A Word About Life

All these blogs on my favorite shows and though I've mentioned it, I've never dedicated a whole blog to one of my favorites, "Life".  I love the USA network's theme of great characters and I've loved how NBC has picked up on some of that as well.  Detective Cruise is a great character.  He's got a great back story.  Happily married and a cop, he had a great life until he was framed for murder.  12 years later, he's released from prison when his lawyer proved he was innocent.  Now he's back on the force as a detective who has more than enough money to be set for life, but still works murder cases.

So, on the surface, kinda ho-hum, right?  Nope!  The writers for this show are good.  This guy was a cop behind bars, that's like having a target on your forehead.  He learned to survive.  He has no luxuries for 12 years, including taste.  Now, he can't walk past a piece of fruit without tasting it.  He searches for exotic fruit and has it shipped.  He buys fast cars and a big house, but there's something else to Cruise besides extravagance.  While he was in prison, he found Zen.  He might have the big house, but it's empty.  He might have fancy cars, but he's trying his hardest not to care much about them.  He does care about one thing though, finding out who framed him and who killed his friends.  Now we have the sub-plot to each episode.  

The show's good because the stories pull you in, they're both stand-alone and serial, but the show's great because of Cruise.  Like House, Monk, Shawn and Gus ("Psych"), "Life" is more about Detective Cruise and his thought process than it is actually about the plot this week.  There's something about this way of storytelling - really delving into characters and developing them so that the audience knows them so well they could write scripts - that forms a loyal and dedicated fan base.  I think it's because for the hour this show is on you're feeling/thinking like these characters... and the funnest part... they're so out there yet so identifiable, it's like being someone you totally aren't.  Isn't that why we love tv/books/radio/film?  The trip, the challenges, the exhilaration?

Watch "Life" on Hulu.