A Fruit of A Different Color: The Charlie/Ted Manifesto (Life)
A Fruit of a Different Color: Charlie/Ted
First, the Dramatis Personae.
This is Charlie Crews:
(Normally, he looks much cuter and happier. I think he's looking at a body, here.)
Detective Charlie Crews is the main character of the show, Life, and the reason for its existence. He was (and is once more) a cop, wrongly imprisoned for 12 years for a triple-murder he didn’t commit. When his innocence was proven with DNA evidence, after years of wrongful incarceration, he was released, taking with him a Zen outlook on life, a fruit fixation, and a hefty settlement: A very large sum of money, and his job on the Force back. He bought a large home with an attached orange grove with a part of the money (among other things, such as a gorgeous car that Ted manages to ruin within a few episodes [and Charlie doesn't even get mad at Ted for it]), and decided to hire his friend from prison (who was an accountant convicted of insider trading) to manage it, and the running of his home, for him. Enter Ted Early.
This is Ted Early:
(Eating. He cooks, cleans, etc. He's the Housewife.)
Ted was a high-profile accountant, before he was busted for insider trading and sent to prison. There, he met Charlie, his current employer, landlord, friend, and (in the mind of *this* little slasher) lover. Ted ‘s had a book,” "Earley Warning"”, written about his story by his (equally criminal) ex-partner Winston, and most of it is, by his own unwilling admission, true. Before prison, he'd had a wife and two daughters, but there has been no sight of them in the current run of the show, and he seems to have no impulse to see them (or they him). He dislikes heights and coyotes, and worries he’s “Robin”, “Alfred”, or “Higgins” to Crews’s Batman. He manages Charlie’s money, runs errands for him (greets the stepmother-to-be), lives in the apartment over his garage, looks over the house, sees to dinner, comes to Charlie with his worries (the coyotes), understands Charlie’s needs & fears, and protects Charlie (hides the wall). He wants to adopt a dog together, and helps Charlie investigate his case, despite thinking the Wall is “the work of a crazy person”. He himself has said that Charlie “saved my life” while in prison, and protected him.
On a completely anecdotal note, even my slash-blind mother has even taken to calling Ted “The Housewife.”
OK, OK. We get it. Two ex-cons are friends who live together. Not exactly the makings of a whirlwind romance, is it?
Well, the thing is, it’s not. It’s certainly not “whirlwind”, and it might not be exactly a romance, either. It’s less about hearts, flowers, chocolates, and loud, mushy declarations of love, and more about two damaged guys finding each other, sensing a kindred spirit, and helping each other adjust to freedom, and maybe figure a few things out. Like Charlie’s case.
Fic/Art/Etc.
life_fic
lifeforcharlie
life_icons
lifetv
and
lidi, who has a number of great Life icons.