Here’s hoping ‘Life’ can stay alive

You know its time to change tactics when your approval numbers start making President Bush look like Hannah Montana.

A recent survey found a whopping 4 percent of Americans support the studios in the ongoing writers' strike. Considering their side includes the likes of Peter Chernin -- the president of Fox's parent company recently went all Max Bialystock, telling reporters the network would save more money by halting production than it would lose in ad revenue -- that number seems a bit high.

Still, it's surprising that the studios blinked first, agreeing to resume talks today. In an even more encouraging sign, ABC just picked up "Dirty Sexy Money" (10 p.m. Wednesdays, KTNV-TV, Channel 13) for a full 22-episode season -- the first such deal since the strike began -- meaning that someone, somewhere thinks there actually will be time for a full 22-episode season.

Now if only NBC would do the same with "Life" (10 p.m. Wednesdays, KVBC-TV, Channel 3), I could breathe a little easier. They're the only new series I couldn't get by without.

After the mysterious plane crash death of his estranged father, "Dirty Sexy Money's" Nick George (Peter Krause) takes on the one task he swore he never would: replacing his dad as the personal attorney to the Darlings, the family with the money of Bill Gates and the subtlety of Kanye West.

Nick soon realizes he's traded a life of defending the little guy for days spent buying back sex tapes, renting the Brooklyn Bridge for a party and relaying ridiculous messages -- "She said that Astrid said that she gave Natalie tampons last week at Twinkle" -- between feuding siblings.

Why? Because Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland) and Letitia Darling (Jill Clayburgh) have some of the worst parenting skills since the Corleones.

Patrick (William Baldwin), New York's attorney general, is caught up in a tender, transgendered affair that threatens his senate campaign. Rev. Brian (Glenn Fitzgerald) tried passing off his bastard son -- the kind of adorable moppet they used to build disease-of-the-week movies around -- as a Swedish orphan the church was looking after. Serial bride Karen (Natalie Zea) thinks nothing of taking the family jet to L.A. for sushi. And the every-day's-a-party twins Juliet (Samaire Armstrong) and Jeremy (Seth Gabel) are tabloid, for lack of a better word, darlings.

As colorful as the Darlings are, though, Nick's been a little hard to read. He's mostly just there to be the straight man in the wickedly funny farce, to be the voice of reason -- by suggesting, say, that the twins split the million-dollar budget for their 25th birthday parties -- and to roll his eyes when that voice falls on deaf ears. ("I can't throw a party for 500 grand!" Juliet screams. "Neither can I," Jeremy wails. "At least not a good one!")

It's similarly tough to get a handle on "Life's" Detective Charlie Crewes (Damian Lewis), who recently returned to the LAPD after serving 12 years for a triple homicide he didn't commit. It's not Crewes' fault. He's the most compelling new character this season. But the show is taking a while to find its legs.

Sometimes Crewes is a Holmesian genius: He could tell there was evidence in a shoe because it was sitting lower on the carpet than its mate. Other times he's a certified rock star: He gets picked up by the two hottest coeds ever to ride an L.A. city bus thanks to the celebrity that comes with his reported $50 million settlement. Even his fruit fetish -- the man can go through more produce than a Gallagher concert -- comes and goes.

But the one constant is Crewes' Zen-coated musings that inadvertently get under the CoverGirl-commercial-perfect skin of his partner, Detective Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi). "Every moment you spend wishing you were somewhere else is a moment you can't get back," he tells her, in full-on walking, talking fortune cookie mode. "What about every moment I spend wishing you were someplace else?" she coolly responds.

Some truly horrible things must have happened to Crewes inside that prison for him not to be just gobsmacked by his tough-but-sexy partner. She's positively paradise in a pantsuit. But that lack of recognition works: Their combative relationship is the heart of "Life." It's like "Moonlighting" without the threat of sex or the chance Lewis will ever release a blues album.

It's enough to make you want more time for the series. Time for Crewes to discover who framed him, just like Nick needs time to learn who killed his father.

Time that the studios may stop wasting any day now.

Christopher Lawrence's Life on the Couch column appears on Mondays. E-mail him at clawrence@reviewjournal. com.