis is a main character in Season 1, she makes an appearance in only one season two episode.