Life (American TV series)

Plot

First season

Second season

Characters

Main

• Detective Charles "Charlie" Crews Jr. is the main character of Life. Crews was an ordinary police officer whose simple life came to an abrupt end when his friends, the Seybolt family, were brutally murdered. The sole survivor was the daughter, Rachel Seybolt. Charlie and Tom Seybolt owned a bar together. Crews was put on trial and convicted for the murders. Stripped of his badge and innocence, Crews was given a life sentence, where he suffered horribly. Because he was a police officer, the prisoners were eager to beat him regularly and brutally. His depression worsened as his friends and loved ones turned on him, believing him guilty, and the world at large moved on without him. After twelve years, Crews' lawyer proves his innocence, he is exonerated, given a substantial settlement which Ted Earley manages and expands over the course of the series. Additionally, he is reinstated to the LAPD, and promoted to detective in the homicide division. While fulfilling his police responsibilities, Crews attempts to reconnect with his friends and loved ones, working to put his life back together and come to grips with his place in the world. He is most successful with his former partner, Officer Bobby Stark, enlisting his help on cases and even briefly re-partnering with him in an unofficial capacity. Crews also attempts to reconnect with his ex-wife Jennifer, who believed him guilty, divorcing him and remarrying while Crews was still in prison. Unknown to anyone except Ted, Crews is pursuing an unauthorized and illegal investigation to uncover the truth about his conviction and incarceration. Charlie displays an intense enjoyment of fruit and eats fruit repeatedly in each episode. While incarcerated, Crews began reading The Way of Zen by Alan Watts, leading to his adoption of a zen Buddhist outlook. While he often appears dreamily preoccupied and makes esoteric zen remarks, Crews is still deeply troubled and exhibits conflict between following Buddhist precepts and seeking retribution for his imprisonment. Crews has a particularly difficult relationship with his father, Charles, Sr., showing him open contempt, as his father was among the first to believe Charlie guilty, and went so far as to forbid Charlie's mother from visiting Charlie in prison, which Charlie believes led to her death. Crews' father broke into Crews' house to deliver a wedding invitation and was shot by Crews, who believed him to be a home invader. The wound was minor and his father recovered, but their relationship is still strained. Crews' investigations gradually gained more and more attention, most notably from The Group. In response, they sent FBI Special Agent Paul Bodner, one of their operatives, to kill Crews. Bodner shot Crews as he answered the door. Crews nearly died and had an out-of-body experience. Once he recovered, he re-cast the bullet Bodner shot him with, and shot Bodner in the leg with it to "get even."
• Detective Dani Reese is Crews's skeptical but loyal partner and immediate superior. Over the course of the series, the two develop a strong working relationship, despite Reese's frustration at Crews's eccentricities and her discomfort at being caught between him and their first-season boss, Lt. Davis, who wants her help getting Crews off the force. Reese also has serious problems of her own, as a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who seeks out anonymous sex. The episode "Tear Asunder" suggests that she sees self-destructive behavior as a way of punishing herself. Reese's drug addiction dates to an undercover assignment on a narcotics case, and there is no indication that she continues to use. By contrast, it is immediately clear that she is still drinking. Her alcoholism is central to the first-season episode "Powerless," which ends with her apparently sincere embrace of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the second-season episode "Trapdoor," however, Reese falls off the wagon, when her then-boyfriend, Captain Tidwell, pushes her about meeting his father. Although this lapse suggests that Reese has not truly dealt with the underlying causes of her addictions, there