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My NBC Life Board FAQ

Monday, October 22nd, 2007, 12:50 pm

There are a number of posts that pretty commonly pop up on the Life Board. Here are the ones I've noticed...

1) Does anybody else think Rachel is _________ :

a) Dani

b) Constance

c) Anybody on the show with brown hair who is either female or a less than convincing pre/post op tran male

With a few exceptions, the posts seem to be trending towards c because we've become so accustomed to the Hollywood age-vagary we can't pick a 22 year old out of a lineup. Rachel was 9 the day the murders were committed, so she would be a likely 22 in the show's present timeline. Tiffie is the closest we have gotten to a brunette in the approximately correct timeframe, and they made a belabored point of how she was under the legal drinking age. Of course she looked as convincing a teenager as, say, Katie Holmes did towards the end of Dawson's Creek and prior to meeting Tom Cruise. Many posters also seem to have bought Charlie's assertion that Olivia is 8 without question. The idea that there are products available to many that allow them to color their hair - the most popular choice being blonde - seems to be foreign as well.

2) Hey, does anybody know what _that song is_...

a) that about an even half dozen people have already asked about, and about as many have already answered, because I'm a really busy person who doesn't have time to read any of the old posts in Name That Tune?

b) that is not Bloody Bunnies by Gram Rabbit? Oh, and even though it's commonly accepted that taste is subjective, I can't help myself but say that I think Bloody Bunnies is not nearly good as that other song. (Whoever that is should have been on American Idol!!!!!)

I've tried making an iMix, other folks have added links to episode music guides... Increasingly, I just ask myself why???

P.S. If I ever do learn who sang that other song I'm sooooo not going to tell those folks about it.

Tags: rachel, bloody bunnies

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I'm _not_ Larry...

Friday, October 19th, 2007, 2:10 pm

The appearance of William Sanderson (Larry minus Darryl and Darryl from Newhart) on Life initially had me apprehensive. I was sure it would elicit derisive jokes from many viewers/critics. But I forget at times that I am old - at least in terms of TV viewership - and that Newhart stopped running in 1990. It doesn't seem like a long time until I confront the math and arrive at a 17 year gap - that's half my lifetime.

Sanderson, a native of Tennessee, has not lost his accent, and, relatively unnoticed by me, has done work in the interim on shows ranging from the X-Files to Deadwood. At times, confused, but distinctly not bumbling, his Life character Easley sets himself well apart from comparisons to Larry by remarking that Charlie should plant trees so as to block the view of neighbors when he kills Ted.

So do I hope that Life will fill out a rotation of character actors as they have for the last two episodes - Sanderson and Robert Lasardo? Not really. Damian Lewis is a relatively unknown commodity to a lot of American viewers, and he already has a strong supporting cast in Arkin, Shahi, and Sexton (the somewhat underutilized Stark, in my opinion). In the maiden season, I don't think he needs the distraction of too many guest stars clouding up a spotlight that should shine brightly on him, and rightly so.

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Very Punny...

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007, 11:36 am

I'm on record as finding Constance a chore to watch... But after several days of chewing on the synopses of this week's upcoming episode of Life, and mulling over how much I don't care what Charlie's feelings are for Constance (or hers for him) any further than that he get over them as quickly as possible, I finally found something else that has gotten stuck in my craw - provided I'm a lower animal who has one...

Constance is Charlie's 'long-suffering', 'faithful' attorney who, years into his sentence, prodded Charlie to reopen his case, and reclaim his life. Not to get too far ahead of myself, but she's the one glibly spouting off "Life is what they sentenced him to, and life is what he got back" or something or other every now and then to the documentarian. So Constance was _constant_. My, the subtlety...

But perhaps it's not as formulaic as it might seem. My uneducated guess about where all of this is going is that Constance sprung Charlie from the clink because, well, she has a void she'd like to fill with both the prominence of the case and - well, Charlie was hot . Having followed the papers, she followed the divorce and Jennifer's remarriage, the reports from the jail. Charlie was vulnerable, alone, needy... Unhealthy relationship made to order.

So eat it already, then after it has made you violently ill, reactively swear off of it forever and start looking for greener pastures...

Tags: life, crews, charlie crews, charlie, constance

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Charlie - Wily Coyote?

Thursday, October 11th, 2007, 3:19 pm

I will be the first to admit the coyote at the swimming pool was a fantastic bit of production. I was of course convinced that it was there because it was thirsty - it was panting after all. I really expected it to lower its head down to Ted's level and start lapping out of the pool. That would have been a stunning juxtaposition.

But then the moment passed, while the coyotes lingered throughout the rest of the episode, and I'm left to wonder why - both on a critical and on an esoteric level.

Coyotes often pop up in procedural crime shows - not the pad-footed, furry variety, though. The desert ferrying, two-footed variety. Total stretch that somebody in the writing room said "Hey, we need a coyote!" and was grossly misinterpreted.

Then there's the "Heart is a Lonely Hunter" theory that says that coyotes are the physical manifestation of Charlie's animated spirit. On one hand, this works - Charlie is kinda, well, disconnected from society because of his experience. Having been kept at a distance physically and mentally during his confinement, he is still apart, suspicious, fearful even... So this from 'Living With Coyotes' kind of rings some bells...

"When fed by people [a possible metaphor for anything from simple human contact to the baiting of his accusers and enemies to clues], coyotes can become unnaturally bold and the result is conflict between coyotes and people, which too often ends in serious harm, or even death, to people or the coyotes. Coyotes are extremely adaptable and can survive on whatever food is available. Problems occur when people begin feeding coyotes, either deliberately or inadvertently. Coyotes will quickly lose their natural fear of people and become bold,even aggressive.We can reduce conflicts with coyotes by ensuring that they remain cautious of humans. Never feed coyotes. If coyotes begin frequenting your neighborhbood, let them know they're not welcome. Make loud noises, throw rocks, or spray them with a garden hose. For everyone's safety, it is essential that coyotes retain their natural wariness of humans."

That would be an awfully deep and far reaching analogy to draw. But who's to say the writers aren't _that_ deep? Well, me, probably... Mark Twain describes the coyote as "a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton" that is "a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry." Twain also notes that despite his poor appearance, the coyote is so fast that if threatened, by the time you have aimed your rifle "nothing but an unusually long-winded streak of lightning could reach him where he is now."

On the other hand coyotes are still vaguely social animals, unlike the bears, for instance, that Charlie remarks to Ted were eliminated and made way for the coyote's ascendancy. They are born in litters, spend their early years as part of a pack, and eventually fan out into individual territories they will fight to the death to protect.

Or lastly they could just be making a very shrouded reference to Wile Ethelbert himself... If Charlie starts receiving large boxes from ACME... Wile E. is always in pursuit, and his pursuits always end in dramatic failures, frequently with catastrophic injuries, but he never flags, never folds, will drag himself on crutches after his prey...

Tags: life, crews, coyote, charlie

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