The Path To Zen

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

In a surprising but welcome development, NBC orders a back nine (additional nine episodes) from Life thus completing its 22 episode order for the second season.

NBC will pick up nine additional episodes of its sophomore drama “Life” (Wednesdays, 9p.m. ET), giving the series a full-season order for 2008-09, it was announced today by Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios.

“This unique crime drama continues to offer consistent and compelling stories each week,” said Teri Weinberg, Executive Vice President, NBC Entertainment. “We love ‘Life’ and are thrilled that we get to see more of these characters and amazing new cases.”

“Life” moved to NBC’s Wednesday schedule this past week and delivered a 2.0 rating, 5 share in adults 18-49 and 5.9 million viewers overall, improving on its earlier average as a Friday regular by 33 percent in 18-49 rating. The November 5 telecast of “Life” ranked #2 in the competitive Wednesday time period in men 18-34 and improved its adult 18-49 rating from half-hour to half-hour by 11 percent (to a 2.1 rating from a 1.9).

The Wall Street Journal called “Life” “…a steady burn - of talent, of smart writing, of chemical reactions.” The New York Daily News called it “brilliant” and “sizzling” and the Dallas Morning News called it “a new-age ‘Rockford Files.’”

Source: Futon Critic

NBC moves ‘Life’ back to Wednesday on November 5:

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — NBC adds more drama to its Wednesday night schedule when an all-new season of “Law & Order” premieres Wednesday, November 5, (10-11 p.m. ET), following “Knight Rider” (8-9 p.m. ET) and “Life” (9-10 p.m. ET) in its new day and time period. Likewise, the network also re-shapes Fridays with “Lipstick Jungle” stepping in behind “Crusoe,” (9-10 p.m. ET) beginning Friday, October 31 (10-11 p.m. ET) Continue reading "Life moves back to Wednesdays"…

Some stills for episode 209 :

Continue reading "Episode Stills for 209"…

Some stills for episode 208 :

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Air Date: Friday, October 31, 2008
Time Slot: 10:00 PM-11:00 PM EST on NBC
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Not For Nothing was written by Scott M. Gimple and directed by Peter Markle.

The episode first aired on October 10, 2008 and was watched by 4.92 million viewers, with a 1.4/rating, 4/share amongst adults 18-49. Sadly this was the lowest rated episode of LIFE ever, as the show never had less than 5.4 million viewers. It was also the second time LIFE ever went below 2.0 amongst adults 18-49, the first time being the first episode to air on a Friday night. I wonder what that could mean…

Obviously there are many reasons to explain such a low performance : a lack of support from the network, also messing up with the show’s creative direction; a lack of promotion and a complete absence from the air for over 10 months — something all series in the same situation have been suffering from, see CHUCK (NBC) or even PUSHING DAISIES (ABC); and of course let’s not forget the ‘odd’ schedule and the move to Fridays, also know as the death slot.

But of course NBC will blame it on the show, its viewers - or lack of many of them, and use any kind of stupid excuse to give up on the show, or should I say ‘officially’ give up, because it looks like they already have, and are just pushing it out the door…

[ Source: Nielsen Media Research data, from Marc Berman ]

Here’s the music info for Not For Nothing :

- At 1:50, Crews & Reese at the “prison”, finding the body and looking around… : Squares, by The Beta Band. Can be found on Hot Shots II (Buy the MP3).

- At 6:02 + 40:37, Opening up windows to let the sun in; End of episode: Charlie & Will in the cell, Charlie and Ted listening to the tape and “figuring out” the threat : I Shall Be Free, by Kid Beyond. Can be found on Amplivate (Buy the MP3).

- At 18:58, Crews & Reese at the Frat house : I Got It (What You Need), by Galactic. Can be found on From The Corner To The Block (Buy the MP3).

As always, let us know about any mistake/miss!

Here are some quotes from The Business Of Miracles, third episode of the sophomore season of LIFE :

Continue reading "Quotes from The Business Of Miracles"…

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

(S02E03) For the last time there was a new episode of Life on a Monday night. From now on an starting this very Friday, the show settles down on its regular slot, Fridays at 10.00 meaning that, yes, once again we’ll get a double-dose of Life this week as Charlie & Dani are coming back in just a few days. But before that, they were just here last night, and there’s a lot to talk about, obviously.

I have said before that, to me, Life isn’t a cop show. Or, more exactly, it only has the appearance of one, but that’s not what it’s about. And I’m not talking about the whole conspiracy behind Charlie’s 12 years in prison either, I mean the show is all about people, not about a murder, solving a crime or even finding out who framed Charlie. All of that are just excuses, excuses to spend time with those often broken characters, and see them have a second change at life.

About this episode, I liked it. I really did, but at the same time I didn’t. It’s not quite a mix of love and hate mixed together, I am far from hating the show, but at the same time and as much as I love it, and enjoyed it because it was Life, and Charlie and Dani, at the same time it wasn’t really them. I feel that the show isn’t as good as it used to be last season, or this episode wasn’t like what we were used to.

The previous episode(s) I was rather fine with, but here I couldn’t help but feel something was different. It was both in this episode specifically, and in the whole show ever since it came back. First, let’s talk in general. In general, ever since the show came back for its season season, something has been different. It’s because a lot happened since last season finale, but we don’t know what.

The Lieutenant is gone, but we have no idea what happened there, Dani decided to wear sexier clothes and let her hair down, we don’t know why either. It’s all part of changes that took place, and are supposed to be accepted from now on, but we can’t accept them because we don’t know the reasons. We don’t know why Dani changed her style and apparently isn’t going in bars anymore to have sex with lucky men whose name she doesn’t even care about, there has to be a reason, and we need to know what happened, because from where we’re standing, those are just changes.

Not evolutions, but changes. We didn’t see the show or the characters evolve into something else, we didn’t see them transforming into anything, we just found them back, only they weren’t the same. And it goes further than that, because to stay on Dani : her sexual behavior was a part of who she was, just like her dressing code was, or are her frequent visits to the gym. Despite what it may look like in promos, she is as important to the show as Charlie, the show isn’t about Charlie, it’s about him and Dani.

Continue reading the review of The Business Of Miracles on TVoholic…

The Business Of Miracles was written by Jonathan Shapiro and directed by Elodie Keene.

The episode first aired on October 6, 2008 and was watched by 5.78 million viewers, with a 2.3/rating, 6/share amongst adults 18-49. As expected this is better than what Friday’s episode did, but it was also much lower than the last episode on Monday, the season premiere, with 1.14 million more viewers.

Of course, lead-in HEROES was also losing viewers, and going from Mondays to Fridays all the time isn’t really helping. The real worry will come when numbers on Fridays start to really look bad…

[ Source: Nielsen Media Research data, from Marc Berman ]