is no indication that she is drinking for the remainder of the series. Reese's troubles also include a strained, resentful relationship with her father, Jack Reese. She confides to Crews in the episode "Serious Control Issues" that she spent her childhood trying to figure out if her father was "only mean, or just plain bad." There are other clues suggesting an unpleasant upbringing. Although Reese is bilingual, having learned Persian from her mother, she tells Crews in the episode "A Civil War" that her father forbade them to use the language in his presence. Reese is seemingly unaware of her father's involvement in the conspiracy to imprison Crews. In the final episode of season one, Crews is about to tell her but is interrupted. Reese's being "in the know" is teased through season two, but there is never a full disclosure. Reese does eventually confront Crews about her father's involvement during "Trapdoor," but Crews is shot in the chest before they can complete the conversation.
• Ted Earley is Crews' housemate and financial advisor. Ted met Crews in prison, having originally been a wealthy CEO of a powerful company but lost his job and was imprisoned for insider trading, something he now regrets. Crews saved Ted's life in prison, and Ted was there to support Crews upon his release. Ted discovered Crews' unauthorized and illegal investigation behind the conspiracy that led to his frame-up, and prevented a DA investigation from discovering it.
• Officer Robert "Bobby" Stark is a uniform police officer and former partner of Charlie Crews. When Crews was put on trial for the murder of the Seybolt family, Bobby was unable to support his partner as he was threatened with imprisonment if he testified for his defense. Twelve years later, after Crews' release, Bobby made successful attempts to reconnect with him, and regularly aids him on cases. He managed to get a hold of Crews' old badge and service revolver and returns them to Charlie soon after he rejoins the LAPD. Bobby regularly clashes with Crews' new partner, Dani Reese, for a variety of reasons Bobby has a wife, Leslie, three kids, and a sister, Kathy, who is a "badge bunny" and has made romantic advances on Crews.
• Captain Kevin Tidwell is the head of the LAPD homicide division and Crews and Reese's new commanding officer following Karen Davis' demotion. Originally from New York, Tidwell is portrayed as having a very easy-going attitude, but takes his work very seriously when needed, excelling in situations of extreme chaos. Over the course of Season 2, Tidwell made romantic advances on Reese. Initially she rebuffed him, but eventually the two began an intimate relationship. Tidwell has three ex-wives, who all still love him, and is extremely paranoid and afraid of earthquakes. He has the habit of speaking of himself in third person at times, and once mentioned in "Crushed" to have played the trombone in a marching band for 13 years, but it is not known if he still plays. Logue was added to the cast in Season 2, as an effort to lighten Damian Lewis' workload.
• ADA Constance Griffiths was Charlie Crews' attorney who was instrumental in finding and proving his innocence, leading to his release. As a result, Constance was asked to become an Assistant District Attorney, which she accepted. Constance and Crews are seen to greatly care for one another; both in turn make references to a potential relationship, if Constance had not been married. Constance was a main character in Season 1. Originally, Melissa Sagemiller was cast to play the role, but she was replaced by Langton in July 2007.
• Lt./Sgt. Karen Davis is the head of LAPD homicide, and commanding officer of Crews and Reese during season 1. In cases she participates in, Davis is uptight, by-the-book and cares about enforcing the law; yet during the entirety of the first season she uses her power to attempt to get Crews kicked off the force by getting Reese to reveal any misbehaviour by Crews, true or not. Between Season 1 and Season 2, Davis, for reasons apparently affiliated with the mishandling of the Ames case, is demoted and returned to field work. While Davis is a main character in Season 1, she makes an appearance in only one season two episode.

