Ridiculously Farfetched

Answering your points one by one would be a waste of time, as people are rarely convinced by an argument once they have made up their minds. However, I will mention that we live in a world in which otherwise "normal" seeming mothers murder their children, so it seems to me that a cop committing the acts Charlie was accused of is certainly not impossible.

To me, Life was one of the best shows of the century--brilliant cast right down the line, clever writing, good mysteries. I loved the quirkiness of Damien Lewis's character, and the skepticism of Shahi's Reese. Adam Arkin was fantastic, and the rest of the supporting characters fit the show perfectly, especially Brent Sexton as Charlie's old partner.

Sorry you didn't enjoy it. Personally, I would have loved another season.

That's what you find far fetched? The most far-fetched part about this show is the millions he receives and being able to go back to the police force and staying after all the crap he pulled.




- Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

Just curious, do you consider "True Blood" or "The Walking Dead" believable? I do not, but they are still fun to watch. Sure, "Life" had some problems, but still one of the best shows on TV.

An old thread but still worthy of some discussion. Yes, there are some far-fetched notions in Life, but the one about conviction of an innocent man is not so strange.

Many district attorneys and prosecutors are interested in winning the case. Winning makes them look good; it helps them build a rep, to claw their way up to attorney general or governor.

It's a game. They will offer you a plea deal--just take it, and get it over with, otherwise you may do a lot more hard time. They use this technique to force guilty pleas out of people who might not actually be guilty.

In this case, not so hard to believe, the prosecutors and apparently the entire police force believed the false evidence planted to make him look guilty, and almost nobody believed it was a frame job. Seemed like a nice guy, too bad he went postal.

Read "No Crueler Tyranny" by Dorothy Rabinowitz, who documented how cynical prosecutors locked away innocent people for child abuse in the '80s and '90s. Some of those prosecutors such as A.G. Martha Coakley in Massachusetts have gone on to fame and high office, despite new evidence that exonerated the supposedly guilty felons. Not to say child abuse isn't real--it is very real and very horrible--but cynical people have abused the law itself to put away their enemies. I've seen it up close.

All of us are just one false accusation away from arrest and possible imprisonment. "Life" is a great story of vengeance, exoneration, and justice. It's too bad the writers seemed to fall into a rut after a while. It turned into weird-murder-of-the-week, a few flippant remarks by Charlie, Reese rolling her eyes, and then they solve it, just in time for the closing credits (in real life, detectives take weeks or months to work on a single case, and they don't always solve it!)

The only thing ridiculously far-fetched is that they would have let him be a detective, let aloe back on the force after serving 12 years in prison whether he was really guilty or not. But that was kid of the theme of the show that it would be far-fetched for him to be allowed back on the force, or want to come back after becoming a millionaire.
It set the whole quirkiness of the show which made it.
I always say the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
--- Gin Rummy