The Path To Zen

Everything You Need About NBC Series LIFE starring Damian Lewis & Sarah Shahi

Another very good review of the DVDs of the first season. This one comes from Nico, who had not watched the show when it aired, only did the DVDs, and here’s something I feel like quoting first :

I have one complaint and one complaint only. While the rest of the season is highly enjoyable and the sound is across-the-board professional and well-done, the music choices are abysmal and, on more than one occasion, took me out of the scene. Having not seen the original on-air run, I can’t confirm, but I’ve heard mumblings that songs were replaced for the DVD release. In the words of Hall and Oates, I don’t go for that.

Yeah well, there you go, well done NBC, exactly the opposite of what the original music accomplish! And that’s why I refuse to buy those DVDs, I won’t pay for this crap, I won’t encourage this, and I’ll hopefully find some other way to watch the extras; if not, I’ll have to live without. I’d much rather go that way that give my money to NBC when they do this crap, not a chance.

Anyways, here’s Nico’s review of the season, and the extras :

Continue reading "LIFE Season One DVD Review"…

Here’s a nice review of the upcoming DVDs of the first season of LIFE by Chris Ball on Cleveland.com There’s never any mention about the music selection, but I wonder if people who review those DVDs are even aware of that fact, probably not. Sucks, not just because I think we deserve to know, but because the original music selection was so much better and made scenes so much more powerful, than it’s really not the same to watch either version.

Anyways, nice review, sadly it looks like what was liked then won’t be next season, I’m thinking of this for example : “Shahi exudes a powerful sexuality, which LIFE manages to utilize without seeming too obvious.” Yes, that was another good thing on the show, but seems NBC decided to make more obvious, I guess those guys are either blind, stupid, or both. My guess is both.

Continue reading "Review of LIFE Season One DVDs"…

A nice article from USA TODAY about LIFE and the challenges ahead of the show for its sophomore season, after a shortened season cut in the middle by the writers’ strike.

NBC’s LIFE is revived; but question is, can it thrive?
By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY

In life, one seldom gets a second chance. That’s the premise behind NBC’s LIFE, the cop drama that gets a second chance of sorts when its new season opens Sept. 29 (10 ET/PT).

NBC is giving viewers ample opportunity to sample the series after the writers’ strike cut its freshman run to 11 episodes. Three more shows air on Oct. 3, 6 and 10, when it rests in its Friday slot.

“NBC understands the difficulty of selling this show,” says creator Rand Ravich. “The first episode needs to serve as a pilot, as if you’ve never seen it.”

Indeed, new viewers may need a refresher course on the characters and complex back stories. British actor Damian Lewis (BAND OF BROTHERS) stars as Charlie Crews, an L.A. cop who is back on the force after serving 12 years for homicides he has been cleared of, and he’s tracking the conspirators who framed him. Crews emerges from prison as a Zen disciple, challenged by modern conveniences and partial to fast driving and fresh fruit.

Continue reading "USA TODAY talks about LIFE"…

A few months ago Star TV started airing Life and part of their promotions was to arrange an interview with Sarah Shahi, there’s been a few versions of the interview floating around in the Net but I think this versions is the most complete one yet.

Found this interview while surfing the net, its a more complete version of the Star TV arranged interview:

Continue reading "Life according to Sarah"…

Here’s an ad for the upcoming DVDs of the first season of LIFE in the September 1st issue of TV Guide :

LIFE: Season One
Get sucked in to the mystery behind Detective Crews’ wrongful imprisonment or a triple murder he didn’t commit. Check out deleted scenes and bloopers.

[ Source: Damian-Lewis.com ]

Call it irony I guess, but soon after we confirmed that the DVDs for the first season of LIFE would not feature the original music selection but some replacements NBC felt more appropriate (read: were cheaper to use), comes an interesting piece in VARIETY about what? The importance of music and how it is used to tell stories and advance plots in shows like our very own LIFE !

This article reinforces one more time how despicable this whole thing is, and how much it hurts the show. Because on more than once occasion, the music on LIFE isn’t just a background noise, it’s so much more, it’s been carefully selected to make us feel a certain way, to convey certain feelings, to create a special atmosphere, and to replace those songs by others is simply to rewrite part of the episodes, it’s like NBC re-shot scenes to use a different actor because it was cheaper that way… disgusting is what it is.

Back on the music…

Continue reading "Variety about the importance of music in LIFE"…

Ever since it’s been announced that the DVDs for the first season of LIFE were coming up, there’s been one thing that has been really worrying me : what music would be used ?? It’s no surprise to anyone who’s been watching and loving the first season that the music on LIFE is incredible. It’s always very carefully chosen, more than ever it is part of an ensemble, just like L.A. could be seen as a character on the show, the music is a voice, an important one.

The creative minds behind the show have not hidden that it was a very important part of the show, and the musical selection has always been pretty amazing. But, while the episodes as they originally aired were done the way they were intended to, NBC soon introduced some crappy “rewind version” replacing the music carefully selected for the show by some other songs, cheaper songs.

Of course it is a nightmare, I never watched those because it made me sick, it ruined everything, it sometimes completely destroyed the atmosphere of the scene, the tone, changed the feelings that were communicated as we were watching it… Gosh, I hate NBC. And ever since the news that the DVDs were coming, I have feared that NBC, trying to save a few bucks, would do the unthinkable and ruin the show right on the DVDs, not using the original music.

Continue reading "LIFE Season 1 DVD: It’s the WRONG MUSIC !!!"…

We already talked about the upcoming DVDs for the Season 1 of LIFE, DVDs that will be officially out on September 2, 2008 and are already available so you can pre-order the LIFE season one DVDs on Amazon right now !

Meanwhile, TV Shows on DVD got more artwork, and I have to say I still don’t like it that cover so much… I guess it’s just that Charlie looks quite uncomfortable, and Dani has her “new” S2 look already, in other words, NBC was already messing with our beloved show when the design was created… Anyways :

Continue reading "LIFE Season 1 DVDs - more artwork"…

Alright, here we go again, with quotes from episode 5 of the first season, The Fallen Woman :

Continue reading "Quotes from The Fallen Woman"…

Here’s a review from our friends at TVoholic.com :

(S01E05) I said it before but I feel the need to say it again, because we really need to let the word out, the world needs to know : despite it’s odd title, and its appearance of being just another cop drama with a twist, Life definitely is the best new series of this season. I don’t mean on NBC, but overall. I know many are in love with Pushing Daisies, and I agree it’s a pretty good one, but I believe this one is better.

It really is so much more than what it looks like, and the one thing that attracted to it in the first place, that keeps me coming back and makes the show what it is, is before everything else the writing. The writing on Life really is brilliant, and while the weekly stories might not be the greatest ones ever, they are good and allow us to dive more and more each time with all the characters, and every single character on that show is written with great accuracy and depth, much more than in most other shows.

And on that note, this episode was no different. While the story/mystery of the week was good, it wasn’t great. A somewhat pretty traditional development from the start till the very end, and the introduction of a very bad, and recurring, evil character.

And like any others, he was brilliantly written, and portrayed just as well. He was also close to Charlie in a few ways, starting with the overall attitude. Very zen and relaxed, likes to be in control, know all about things and people involved, able to read people. And I suspect when Roman looses his temper, he just explodes and kills everyone around.

Continue reading the review of The Fallen Woman on TVoholic…