  Recurring

• Arthur Tins was a low-rate con artist who, in an attempt to con money out of Mark Rawls' son killed him with a shot to the back when he wouldn't pay. Charlie Crews eventually tracked down and captured Tins. Tins initially boasted that, due to lack of evidence, he could only be held for a year, but as he was escorted by Crews and Dani Reese to prison, he noticed Rawls waiting for him, and immediately confessed so he could be sent to another prison. Given a life sentence, Tins escaped a year later while out on work detail with two others during an earthquake, a more cunning and dangerous criminal due to things learned in prison. Tins manipulated Crews into leading him to the paroled Rawls, whom he killed with a shot to the back of the head, and then successfully robbed an armored truck. Crews eventually tracked him down to the home of the manager of the armored truck company, where Tins was holding her, her husband, and her son and daughter hostage. A stand-off ensued until Crews was able to shoot Tins in the chest, killing him. As Tins died, he remarked to Crews "I'll see you later then Crews." Tins's ghost, complete with the bullet wound that killed him, appeared to Crews during his "rebirth," and he remarked how bullet wounds still hurt in the afterlife, and "that's just messed up."
• Captain Jack Reese is the father of Dani Reese and a member of the group of 6 ex-police officers known as The Group. Reese is a retired SWAT captain, highly respected and admired, though unknown to most, he was involved in the Bank of Los Angeles Shootout. During the shootout, he led the SWAT team, but behind the scenes, he and his men stole the missing $18 million. Reese was a key orchestrator in the conspiracy of sending Crews to prison, and played a cat-and-mouse game with him until he suddenly departed. Roman Nevikov, one of the Group's "investments" who was abandoned by them in favor of Crews, claimed in the second season finale to have subsequently captured and killed Reese.
• Detective Carl Ames was the lead detective on the case that sent Charlie Crews to jail, and decided to retire right after Crews was given a life sentence. He was a friend of Jack Reese, and as such falsified certain details in the case to ensure Crews was convicted. After Crews was released, Ames, despite all the evidence to the contrary, refused to believe it. Crews, as a result, was driven to repeatedly seek Ames and confront him with the evidence, attempting to force out any details leading to the conspiracy that led to his imprisonment. Ames was found murdered with a shot to his head and heart in his car in the Los Angeles police station parking lot, as a result of his failed plan to further frame Crews. Crews was initially the primary suspect, but was eventually proven innocent. In the Season 1 finale, Crews recognizes the two henchmen seeking Kyle Hollis as the same standing beside Reese on the morning of Ames' death. Realizing Reese ordered Ames killed by the two men, Crews takes out his old service pistol and successfully shoots and kills the two men, avenging Ames.
• Jennifer Conover is Charlie Crews' ex-wife who, not believing his innocence, divorced him when he was in prison, and in the 12 years he has been in prison, she has remarried and had a son and daughter. After Crews is released, he regularly approaches her, having never given up his feelings. Initially her viewpoint towards him is strained, but in the middle of Season 2, Jennifer finally succumbed to his advances and they had a night of passion, which was the closure to their relationship.
• Kyle Hollis, a.k.a. Reverend Orson Parker is the true murderer of the Seybolt family, the crime that Crews went to prison for. Hollis, at the time, served as Jack Reese's confidential informant and street muscle, and was sent to Tom Seybolt, who was one of the money launderers of the missing $18 million from the Bank of LA Shootout, when it was found that he was stealing a portion of the money he was given. High on drugs, Hollis went out of control and murdered Tom Seybolt along with his wife and son, leaving only his daughter Rachel alive. Afterward, Hollis turned his life around and became a man of God, adopting Rachel as well. When Crews finally tracked him down, he initially wishes to kill him, but instead tricks him into confessing to the crime. Hollis was subsequently sent to prison. In Season 2, Crews visited him in prison to find out more about his connection to Reese, only for Hollis to strangely deny he ever knew him.
• Mark Rawls is a criminal serving a 10-year prison sentence whose son was found murdered, but Charlie Crews solved the crime. As a thank-you, Rawls, at Crews' request, uses his contacts in the criminal underworld to finally locate Kyle Hollis, as well as his new name, profession, and the fact that others were after him. In Season 2, Rawls is paroled, and during the earthquake that strikes Los Angeles, Rawls planned to hunt down Arthur Tins, his son's killer, who he learned from his prison friends had escaped in the earthquake. Crews was legally forced to interfere with his plan, and in doing so, Tins was able to kill Rawls. Crews, in turn, killed Tins.
