Chimpomatic

Life

Season One

ITV3

Fun cop show with Damian Lewis as a detective who's been released from jail after serving 12 years for a murder he didn't commit. Even though he's scored bigtime on the compensation front - and has a huge mansion, and Adam Arkin to run it for him - he's returned to the LAPD to hit the streets (and work out who framed him). 

If you're not heading for Wire-style realism in a cop show these days, you might as well load up on the quirk factor, and here that's in full force, with Detective Charlie Crews bringing the zen sensibility he developed inside to bear on the crimes he's solving. Think Monk or House for an idea of the flavour, with lots of offbeat comments and a healthy obsession with fresh fruit.

Damian Lewis' accent doesn't falter too badly, the rest of the cast works, with Sarah "The L Word" Shahi as his recovering alcoholic partner, and Chicago Hope's Arkin doing a good job of trying to talk his jailhouse buddy through the intricacies of the modern world he's missed out on. 

Feels like it's going to hit a good balance between the crime of the day, and solving the ongoing mystery of who set Crews up, without making it too essential to catch every single episode. 11 in the first, writers' strike-truncated set, with more to follow. 


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29th Oct 2008 - Tumblr

3.5

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