New Lease on Life

As we approach the mid-point of the television season, the networks, even in a season unquestionably affected by the writer’s strike, have begun making the calls about which freshman shows will receive full season pick ups. Happily, among those shows green-lighted for the back nine is Life.

In the face of more media friendly programs such as Chuck and Bionic Woman, Life found a way to persevere, embracing quality over hype and slowly but steadily finding a loyal audience, of which I happily count myself as one.

Though it is unquestionably Damian Lewis’ show, Life also features Sarah Shahi as his partner Dani Reese, Robin Weigart as Lt. Karen Davis, and Brooke Langton as Charlie’s former lawyer turned DA Constance Griffith.

Rather than just being ancillary to Charlie’s story, each of these characters have developed into integral parts of the story, including the deeper conspiracy plot which serves as the shows biggest hook. In addition, the show has managed to blur the lines with each, making the question of on which side of the issue their loyalties might fall genuine for each in a different way.

Early on in the series, Lt. Shaw seemed a lock to be a part of the larger conspiracy which sent Charlie Crews to jail for over a decade for murders he didn’t commit. An image of her being the first new addition we see Charlie make to his closet-sized outline of his evidence and information about the series of people and events which lead to his imprisonment. Lt. Shaw pushed Charlie’s new partner to produce information which would allow them a loophole in the settlement which gave him a place as Detective in the police department, practically threatening Dani’s own position if she didn’t comply.

As the story has progressed, however, the lieutenant has been portrayed as a good cop, interested in justice above all else, and her interest in forcing Charlie out of the department possibly explained by the justifiable fear that he was there with ulterior motives which could be harmful to the department as a whole. It would have been easy within the story to paint Lt. Shaw with a darker brush, making her an unquestioned villain for the show’s hero to overcome. Instead, she is an example of how the show rarely goes for easy or simplistic choices or the easiest answer.

By contrast, the character of Constance Griffith has gone from Charlie’s unquestioned ally, the champion who obtained his release from prison, complete with huge monetary settlement and ensuring his desired reinstatement as a police officer, to a newly hired member of the DA’s staff, despite knowing of the DA’s desire to put Charlie back into prison. Hired for her new position only a week before a the murder of the investigating officer, Griffith’s potential shift of alliance effectively speaks to the overwhelming scope of the conspirators working against Charlie. And, as with Lt. Shaw, our initial impression of the character changes by subtle degrees as the story moves on, calling any basic assumptions into question and turning away from any simplistic understandings of them. The added dimensions lend to depth of the overall story, heightening the sense that Charlie is wading into untested waters, and leaving us uncertain as to what his secretive investigations are going to uncover.

Foremost among the murky loyalties surrounding him is Dani, herself. The partnership between the two has grown and developed into an effective, if at times uneasy alliance, given its charm by their wit and banter as well as the demons which seem to lurk under the surface of each of them. Through their investigations, Dani and Charlie have come to effectively work in tandem. And despite being ordered to help boot Charlie from the department, Dani has instead shown increasing trust and trustworthiness.

Complicating the matter, however, was an ambiguous warning to Charlie hinting at Dani’s connection to several million dollars which had gone missing from a bank heist when she was a girl, eventually connecting to her father, Jack Reese, Lt. Shaw’s former partner and a figure who has emerged to have a prominent place on Charlie’s wall documenting the conspiracy.

As with the other featured female players, this kind of twist adds to the richness and complexity of the character, giving her own backstory and the undercurrents of her personality a sense of weight and gravitas to potentially rival even Charlie’s own complicated psyche. And the growing sense of balance and equality between them only heightens the potential weight of Dani's being caught in between her history, her family, her partner and her sense of duty.

This type of storytelling, letting characters deepen slowly, hinting at secrets rather than wallowing in them and defining characters in no small part by what we don’t know about them is a refreshing change from programs such as Lost which constantly use flashbacks or flash-forwards to create and heighten the sense of mystery and ambiguity, rather than letting it develop organically. At times such shows seem more in love with their narrative devices and the conceit of their secrets and the revealing of them than they are with the characters themselves, and the journey they must undertake.

A show like Life works because its mystery develops slowly, using something of a narrative chiaroscuro. What we see and understand is defined, in large part, by the shadowy secrets surrounding everyone. The conspiracy looms over and around the story, helping to define it without dominating. And the drama is then developed from the ground up rather than falling from the sky or the need to constantly create new, larger then life devices for creating mystery and suspense to hook the viewers into the next phase of the story. This sense of drama over device is why Life seemed such an underdog at the beginning of the season, and the news that we’ll get to see more of this story is such a welcome gift.