Must See Movie...

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

When I first read the summary for this show it seemed like nothing new, A cop who went to jail for a crime he didn't commit and then was exonerated. However the way this show was handled character wise and even for a story this mundane the writers managed to put a lot of creativity into it. let's start with the best thing about this show the main character, this is one the best characters I've seen in a TV show in a long time, he's just so all-around likable he's everything a character like this should be; he's wild, he's tenacious, he's smart, he's kinda crazy but understandable at the same time, he's eccentric but knows when to be serious, he's just everything you look for in a main character and on top of that I find the supporting characters a lot fun to; his a partner has her own story arcs that I actually find rather interesting. and the cases that they work are entertaining and are very creative. The characters are deep, the writing is great, the story is creative it's just an all-around great show and it's a shame that it was canceled after just two short seasons.

I found this series while in college for my BA and it quickly became a favorite. Charlie Crews is a homicide detective who was exonerated after spending 12 years in prison. Partnered with a recovering addict, Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi), Charlie has grasped a Zen philosophy and stress- free approach to police work. His seeming casual attitude to his job causes people to underestimate his abilities. Charlies remains observant, detail-oriented and unorthodox in a clever way. He lives with his financial adviser Ted Earley (Adam Arkin), an ex-CEO convicted of a white collar crime whom Charlie saved in prison, in a large mansion with no furniture benefiting from the large cash settlement he won after regaining his freedom and badge. His interactions with Reese are pretty funny and Ted is a decent comedic sidekick. What made this show stand out was the acting of Damian Lewis, he portrayed a confident professional who inwardly struggled with the traumatizing experience of his prison stint. The only times he approaches anger are when getting leads during his independent investigation of the murder he was imprisoned for, the murder of his friend/business partner and the man's wife and son. It was an awesome show and canceled way too soon.

This show's concept was brilliant. The cast was mostly awesome (especially Lewis, with outstanding supporting performances by Garret Dillahunt and Gabrielle Union). After the first episode, I thought for sure that this would be a 5-mug show. Unfortunately, over its 2 seasons, it turned out to be a mix of great creativity without the attention to detail and follow-through necessary to bring it to its full potential. The overall story lines and individual-episode plots were interesting, unique, and entertaining, and the dialogue was even pretty witty. I even liked the Buddhist voice-overs with lessons relevant to each episode. However, too many scenes seemed hokey and/or contrived. It felt like a bunch of effort and intelligence was spent on thinking up concepts for intriguing and entertaining characters and stories, but little effort was spent on fitting that creativity into a believable story. If your show is about police and murders, you should probably research some of that subject. For example, somebody needed to tell the directors and writers that it is not always appropriate for a policeman to draw his weapon in every circumstance. Although this series did not live up to its full potential, it was entertaining, and I did not feel that my time was wasted watching it.

Another cop show with a twist. This one spent 12 years in jail for a murder he didn't commit, learns Zen and gets a multimillion dollar settlement before going back to work in the same city, with the same cops that put him away. The writing kept the shows light and had some cleaver dialog that was funny the stories were pretty typical of the genre. Damian Lewis does a good job as Charlie Crews, as do the rest of the cast, that is until the show spirals out of control toward the end of season 2. As you watch the second season you know things are coming to an end as the cast and stories seem to have lost all direction. What started out as a nice franchise, died a horrible death like many other have. I think Homeland was in the works and this show was left to run out a minimum contract for 16 shows in season 2.