Life: Shelf Life
I hereby convene this week's meeting of the Sisterhood of the Flattering Pants.
I loved a bunch of things about this one. First, considering that Reese and Crews are apart, they had a lot of great Reese and Crews!
Tidwell: “It’s just…Reese told me to…”
Charlie: “Reese told you to what, Captain?”
Tidwell: “Reese told me to make sure I always ask you what you see.”
Charlie smiles: “Ah, she said that, did she?”
Tidwell: “So? What do you see?”
Charlie: “Actually, it’s what I don’t see…”
Tidwell, to Bobby: “She said he might say that.”
I LOVE Charlie on the on the phone to Reese to solve the murder. That fact, alone, makes my partnershippy heart happy.
I also love that Bobby (and Tidwell?) think that he might be imagining he’s talking to Reese. On reflection, that might be my favorite part of this episode. First, because it tells us something about Bobby’s image of Charlie. He no longer has a frame of reference for what Charlie is now. The zen, the big fancy detective, the laser focus on the conspiracy. Charlie is completely reinvented, while Bobby is pretty much the same guy he was 12 years ago. So, in that context, there are a lot of possibilities in Bobby’s head, and one of the most plausible ones (ha!) is that Charlie might be having a conversation with an imaginary Reese.
Second because everyone (Charlie, Bobby, Tidwell, Reese) gets the premise of all this, which is that Charlie sort of can’t live without Reese. He can’t just work without her, he has to keep either reaching out to her or replacing her with others (Tidwell, Deepa, Bobby). I mean, I know detectives work with partners, but it’s more than that. That’s why Tidwell and Bobby are not really surprised that he’s talking to Reese, in whatever fashion. Charlie keeps trying to fill that space, and what he’s come down to is that he just has to keep calling her on the phone. And, for what it’s worth, Reese has left Tidwell with instructions on how to solve crimes with Charlie! The whole thing is just awesome and adorable.
While we’re on Crews and Reese, one more thing. I love this show for many reasons, but one of them is the nature of the partner-ship. They are not…I dunno…Josh and Donna. Bones and Booth (is that his name?). There isn’t the strong UST, the will-they-or-won’t-they thing. For example, when they do get in each others’ space, the show doesn’t do that thing where they linger on it because they’re so strongly attracted to each other. To make us think that they might kiss or that they're thinking about it. Reese and Crews have a very strong bond, and it’s magic, but it’s not conventional for shows like this. Or maybe it’s conventional in a different way (like in a Due South way --- the needing each other without so much of a boy/girl thing*).
I would not say, however, that there’s nothing there. There’s something there. I see it in scenes like the one in this episode where Charlie is on the phone to Reese.
Charlie: “Reese? You said something nice about me to Tidwell, huh?”
Reese: “No I didn’t!”
Charlie: “With distance, you appreciate me more.”
It’s not sexual, exactly, but there’s this thing where Charlie’s always embracing their partnership and their dependence on each other, and Dani’s all school-girl defensive about it. So, on top of the yin and yang, they have a push and pull where she doesn’t want to admit how much he means to her. She’s a little bit kicking gravel around him.
Ok, so given how awesome they are, what do we make of the big revelation at the end? I almost expected it, having been a little spoiled reading by interviews that talked about Dani’s time with the FBI driving a wedge between them. So, the wedge emerges. And the show runners promised to bring them back together even stronger, so that’s what I’ll be clinging to as my partner-shipper heart breaks over the next few episodes.
I’m going to call foul on continuity if that photo of Dani and Rayborn is supposed to be from a while ago, cause that’s New Hair Dani.
And it looks like Gabrielle Union debuts next week. *props mind open*
Ok, other than Crews/Reese, stuff I loved:
- Crews seeing Sims and Andy reflected in Erin’s glasses in the scene at the motel.
- Charlie’s Tidwell impression! That was fantastic! J
- Charlie and Bobby’s exchange in the car, at the airport. “No, Charlie. You don’t need a ticket because you look like you have a ticket. I need a ticket.” Ha. Plus, just after that…PANTS! Oh Pants, how I missed you last week.
- More Amanda! Sorry, A-haters, I like her. It hit me this week that she reminds me of the movie The Natural. (Really, think about it.) After this week, I’ll bet you a hundred dollars that she is the latest enemy-turned-friend of Charlie’s.
- Bobby and Charlie are sad that this is their last day together as partners (again). So am I!
- The very nice song playing as they enter Norse’s apartment is cut off after the line “…I’m just sitting on the shelf.”
- Pete: “How’d you get in my perimeter?”
- Charlie: “Your mom. Real friendly. Let us right into your perimeter.”
- Also, Pete unleashes a nerdy little rant on Bobby, calling him “Fraggety-ass”. The look of amusement on Bobby’s face is priceless.
- BoB/Life giggle: Damian Lewis sits at a keyboard, looking at an after-action report! J
- Grapes help with the solving of crimes!!
- Bobby gets to be funny! He approaches Andy with a vest in his hand. “I’m looking for Returns.”
- And then the look on Charlie’s face as he pulls his weapon on Andy. Guh. I love Charlie’s gun-face.
- Ted, with Charlie and Amanda, and the inside joke: “Don’t you just love that accent? Everything sounds so smart.” Hee.
- Oh, and speaking of pants and their cousins, how about the jeans at the end of this episode. Nice shot from behind, at Amanda’s place.
Things I didn’t like or got confused about:
- The foot-stomping thing was just odd and made no sense to me. Well-acted, though. I love Charlie’s stomping technique. J
- Why is Ted having lunch with Amanda? I thought he made her last week. I might buy it if he suspected her last week, but didn’t say anything…but he DID say something to her. How are they, then, at lunch together? Maybe she talked her way out of the house thing and he pretended to go along with it and called Charlie to ambush her at lunch?
- Where’s the resolution to Dani’s question to the FBI interviewer last time? I thought she made them last week. She asked the interviewer what kind of interview it was, given all the questions about Rayborn. Because I still don’t get (maybe because they haven’t revealed it yet) why Dani would think that these questions were plausibly leading to “her secrets.” What secrets? I believed her suspicious reaction last week. Now that she seems to be going along with it more…does that mean that she knows what she did or what she’s hiding and she knows that these questions are leading there?
Ok, one other thought I had. Critics and promo monkeys often call this show “stylish.” I agree completely, but what does that mean? The first thing that pops is the visual style, which is very stylish indeed. And the music is great. But then there are these other things - maybe you can call them heightened reality or something. Like the song whose lyrics include the episode title. Or the way they repeat things. Like, in this ep, how both the head shop guy and Gus the Chem-X-Tech guy say that the first rule of sales is “put the merchandise in their hands.” And how Charlie and Erin both know that the way to beat a lie detector is to “tell the truth.” The guy who invents forever fake-grapes. “It’s just a fruit body.” I love that they make up terms like “fruit body.” It’s all just a click above what might happen in real life.
I like a “stylish” show because it’s fun but also because they just go with it. Many other shows just choose to ignore their heightened realities ---- the freakish convergence of the most attractive cops/lawyers/doctors in the city in this one precinct/office/hospital; the fact that the character couldn’t possibly afford those clothes or that condo doing that job --- and seem to insist that they’re realistic. A show like Life embraces the style, which lets them live on that level and do things that are a lot more fun.
* We are, for the purposes of this discussion, ignoring Due South slash. J