ah, former TV loves: a rec, in case you missed it back then

[rose_griffes]

It's been ages since I talked about the show Life here, but someone pointed out recently that Netflix has both seasons available for livestreaming. Then I checked and they're accessible again on hulu.com (for free!) as well.

So if you're in the US and you haven't watched it before, you might consider giving season one a try; it's only eleven episodes due to the writers' strike in 2007-2008. I would view it as sort of a mini-series. The show is definitely a procedural, but the emphasis is on the characters, two cops named Charlie Crews and Dani Reese. Plus there's a bigger puzzle going on with Crews's (and Reese's) history that gets addressed in each episode as well.

Need more information? Show premise and picspam here, plus an awesome fanvid here. (Slight language alert for both.)

Person of Interest fans who haven't seen Life yet, you should definitely consider it. They have a lot of similar themes. Both film on location in a major US city and use that backdrop well. (Life had better cinematography, although sunny LA gives it an advantage over gray NYC, too.) Both feature characters shaped by their pasts in inescapable ways. Both shows have Batman references! Oh, and both shows have a character with the last name Reese. Heh.

In Life's favor, it has Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi and Adam Arkin, and they're pretty much unbeatable. Sorry, PoI cast, but it's true. Though at least part of that is that Life had better writing--dialogue in particular--since it was more character-based. I'll give PoI a point for having better cases of the week, so it probably balances out.

In conclusion, I miss the show characters. *sadface*

Comments

[rose-griffes.livejournal.com]

You know what I would do in your place? Watch season one and stop there, unless you find that you're a Charlie Crews only fan. The season one finale does wrap up a lot of story lines in a satisfactory way, and season two changes the characterization of Dani Reese enough that I found it a struggle at times. Charlie was my favorite, but Dani was a close second, so it frustrated me that some of what I loved most about her was ignored or altered.

eta: if you do decide to watch season two, yes, there is a resolution there as well.

I love parts of season two. I think they found a better balance in the cases of the week--they were more interesting than in season one. But since I viewed it as a character-driven show, I wanted it to keep that aspect, and it only did a moderate job in that regard.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I'll see how S1 goes... I'm a little afraid I will lose interest anyway because procedurals have a hard time holding my attention, but I really like D. Lewis and S. Shahi. I'm hoping there's a lot of the bigger mystery arcs to keep me watching!

[rose-griffes.livejournal.com]

Good luck, then! I do well with procedurals, but they're not the only kind of shows I like. I think there's enough of a bigger story in S1 to keep you hooked, but I guess you'll decide that for yourself! :)