Life Gets Even Better

By Kristin Dos Santos Nov 14, 2007 9:11 PMTags
Damian Lewis, LifeChris Haston/NBC

With all the doom and gloom of the ongoing writers' strike (if you ask me, it's bone-chillingly sad), I figure it couldn't hurt to send out the following positive message about the TV we still have for the time being. Namely: Life is good. And it's getting even better.

If you haven't been watching this NBC crime drama starring Damian Lewis, you should know you're missing out on one of the best-written (and acted) series on television right now.

The ratings have been pretty solid by NBC 10 p.m. standards—6.37 million—but what's going to happen to it (and all the other on-the-bubble freshman series) once the strike dust eventually settles is anyone's guess. 

So, what I'm saying is: Life needs you. And you need Life. In a fairly lackluster crop of new series this season, it holds the promise of the next great procedural drama—that, like House, is so much more than just procedural. (Take it from this nonprocedural fan.) 

Tonight's eighth episode, "Farthingale," in which Detective Charlie Crews (Lewis) and his partner Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi) investigate the murder of a man with two wives and lives, is truly fantastic—not only because of the latest homicide case, which is solid storytelling, but because of the overarching storyline of Crews' wrongful imprisonment, which leaps forward tonight with a certain dead cop and a certain unexpected familial twist that's just...good.

Not to mention, Damian Lewis makes his Zened-out Crews one of the most fascinating and unformulaic detectives we've seen on TV—and tonight, he ups his game.

So, tune in tonight, will ya? 10:00. NBC. And if you're already pro-Life, holla below.