I will now confess something to you, my dear, dear fans of Life. While I enjoy the pairing of Crews and Reese on a regular basis I’m, dare I say it, liking the Detective Duo of Crews and Stark. Brain me if you must, burn me in effigy, but I just had to say it.
A bit over-dramatic? Never, I say! Never!
Okay, okay, I’m calming down now. Honestly, Crews and Reese are my main go-to team. Particularly Reese, and not because she’s H-O-T. Despite the slight creepiness of her relationship with Captian Tidwell, Dani has really grown into her role of partner to Crews. True, she still ribs him incessantly, but its more from her heart this season then it was last year when it was downright annoyance she was exhibiting.
With Crews and Stark there’s something else that would make them a good team for the ongoing life of the series.
First and foremost, they’ve known each other for a long time. In addition, Stark was one of the only cops who thought Charlie was innocent from the start and didn’t shun him when he returned to the force. This certainly keeps their professional relationship amicable.
The other thing making it work is Stark’s lack of snide attitude that Dani can display. His respect is twofold: he’s grateful for Charlie as a friend and he’s learning how to be a detective as quick as he can. While he seemed somewhat lost last week, Officer Stark picked it up in this week’s installment of the series.
If there is any downside at all to the partnership of these two officers of the law it’s this: due to the lack of Stark’s experience, Charlie has to work a bit harder to solve the case. This is a plus for the viewer who is used to seeing Crews bounce ideas off of Resse on a regular basis. Without her constant feedback, Charlie is doing a lot of the thinking on his own. This is giving us some additional insight into how he thinks, how he takes apart a crime scene in an almost Monk-like manner. How, without Reese restraining him, he’s a bit looser with the rules and regulations of law.
In conclusion, I propose that Bobby Stark become Crews’ backup hitter when Reese is away. That’s after Gabrielle Union’s multi-episode appearance, of course. Don’t let him remain a simple (but very important) patrol officer. Give Bobby a detective’s badge and see what he can do.
Clacked by Richard Keller 
on Mar 12, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
I’m really starting to like the music selections on this show.
“Somewhere only we know” by Keane, all of it, at the end of the episode. Nice.
Me too… I’ve downloaded tons of songs that I discovered watching Life. I hope Dani comes back soon though…. and along with her, another season of Life. If anything happens to this show, I swear, I’m about done with network television. Everything good gets the axe….
I don’t think it was necessary to bring in Gabrielle Union to be Crews’ partner while Reece is away. They should just let Stark continue as his partner. They’re great together.
I agree, probably not necessary, since Stark plays very well off Crews. Also, Gabrielle Union is probably a lovely person and a very beautiful woman, but every character I’ve ever seen her play really annoyed me for some reason. Maybe she just gets typecast as “catty woman with too much attitude”, but I’m sincerely hoping this role isn’t another incarnation of that.
A couple of random points:
As usual Life had excellent music (beginning to be a real trademark for this show)
I want more Stark but yeah, Gabrielle Union is smokin hot nuff said.
What was Dani doing on the boat with Mickey Rayborn? And is he really dead?