| Show NBC waits for viewers to get life Maria Elena Fernandez Los Angeles Times Charlie Crews is a patient man But how much longer is this striving Zen Los Angeles police detective supposed to wait for TV viewers to discover that they cant can't live without wit astute observations or sparkling red hair Even a man seeking to have no worldly attachments would find it difficult to ignore the sophomore slump that afflicts not only his show NBC's critically acclaimed Life but all time prime-time television this season as well No show that had its first season truncated by bythe bythe bythe the writers strike last year has yet bounced back in the ratings But Life did receive a double-boost double this month when NBC moved it back to Wednesdays from the dark hole of Fridays and gave it a season full-season order The Ther drama r ma which stars Dami Damian n Lewis as the police detective Who wrongfully spent 12 t years ars in prison registered s million viewers per show last l last st year and has averaged jest Jost 6 million this season I D Despite spite the ratings dip NBC C much as it has done with ith critically acclaimed l rated low shows such as Friday fiday Night Lights and 30 Rock is sticking by byr t r J Life Were trying to get Desperate Housewives' Housewives or House to be our lead-in lead joked creator Rand wishing that he could steal those shows from ABC or Fox Its a confusing time in network television But Butto Butto Butto to the networks network's credit so far they're not equating the numbers to the show They're saying its it's got to do with where were we're putting you or promoting you and what your lead-in lead is They love the show Or maybe the three- three month labor stoppage should be blamed The only two sophomore shows being embraced by viewers are the CW's Gossip Girl Girland Girland Girland and CBS's The Big Bang Theory the only series that returned with original episodes after the strike NBC's Chuck and ABCs ABC's Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money are still struggling to find findan an audience You'd think it would be easy for Charlie Crews to gain a following after all many cop shows even new ones such as CBS's The Mentalist command big audiences And Crews is not just a cop Hes He's a great detective with a sunny empathetic disposition a penchant for fruit and a beautiful troubled partner Dani Reese Sarah Shah 41 Framed for homicide Crews lost his badge and was sent to prison he used sed the time to become a better person learning to live in inthe inthe inthe the moment I enjoy Crews' Crews contradictions said Lewis during a scene break underneath the Street bridge in downtown Los Angeles I enjoy the blend of dark and light and the possibilities that are presented to you when youre you're able to write a character with a totally blank canvas Like Crews the show itself is light and dark and defies genre making it a challenge to promote Is it ita ita ita a procedural A serialized drama A It could even claim to be bea a bit of a mystery given an ongoing story line within the show involving a documentary about Crews being shot by an anonymous source Its It's such a mystery in fact that will not even discuss it The show is all and none of these things Perhaps the best way to describe Life is it starts and ends with Crews' Crews character We could really enjoy great extravagant things with him and let him make mistakes and always forgive him because he went through such a dark period in his life executive 1 producer Far said But at the same time he can be a little damaged Theres There's a lot of arbitrarily quirky characters on TV people who seem a little bit different or weird for forthe forthe forthe the heck of it and this seemed like a grounded place to come from The shows show's underlying conspiracy who framed Crews and why is the dramatic engine driving the program Last year the detective discovered who committed the triple homicide he was wrongly imprisoned for but he still hasn't figured out who orchestrated it The clues so far lead to as many as six people optional add end Charlie had this very visceral moment when he found the actual guy who should have been sitting in that cell for 12 years said He found him but he has to ask himself Can I let him go If there arc people out out there who are responsible for d doing ing this damage to you and perhaps to other people as asZen asZen asZen Zen as he would like to be Charlie cant can't let it go Is his life going to be this endless quest to answer these questions which is a kind of prison or can he be free We like to think of Charlie Crews as failing at Zen L ar |