• Mickey Rayborn was a police officer who retired and became a highly-influential philanthropist. He was also a member of the group of 6 ex-police officers known as The Group. Rayborn, having learned he is going to die from an unspecified form of cancer, willingly aided Charlie Crews in his investigation of Jack Reese, another member of The Group. :Eventually, Rayborn gave up key details of The Group to Crews, giving him some important answers to their activities. After the meeting, Rayborn's private yacht, where he had met Crews last, was found adrift a mile out to sea by the Coast Guard; its deck covered in blood, with Rayborn presumed to have been butchered by Nevikov. In the Season 2 finale, it was revealed not only was Rayborn still alive and hiding from Nevikov, but he was never sick in the first place ; Rayborn worked together with Crews to save Dani from Nevikov.
• Olivia Canton is the significantly younger fiancé of Charles Crews Sr., the estranged father of Charlie Crews. Olivia has made repeated, and always rebuffed, attempts to make contact with Crews, resulting in her spending a lot of time with Ted, who developed feelings for her. She gently turns down his romantic efforts while trying to maintain a friendship with him. Her relationship with Charles Sr. ultimately broke down when she couldn't take the strain of their poor relationship any longer. She runs off to Spain by the end of the second season. Ted finds out and immediately follows her.
• Rachel Seyboldt, a.k.a. Rachel Hollis is the sole surviving member of the family murdered by Kyle Hollis and that Charlie Crews was framed for. Being only nine years old at the time, Rachel was left deeply emotionally scarred and even now finds it difficult to socialize. Due to Jack Reese's efforts to protect her from the rest of his group, Crews had to spend a great deal of time and effort in Season 1 to find her, and eventually found she had been adopted by Hollis. After Hollis' arrest and imprisonment, in Season 2, Rachel moves in with Crews. Initially, Rachel's relationship with Crews was tense, but, as both were "wrecked" by the crime and went through a dark time in their respective lives, it eventually grew to bond them together, and they began caring about one another. Roman Nevikov, a ruthless Russian mobster Crews was investigating, subtly threatened more than once to rape and kill Rachel if he investigated the triple murder too deeply, forcing Crews to send her away for her own safety.
• Roman Nevikov is a ruthless Russian mobster and human trafficker based in Los Angeles. Supposedly, Nevikov was born in prison, and exhibits extreme sociopathic tendencies. Cool, calm, and extremely confident, Nevikov always seems to know specific and private details about those he interacts with. Those who work for him fear him as being untouchable. This is proven when Nevikov, having murdered one of his prostitutes and been subsequently arrested by Charlie Crews and Dani Reese, is released without charge when it is revealed that he is a protected federal informant.
• Special Agent Paul Bodner is an FBI agent who is occasionally on loan to the Department of Homeland Security. Bodner originally encountered and came into conflict with Charlie Crews when he came into the LAPD to protect Roman Nevikov, explaining that Nevikov was a protected federal informant. In Season 2, Bodner, back with the FBI full-time, confronted Crews with his investigation into Jack Reese, and warned him not to investigate too deeply. Crews later found out Bodner was corrupt; he only came to Nevikov's defense because he was working for him. Bodner was responsible for sending Ted Earley back to prison, and he came to claim jurisdiction over the search of Roman Nevikov's club. Initially there was conflict between him and Cpt. Kevin Tidwell, but when it was found the murdered engineer was monitoring the site of the future new federal building in Los Angeles, the Joint Terrorism Task Force was called by Tidwell, who in turn sent Bodner. Believing it a possible terrorist operation, Bodner claimed jurisdiction and warned Crews, Reese and Tidwell to stay away from Nevikov, indicating to Crews that he would risk being killed. Bodner fulfilled his threat by going to Crews' house and shooting him in the shoulder and making a successful escape. Crews, however, remembered it was him and, instead of turning him in, shot him in the leg with the same bullet Bodner shot Crews with. Hostilities between them subsided when Bodner confessed he only worked for Nevikov not because he was corrupt, but because Nevikov threatened his family. Bodner, from this point, worked together with Crews. In the Season 2 finale, Crews saved Bodner from being assassinated by one of Nevikov's agents, and Bodner worked with Crews to rescue Reese.
• Detective Jane Seever is Charlie Crews' temporary partner during Detective Reese's loan to the FBI and subsequent disappearance. She has a "15-year plan" to eventually become the mayor of Los Angeles. She can speed read, takes detailed notes of every idea that Crews' voices and has an eidetic memory. She is a lawyer, and once ran in the Olympics.
• Amanda Puryer is a security specialist in Rayborn's employ. She starts a rough relationship with Crews, thinking he murdered Rayborn, and bringing it to his attention. She seems to openly disrespect Charlie, to the point of breaking the law in front of him, and giving remarks that are meant, and sometimes are, insensitive or dry. Her British accent annoys Crews, and according to Ted, "makes everything sound smart". She has technology that Crews and Earley don't and uses it to help them find people, specifically Rayborn. She tends to stay with Earley during scenes, each having short relevant conversations.

