You have to give show creator Rand Ravich respect for breathing new air into the traditional cop drama format with Life starring Damian Lewis as a cop who returns to the force after spending time in prison. While most detective dramas focus solely on street level crimes, the dramatic layers with the return of Lewis' character, Charlie Crews, gives Ravich and his writing staff untapped territory to explore.

With Life making its second season return on Monday, September 29, we joined star Damian Lewis, co-creator Rand Ravich, and actress Sarah Shahi, who plays Crews' forceful partner Dani Reese, on a recent conference call to get the goods on the upcoming season of Life, the dynamics of the character relationships, and what we can expect in the coming weeks.

THE DEADBOLT: Charlie seems to be getting closer to the answers he’s looking for. How do you think it will affect him if he eventually solves his case?

DAMIAN LEWIS: How will it affect me? ... Well, I’ll have to look for another job so I hope he doesn’t - I hope he doesn’t solve the case.

RAND RAVICH: He’s going to move over to be in Chuck.

LEWIS: Yeah, right. He’s just going to go guest-starring in all the other TV series. You know, well, if he finds out finally who did it, who set him up for the triple murder, I think that’ll be some kind of closure and he’ll be able to carry on with his life as normal.

But I think - I don’t think he’s that close to finding where they are. I mean, he’s - something he’s established early on in this season’s show - what becomes clear is more than just one person who’s been operating this thing. There are five or six of them and he’s going to systematically work his way through them and find out exactly where that leads him. We don’t know how deep, how high up this corruption will go, who’s behind the whole conspiracy. Why was he set up? Was it something personal, vindictive or was he just - was he a fall guy? Was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

RAVICH: But also from - just from an internal level there is this kind of vengeance machine inside the Charlie Crews character that at any moment he could decide he’s had enough and he can walk away. But if he needs that satisfaction, that vengeance that is very un-Zen like, he’ll never stop looking. And so at some point the question has to be asked is this enough? Have I closed enough circles? Have I sought enough - have I gained enough vengeance? And can I get back to life or will it never be enough? And so I mean, that conspiracy level works both from the inside and the outside.

THE DEADBOLT: Considering Charlie is wealthy, why doesn’t he just hire like a whole team of investigators to help him?

RAVICH: Well, that’s an excellent question. And in Episode 1 part of the answers are solved by that. But in some of the broader things he does, he - in Episode 1 he does do that for but there are some things that he wants to put his own hands on and some things that he doesn’t want anybody else to know he’s doing.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

Sarah Shahi and Damian Lewis on the evolution of Charlie and Dani’s relationship in season two:

SARAH SHAHI: Okay, when we first see Dani she’s just a little bit better in terms of her - maybe her edginess or her sobriety this year. On a scale of one to ten she’s maybe like at a seven or so. But physically she’s a little different. You know, her hair is down. Her wardrobe got a bit flashier. But I think she’s going to be challenged at some point with her sobriety and possibly relapse and she also gets a love interest, which is different for her. She can’t feel love and - which is good for her, too, because it allows her to kind of - you know, he’s the first person that her guard has come down with and she becomes vulnerable, too, which doesn’t have that.

LEWIS: Well, I think Crews will continue to bounce back between the kind of pick and mix candy store girls that keep falling in his lap metaphorically and literally actually in one episode. And the ongoing heartache with his ex-wife and then in terms of his relationships at the police station are very bizarre. You know, his relationship with Dani Reese improves steadily, weekly. They seem to have a good solid respect for each other and accept one another’s differences. There’s a new Captain at the station and he’s, you know, he’s a little bit of a (petal) in the pond. But, you know, Crews learns to negotiate him as well and I think they kind of have a weird sort of respect for each other as well, although being very different. And that’s it. That’s it, for now.

Damian Lewis and rand Ravich on what Adam Arkin’s character does for Charlie Crews:

DAMIAN LEWIS: He’s just my house bitch. He really does what I ask him to do. I don’t need to explain it any more than that. You know, two men have an opportunity to get close in prison and...

RAND RAVICH: And then they spend most of the first season in the closet.

LEWIS: Yeah, it’s actually true. He - and yes. You know, Adam, well quite early, as you know, he was in prison for a white collar crime. I was in - he comes from a different world. He comes from the financial sector. I think he was made an example of and probably got a penalty that was too - more dramatic than it needed to be. I’m trying to think of the word - was convicted for longer than he needed to be and made an example of. Charlie - the back-story just loosely is that Charlie probably saved his life in some kind of way and Charlie then is given this huge settlement. Who better to look after it than the financial guy that he, you know, spent some time with in prison. So he lives in Charlie’s house and - but he’s being integrated more and more into the stories of the week.

And, you know, with his own expertise is helping Charlie solve crimes - if not the crime of the week, the more serialized element, which is that ongoing conspiracy story. And starting to develop a little romantic involvement for himself... I think it’s a challenge... People love Adam and people love the character of Ted Early and how to get him out of the house so he’s not just a guy sitting there with the apron on in the kitchen is I think a challenge. But there’s a lot of fun stuff. He gets into a business school this year and you’ll see him in a lot of good, sort of comedic scenarios.

Rand Ravich on selecting music for the show:

"Well, we have a very talented music supervisor, [Tricia Halloran] but it turns out that I ... I start with the ideas and then the script, the music is running in my head. I have such a big head start over our music supervisor that most of the music the first season and all so far in this season actually comes right off my iPod. I write to music and I drive to music, and I drive my wife - previous to that my mother -- crazy with music going all the time. So yeah, it all mostly comes right off - right out of my iPod. But NBC has actually been very good - I mean, because the first episode last year we did come out a little stronger with music and they were a little surprised. They thought we were going to be a little more conventional but once they got their heads around it they were actually very supportive with our taste in music."

Ravich on using more flashbacks:

"Those would have to be structured in a longer - yeah, in a longer form and not in a traditional flashback way. I mean, it would be fun to do a prequel episode. But I’m adverse to flashbacks only because they become a narrative crutch and you start like voiceover. You just start solving - they take a lot of the challenge out of forward momentum. But it would be fun to go back and see seminal events in prison, see the day he met Alan - Adam Arkin, see his early relationship with his ex wife and as well as for the Dani Reese character. You know, see her time as an undercover operative and how she became addicted to heroin. But it’s just like I said. It becomes a little slippery as - when you start using flashbacks. They can kind of take over and weaken the power of any narrative."

Damian Lewis on Charlie’s transformation from episode one to season two:

"Well it just seemed entirely natural to me that there would be a normalizing process for him as Rand says. He came from an alien environment and spent 12 years there, and is now back in what should be his natural environment but is just as alien to him. The world’s moved on technologically. He’s changed emotionally. He’s a little quacked by his experience. He’s been affected by it. It’s a little bit - suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, a little bit like war veterans come back and they behave erratically. They feel they’re not able to share their experiences. Who would understand? And I think Charlie is isolated from the world for those very reasons. And, you know, if you found him becoming more agreeable or a little bit more conventional, a little bit more sociable and more naturally sort of integrated, that was because that’s what - that is just what happens. And I think you’ll see him continue to normalize if you like as the series goes on."

Shahi on the storyline between Reese and her father:

"We have, I think it’s in Episode 3 this year, where Dani - in her own way, you know, she’s not much - she doesn’t really take the confrontation very well, but she does kind of have a moment where she confronts her father. And I still don’t think she knows - she doesn’t know the details of things but I think at this point, in this episode at least, she knows that he was involved. She knows her father..."