Through the magic of TiVo and Amazon’s Unbox video service, I was able to get all the pilots for NBC’s new shows a couple weeks ahead of their first airings on the network. There are several that look decent, actually; one that particularly drew my attention was the new drama called Life.

The primary reason I watched the pilot for Life was that the show’s star is Damian Lewis, who played Dick Winters in HBO’s epic Band of Brothers. I’ve never seen him in anything else (until now), but Band of Brothers was enough to make me watch anything that Lewis is in at least once, no questions asked.

In Life, Lewis plays Detective Charlie Crews who has just returned to the force after spending 12 years in a maximum-security prison for a triple murder he didn’t commit. The circumstances of Crews’ initial incrimination are kept mostly secret; it’s clear that this will be an ongoing, slowly unraveling thread as the show progresses (more on that later). Suffice to say, the 12 years he did in prison were 12 very hard years, with what seems an excessive amount of abuse. Obviously, he carries some deep scars, although he has apparently buried them enough to be allowed back on the force as a detective.

Charlie Crews appears to be a reasonably complex character. He used to be a by-the-book cop, but after spending so much time in the slammer he’s changed his outlook on life. He alternates between slightly quirky, genuinely nice, somewhat cynical, and just downright weird. Lewis plays it excellently, but the way it’s put together in this first episode makes the character feel slightly off balance; I think the writers still need time to “find” the character completely. To be fair, I have never, ever seen a show that nails a character completely before the end of the first season. These things take time. Fortunately, Life is pretty close. I like Crews; he has real issues and real potential, and his quirkiness — developed from his unique situation — makes him more interesting than most cut-and-paste Law and Order types.

The other characters, though, I really don’t care about. Which means that the writers need to do something more interesting with them. Crews’ partner, Dani Reese (played by actress Sarah Shahi, model and former NFL cheerleader), has issues with being partnered with Crews, but they get diluted when it is revealed that she has a history with drugs (yawn…we’ve never seen that before). Lt. Davis, the boss who wants Crews to screw up so she can get rid of him as soon as possible, just comes off as a typical conniving 1-dimensional bitch. Crews’ former partner, who turned him in back in ‘95, wants to be buddy-buddy and pretend like nothing’s happened, but he comes off even shallower than he should. At least Crews’ lawyer who got him out of prison (a beautiful woman with whom he has a special relationship, despite her being married) and his live-in financial adviser/former cell mate, Ted, provide some interesting interactions for Crews’ personal life.

Speaking of his financial adviser, Crews has need for one because he received an enormous settlement from the city when he was exonerated and bought himself a mansion, some nice suits, and a Bentley. He lives the high life to good effect, clearly enjoying the Bentley and other niceties. This whole first episode is us being introduced to Charlie, with snippets of information about his incarceration thrown in to bait the hook. The real meat of the show, however, comes into play in the last few minutes: although he denies it, and does everything to hide it from everyone else, Crews is secretly trying to solve the mystery of why he wound up behind bars 12 years ago. It seems there is more to the story than just mistaken identity or wrong place/wrong time…he was framed, and people in the police department are involved. It provides the “story arc” that almost all shows have these days, and it looks like it could prove to be quite interesting.

Overall, I like the show. Damian Lewis does a fantastic job, and his character is fun to get to know (even if the writers still need to get to know him a little too). There’s nice texture to the show, little things thrown in here and there…like the fact that Crews is totally unfamiliar with cell phones, having been incarcerated since 1995. Those types of things and the way Lewis delivers his lines in certain situations are good for a chuckle. In some ways, this is another crime drama, but the important part is that it comes with a big twist: that Charlie Crews spent 12 years in prison, being punished brutally for a crime he didn’t commit, and now he’s back. That opens up a whole host of possibilities. It’s not going to redefine the genre, and it’s not going to singlehandedly bring NBC back to their glory days like during the first few seasons of The West Wing, but it’s a good start.

Life premieres Wednesday, September 26th, at 10/9c on NBC.

OVERALL: 8/10

Check out some videos of Life at NBC.com