life nbc

Charlie Crews had only one ambition. He wanted to be a police officer. He fulfilled his dream, making it to detective - only to be framed for a gruesome triple murder. After serving 12 years of a life sentence, he was fully exonerated.

What are a dozen years in the prime of life worth? In Charlie's case, the state paid $50 million. It wasn't enough. Before he would settle, Charlie demanded his old job back. It might seem odd that the beneficiary of such a financial windfall would want to go to work every day in a thankless, perilous job. To make matters worse, Charlie is despised by many of his colleagues on the force. His new partner, Dani Reese, drew the assignment to ride with him as punishment for messing up.

The hostility is inexplicable. It's not as if Charlie got sprung from jail on a technicality. It was proven beyond argument that he was innocent. Why would someone set for life want to put up with this grief? Beyond his abiding faith that he can make a difference, Charlie is obsessed with learning who framed him and why. Access to police files and technology is a boon.




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Damian Lewis is reason enough to watch NBC's "Life." His Charlie is a fascinating iconoclast who makes eating a piece of fresh fruit - a treat he was denied for all those years - into a rapturous ritual. Good looks and $50 million are potent aphrodisiacs, so Charlie does all right making up for lost time with the opposite sex, too.

Lewis is such a commanding presence that Sarah Shahi is rendered little more than an accessory as Dani. There's nothing going on between the partners at the outset, but this is subject to change. You probably won't even recognize Robin Weigert ("Deadwood's" grimy Calamity Jane) as Charlie's commanding officer, Lt. Karen Davis, who would prefer that Charlie be someone else's problem. Brooke Langton plays attorney Constance Griffiths, who got Charlie sprung and would like to expand their relationship from professional to personal. Adam Arkin is grossly underutilized as Ted Earley, a white-collar criminal Charlie met in prison, who is now his housemate and financial adviser.

"Life" is good, well worth experiencing.

LIFE. Damian Lewis ("Band of Brothers") is a cop who rejoins the force after years of wrongful imprisonment. Premieres Wednesday at 10 on NBC/4.

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Tonight's new TV theme: starting over.

The pilot for Bionic Woman (NBC, E!, 9 p.m.) is titled "Second Chances," so let's begin with this remake of the `70s series that starred Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers.

You know the backstory: 1. Beautiful woman experiences catastrophic injuries in a freak accident. 2. Beautiful woman is "rebuilt" by a cabal of shadowy physicians using biotech gadgets you won't find at Radio Shack.

Jaime Sommers, the 2007 version, is played by Michelle Ryan. She has 80 per cent more intensity and 20 per cent less feathered hair.

Jaimie's boyfriend is Dr. Will Anthros (Chris Bowers), not a Six Million Dollar Man, but still responsible for the artificial limbs and superhuman organs that have turned his wallflower into a kick-ass agent of the unknown.

Now the question becomes: How will Jaime adjust to her new life?

In keeping with the times, the remake has a much darker tone. It is gloomy and foreboding and atmospheric. That aside, the version I previewed was as uneven as Britney's hemline after a bender.

Overall: neat action sequences but a story in need of some bionic work.

Moving on.

The early reviews for Life (NBC, Global, 10 tonight) have been laced with the highest of praise. But colour me unimpressed.

Life revolves around Det. Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis). He rejoins the LAPD after spending 12 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Given his brutal incarceration, you'd expect Charlie to be as menacing as Dirty Harry.

Instead, prison has turned Charlie into Monk.

What you have is another crime procedural ― Charlie rejoins the force despite earning a multimillion dollar settlement ― hastily built atop a central mystery: who framed the poor bastard?

To enjoy Life, you must enjoy Charlie.

So if you love watching TV detectives crack metaphysically, quote obscurely and solve crimes while gnawing on fresh fruit, DVR the entire season.

If not, let's start a support group. Sorry, Charlie, your new Life is grating.

And we keep on moving. Dirty Sexy Money (ABC, 10 tonight; CTV, 10 on Sunday) is about altruistic lawyer Nick George (Peter Krause) and the Darling family, wealthy eccentrics in New York.

Nick's connection to the Darlings traces back to his unhappy childhood, to a time when his father served as the family's 24/7 advisor, consultant, consigliere and trusted surrogate.

Now circumstance has brought Nick and the Darlings together. And billionaire patriarch Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland) is about to make Nick an offer only Brian Dunkleman could refuse.

As Nick begins his new life tending to the Darlings' every whim, keeping the cops and reporters and social predators at bay, he must referee internecine squabbles while absorbing a few revelations about his own family.

The all-star cast gives this pilot undeniable cachet. Now it's up to the writers to place the characters in situations that warrant a weekly commitment.

And, finally, words to terrify male viewers across North America: the Grey's Anatomy spinoff cometh!

As we learned during a backdoor pilot last season, Private Practice (ABC, CTV, 9 tonight) has Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh) beginning anew in California.

Addison has resigned from Seattle's Grace Hospital and moved to Los Angeles, where she'll presumably pout, flirt, kvetch, giggle and rue while sipping red wine and working at the Oceanside Wellness Group with BFF Naomi Bennet (Audra McDonald).

Cue the melodrama and soapy conflict: Addison's arrival sends Naomi's business partners into paroxysms. Why is she here? What does she want? Who will be her McDreamy?

Sigh.

Watch another Grey's Anatomy? I'd rather build a ferret nest in my trousers.

Gentlemen, wake me up when Addison is done starting over.