  Guest Starring

• Chad Lindberg, Cheryl White, Larry Poindexter, Brynn Thayer, Braeden Lemasters, Ben Benitez, Reno Wilson, Matt Gerald: season 1 episode 1;
• Max Greenfield, Meredith Salenger, Ryan Locke, Natalie Dreyfuss, Shawn Reaves: season 1 episode 2
• Charles Malik Whitfield, Robert LaSardo, Mike Batayeh, Tyler Tuione, The Greg Wilson: season 1 episode 3;
• William Sanderson, Rod Rowland, John Livingston, Jackie Debatin, Anil Kumar, season 1 episode 4;
• Jessica Paré, Rod Rowland, Steven Porter, Christian Meoli, Robin Pearson Rose: season 1 episode 5;
• Jeffrey Pierce, Deborah Ann Woll, Ben Benitz, Dale Dickey, Doug McKeon, Ken Faulcon, Ron Brownstein: season 1 episode 6;
• Sarah Clarke, Trent Ford, Matt Gerald, Sheila Vand, Rosie Malek-Yonan, Scott Michael Morgan, Michael Kostroff: season 1 episode 7;
• Lori Rom, Diana Parks, Michael Harney, Phyllis Lyons, Judith Moreland: season 1 episode 8;
• Michael Harney, Joseph Lyle Taylor, Phyllis Lyons, Michael Gladis, Soren Fulton: season 1 episode 9;
• Jude Ciccolella, Fay Masterson, Chandler Parker, Hillary Tuck, Brian Klugman, Todd Giebenhain: season 1 episode 10;
• Noel Fisher, Kim Director, Matthew Currie Holmes, Erica Tazel: season 2 episode 1;
• Stacy Haiduk, Matt Lanter, McKenna Jones, Max Gail, Adam Hendershott, Eileen Boylan: season 2 episode 2;
• Marguerite Moreau, Marsha Thomason, Todd Stashwick, Hector Luis Bustamante, Michael Shamus Wiles, Jeremy Gaskin, Martin Grey: season 2 episode 3;
• Henri Lubatti, Jake Abel, Jesse James, Scott Michael Campbell, Erik Eidem, Jarod S. Einsohn: season 2 episode 4;
• Jonathan Banks, Maeve Quinlan, Katie Lang Johnson, Alex Sol, Gloria Garayua: season 2 episode 5;
• Michael Cudlitz, Stacey Travis, Rebecca Lowman: season 2 episode 6;
• Stephen Bogardus, Eugene Byrd, Jonathan Slavin: season 2 episode 7;
• Kyle Gallner, Marcus Giamatti, Brianne Davis, Steven Crowley, Mary Mouser: season 2 episode 8;
• Alex Carter, Victoria Pratt, Jamie Harris, Aja Evans, Mitchell Fink, Tyler Kain: season 2 episode 9;
• Timilee Romolini, Zahn McClarnon, Clayne Crawford, Sal Lopez, Malaya Rivera Drew: season 2 episode 10;
• Rachel Miner, Michael Raymond-James, Tim deZarn, Marshall Allman, Mary Gross, Jessica Dunphy: season 2 episode 11;
• Tessa Thompson, Geoff Pierson: season 2 episode 12;
• J. Patrick McCormack, Richard Speight Jr., Josh Randall, Kayren Butler: season 2 episode 13;
• Patrick Fabian, Angela Goethals, Rick D. Wasserman, Kate Connor, Jelly Howie, Jim Cody Williams, Geoff Pierson: season 2 episode 14;
• M. C. Gainey, Charlotte Rae, Dave Florek, Wayne Péré, Tamara Feldman, Ian Reed Kesler, Amanda Fuller: season 2 episode 15;
• Allison McAtee, Erick Avari, Sarayu Rao: season 2 episode 16;
• Tim Guinee, Valarie Rae Miller, Adam Wylie: season 2 episode 17;
• Jason Beghe, Michele Hicks, Maurice Compte, Larry Clarke, Michael Rose, Julie Remala: season 2 episode 18;
• Ian Gomez, Linda Park, Googy Gress, Colleen Porch, Amanda Fuller, Gena Shaw: season 2 episode 19;
• Kevin Kilner, Marisol Nichols, Darby Stanchfield, Lauren Cohan: season 2 episode 20;
• Victor McCay: season 2 episode 21.

  Production

Development

Crew

Episodes and broadcast

International distribution

DVD releases

Reception

Critical response

Ratings

U.S. television ratings

International ratings

Awards and nominations