NETWORK: NBC
AIR DATE: September 29, 2008
STARRING: Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi, Donal Logue, Brent Sexton, Brooke Langton, and Adam Arkin
CREATED BY: Rand Ravich

Episodes 2.1 & 2.3 - "Find Your Happy Place" and "The Business of Miracles"

Life is the most underrated show on television. Like a lot of freshmen series last year, the strike left the series in limbo and left Life without the time to develop an audience. If there's any TV justice that should happen this season. Viewers are surely catching up with the series on Hulu or with the recently DVD version of season one and two episodes of the second season are getting special airings on Monday nights after Heroes to help the show build an audience before it moves to Friday nights. (NBC sent the two Monday night eps but there is one in between, this Friday night, that we haven't seen.) Heroes fans and even those of you that have given up on that once-hit show should give Life a shot tonight and next week. Try and not follow it to Friday nights, at least through your DVR. Life is the tightest mystery/crime show on television (unless you count Dexter, but it's a different animal). With tight editing, high production value, great writing, and a fantastic lead who is now supported by a better ensemble, Life deserves to be a hit.

The overall premise of Life is the story of Captain Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis), a man who was framed and falsely convicted for a murder over a decade ago. Now that he's been released and reinstated, Crews has what could be described as a unique world view. He's insanely rich (false conviction cases against the city will do that to you), but he remains on the force for both the love of the job and because it allows him access to what he needs to solve the overall crime of who put him away and why. Crews is partnered with a slightly damaged detective named Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi), who is a fascinating combination of sexuality, tough-as-nails cop, and vulnerable former drug addict. Shahi started off a little shaky, but really brought this character together near the end of season one and opens season two with a confident performance. Crews lives with a prison buddy, a guy named Ted Earley (Adam Arkin), who went to jail for an Enron-type crime and now helps our hero with his finances and everyday life. Each week, Crews and Reese have a different unique case and the overall arc of who put Charlie away the first time moves forward a little bit.

"An investment banker, a card shop owner, and a stripper each go into a box."

Written by Rand Ravich, the creator of the show, the season two premiere of Life - "Find Your Happy Place" - focuses on a serial killer who puts people with seemingly nothing in common into boxes until the suffocate. Each box has a number on the bottom and, within minutes of each other, Captain Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) and Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi) get calls for three of them in different places around the city. It turns out that the first girl was a dancer at a go-go club that featured a box instead of a cage. And then there's the guy who custom-ordered ten boxes himself. And maybe it's where the boxes were found that's important, not who was in them. Or maybe there's something else, something less definable, that the victims had in common. Hmmmm. It's a perfect opening mystery for a show that always has a clever case to solve. The second Monday episode, about animal rights, isn't quite as clever, but it does allow Shahi some room to shine.

How does the second take on Life feel different? It doesn't significantly, but the entire production seems more confident. This was kind of "the Damian Lewis show" in season one but Shahi looks and sounds more at ease in season two, continuing her weekly improvement that was a part of the second half of season one. More importantly, Donal Logue steps into the shoes once filled by Robin Weigert, a great actress on Deadwood who never quite fit in to season one of Life. Logue is going to be a perfect and fascinating fit with Lewis and Shahi. But what really separates Life are the little things. The subtle tics that Lewis brings to Crews. The veins of ice that Shahi gives Reese. And the clever twists to the writing that somehow always find a way to thematically tie the two halves of the show together without hitting the nail too hard on the head. For example, a serial killer who stuffs people in boxes and a man who spent years of his life in solitary confinement might have more in common than you think. The mystery-of-the-week and the mystery-of-the-show always have little, subtle things in common. It's excellent, underrated writing. It can take an episode or two to get into the rhythm of this unique show. But just TRY and watch the three episodes that air in the next eight days and not commit to Life.