Life was his sentence. Life is what he got back.

I don't believe I've tipped my hat to Life yet in this space - my memories are all confined to my long-defunct Facebook page. I just got the news that NBC will in fact be allowing the show to complete its season, and this makes me happy, and I'm going to tell you why.

Life premiered last season and tells the story of Detective Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis, Band of Brothers), who was wrongly convicted of a particularly gruesome triple-homicide and spent twelve years in the can before being exonerated. Granted an unspecified (but clearly massive) cash settlement, and his request to re-join the force as a homicide detective (he was a beat cop at the time of his arrest), Charlie is a man looking for answers on many levels. His time on the inside changed him, obviously, in some very believable ways. After twelve years of living in a cell, he's purchased a huge mansion that remains unfurnished except for a bed and a few bar stools around the kitchen island. Fresh fruit being one of the things not on the menu in a federal pen, he's become obsessed with the stuff (a man after my own heart). During his sentence, he turned to extensive Zen study to help himself cope, and though he seems to wish he believed the platitudes he constantly irritates his new partner with, it's been made very clear that he doesn't. Charlie's one of the most interesting and believable passive-aggressives on TV, and Damian Lewis is great at his job. As are the writers, for creating and maintaining a man who is far from cliched.

Rounding out the cast are the afore-mentioned partner, Det. Reese, nicely played by Sara Shahi and, again, well-maintained by the writing staff, as well as Charlie's housemate and the new captain. I haven't seen a female detective on TV who buttonned her shirts and was, you know, a good cop, since New Amsterdam was cancelled the same year Life premiered. Two things in particular separate Reese from the stereotypical sassy lady cop: her quiet personality, and the fact that while Charlie can irritate her, she's quiet, and temperate, and doesn't go flipping out about what a freak he is, nor secretly denying her attraction to him. That's one of the best (and most unusual) things about this show: there is no sexual tension between Crews and Reese. There never has been, and there probably never will be. It's not an issue. And yet, there is still chemistry between the two characters - it's just normal, cop partner chemistry. That's really refreshing, and, frankly, makes the show far more interesting than comparable-quality dramas run on sexual tension.

Right, two other players! Ha ha! Charlie met his housemate, Ted, when they shared a prison cell. Ted (the always enjoyable Adam Arkin) was an accountant, in other words, a white-collar criminal, and clearly didn't do well in prison. Quiet, and with a sense of being perpetually crushed that somehow doesn't drool itself into a sense of pathetic, Ted is a nice counterpart for Charlie. After losing last season's captain in the aftermath of...oh, I won't spoil it for you, Ottawa-born Donal Logue was brought on to replace her, and is very welcome. The previous captain was strong and believable, no-nonsense without being a hard ass. This one is equally believable, and...well...I'm not sure how to describe him. It's almost as if a California beach bum grew up in New York and then went to the police academy, and retained his personality, but still became (as has been proven on-screen) good at his job. He provides a reliable string of black humour, and a general relateability factor that we don't often get from Charlie or Reese. I'm really digging this guy. The seeds of romance planted for him and Reese in the last two episodes - well, longer than that, as he's been offering comments verging on sexual harassment all season long - and I appear to be the only one seeing no problem of believability with this one. She's somewhat quiet and reserved but hardly timid; he's not loud but is quite far from reserved...he's pretty crass, but I think he's a good guy, and this is an interesting match. Of course, people are hollering about a lack of realism, because Sarah Shahi is slender and quite lovely and Donal Logue is not, shall we say, a Hollywood hunk. Yep, that would never happen in real life. Never.

Never!

Other good things about Life include the fact that they've already moved past "who is the real murderer?" and are now (sloooowly) focusing on the bigger question of, who are the cops who framed Charlie, and why, and how does it all tie back to the Bank of L.A. heist? There hasn't been quite enough story development yet this season for my liking, but I'll let that slide as they've been busy integrating a new character, but what story's been given so far has been tight. On a rather different note, Life also has one of my favourite things to see on a cop show: cops using, you know, proper cop procedure, the kind that TV audiences have been so cheated of that a reviewer in the Toronto Star once described a scene of the guys on Raines actually entering an armed suspect's house properly, and then blasted the show for lack of realism because he genuinely believed that the way to breach was by one or two detectives without backup...because that's how TV's always done it.

As Life was almost denied a full second season by NBC, there's a good chance it'll be gone for good by April, so why not start streaming what you've missed now? In Canada, it airs 8pm. Fridays on Global.