Roman Nevikov kidnaps Dani Reese and contacts Charlie with his ransom demand: he wants Charlie to bring him Mickey Rayborn. With the LAPD brass looking for Charlie as well, he's not spending... Read allRoman Nevikov kidnaps Dani Reese and contacts Charlie with his ransom demand: he wants Charlie to bring him Mickey Rayborn. With the LAPD brass looking for Charlie as well, he's not spending much time at the office. He wonders if Rayborn is alive, but Ted Earley can't find any fi... Read allRoman Nevikov kidnaps Dani Reese and contacts Charlie with his ransom demand: he wants Charlie to bring him Mickey Rayborn. With the LAPD brass looking for Charlie as well, he's not spending much time at the office. He wonders if Rayborn is alive, but Ted Earley can't find any financial activity by Rayborn. Where and how, Charlie asks himself, could someone live witho... Read all
- Special Agent Paul Jones
- (as Paul Jay Jones)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAlthough it wasn't official at that time, creator Rand Ravich sensed this was going to be the series finale, so he wrote it with that in mind.
- GoofsIn the scene were Crews pulls Rayborn out of the car. As the car is stopping in front of the alley, the entire audio and camera crew is visible in the reflection on the door.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Zen recording: [voiceover] What we learned as children, that one plus one equals two, we know to be false. One plus one equals one. We even have a word for when you, plus another, equals one. That word is love.
- SoundtracksA New Beginning
(uncredited)
by 26
Again though it is not "bad" so much as just generic and it isn't helped by how it seems so intent on being average and doing average things by way of how lazy it can be. To me the best example of this is the romance between Dani and Tidwell. As a character Tidwell is a good addition as he brings something different to the party even if he is a bit obvious. However the "romance" is written in simplistic blocks and there is little in way of convincing transition between them. This is one example that sticks because it covers a chunk of the season but Dani's relapse into drinking is another one – it just "happens" and then is forgotten several scenes later – essentially telling the viewer that she is not a real person and that we have no reason to emotionally invest in her because the script certainly won't be. I do recognise that I am watching a glossy prime-time cop show so should not be surprised by a lack of grit and realism but at the same time one cannot help but be affected by the show's cavalier attitude to even its own characters and their development (or lack of). Season 2 even sees the things that make it different minimised as we have less of the Zen thing, prison seems a distant memory and even the fruit thing just seems random – to be replaced by endless scenes of guns being drawn for any occasion. It becomes its own sort of beast towards the end of the season by having a focused thread but for my money this is all done far too quickly and didn't convince me. As I was watching it I did think that the show was ending and they were rushing to try and grab viewers and, if not, then at least close things out. It didn't really do either and it just makes it feel messy and adds more to the impression of a show not really sure what it is doing.
The cast do their best within this but without any depth in the script most are left either being entirely superficial or "doing" depth by staring at things and looking thoughtful. Lewis is still a big selling point as he is a likable presence but he does need more to work with if he is to make this work. Shahi continues to be good looking but offered nothing – not even the relapse gives her material to work with. She is most memorable for her frequency quizzical looks and the way that she was increasingly shot from the neck up until her pregnancy took her to the edges of the show. I liked Logue even in his greasy simplicity but the script uses his badly – providing too little good comedic clashes and instead focusing on a lazy romance subplot. Arkin is given a bit more to work with in his character but still feels like a filler even if he is often a good filler.
And so it goes. Most of the episodes are distracting and few are "bad" or "dull" but as a total product Life continues to aspire to little more than filling an hour of network time for as long as the viewers will allow it to. The cast try and do help the material a lot but this can only ever work in the short term as they need the goods in order to be able to deliver them. Of course the chances are that Life doesn't have anything but the short-term because it is unlikely to keep going into a third season. Some will blame Leno eating up all the slots but if Life had really made something of itself then it would not be on the table as an option to be dropped. Personally, I won't miss it because over 2 seasons it never gave me a reason to do so.
- bob the moo
- Apr 30, 2009
Details
- Runtime44 minutes