Promo for LIFE with never-seen-before footage [VIDEO]
Found on Canada’s network Global TV, here’s a little promo video for LIFE that does include some never-seen-before footage. I’m not really sure if they’re aware of it, because it doesn’t makes much sense to use such footage to promote the show, but either way, for any fans of the show out there this is great news !
This video does use footage from an early pilot done with different cast members, namely Claudia Black as Charlie’s ex-wife Jennifer and Melissa Sagemiller as Charlie’s lawyer, Constance Griffiths. And looking at this video, I can see why they decided to recast those roles and I’m pretty happy they did so, because the tones and attitudes just aren’t right here.
Constance seems just out of it, not caring, like it’s a joke or something, it’s totally off. As for Jennifer, she doesn’t look like she now does on the show, like she truly believed Charlie was guilty and moved on, has given up on him, their relationship, whatever they shared, and is not willing to let herself go back there and wonder about “what if”.
But this video is also very interesting in that we get a lot more of Charlie behind bars, reading his favorite book, The Path To Zen, and getting beaten up. I’m not sure if this is an actual change of direction in the show, or just an illustration of how much this experience affected Charlie. Because yes, there is a much darker tone to all of this, and the Charlie we know is a lot more joyful, but he’s also a free, innocent man, and of course that’s a huge difference.
I think it’s possible the Charlie we see here, behind bars, is the same one we have seen during the first season. It only shows what terrible time he had to go through during all those years, and why he loves so much being in the sun, eating fruits, riding his powerful car not caring about a destination, simply enjoying the freedom of being able to go anywhere life will take him.
And it also works when you put together this darker, and almost passive Charlie, with the one filled with rage we sometimes got a glimpse at, like when he beat up Cudahy (the guy who threatens Constance) in What They Saw (S01E04), or during the season finale, Fill It Up (S01E11) for example. There is without a doubt a much darker side to Crews that what we are used to, and if we don’t know much about it, it is because he chooses not to go there, he chooses to be Zen, or Zen-ish, and to not let his anger ruin his joy and steal the goodness of his mind, as he would say.
What do you think ?