Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Life: Shelf Life of Life

With Life on life support, it doesn't help to have an episode like this where which feels like filler in place to deal with Sarah Shahi's pregnancy. While the over the phone scenes between Crews and Reese were funny, it kind of felt like those weird Three's Company episodes where Chrissy (Suzanne Somers*) would call in at the end of the show. It's hardly the kind of thing you want to do on a show that's a long shot for renewal.

*Somers wasn't pregnant, but instead was written out of episodes due to her boycotting episodes earlier in the season after not getting the raise she demanded.

Next week, as if in response to the lack of chemistry between Damien Lewis and Brent Sexton (Stark,) Gabrielle Union (Bring it On, Cadillac Records) is coming aboard as both Crews' new fill-in partner and proxy for Sarah Shahi's job as female foil.

Finally, outside of Lost, when was the last time you saw a record player used on TV for a series that takes place in the now? Sure, She & Him's "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" is the kind of song that sounds like it should be played on a record player, as does any song that M. Ward is associated with, but it's still kind of unexpected. Even odder, Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" screams four years ago. I guess a show that's about to be axed has to be budget-conscious, so when Coldplay is out of their league, you turn to the poor man's Coldplay.

More: Reaper fans wondering what happened to Sock's old squeeze Josie (Valarie Rae Miller,) apparently she joined the military. Miller did a good job with what little she had to work with here.

So weird hearing her say "I get what I get and I don't get upset," which is something I hear almost daily from my four-year old. I'm not sure where the phrase's ultimate source is, but I know he got it from his preschool teacher, who in turn got it from the book Pinkalicious (required reading our household). The phrase "You get what you get and you don't get upset" seems far too obvious to be from a somewhat obscure kid's book that's less than three years old, right? Has anyone else heard that phrase before?

Playlist: Life - Episode 2.17
1. "It Dawned On Me" - Calla
2. "Gone Too Far" - Shivaree
3. "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" - She & Him
4. "Somewhere Only We Know" - Keane

Previously: Man on a Stick (Episode 2.16)

2 comments:

Joselino said...

It isn't Calla's "It dawned on me" the song played on minute 1,40 and on of this episode. Can correctly you identify it? Thanks.

Shawn Anderson said...

That's the song in the broadcast airing of the episode. NBC strips out some of the music and replaces it with stock music in the NBC.com and iTunes versions to save money.