International distribution DVD releases Reception Critical response As of August 2008, Life has a 64% favorable rating for season 1 and a 72% rating for season 2 on Metacritic. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly dubs the series "a very good new show that needs a more vivid title and more of NBC's promotional oomph" and praising the portrayal of Charlie Crews by the "beloved" Damian Lewis. In contrast, Gina Bellafante of The New York Times noted that the character of Detective Crews (and contemporary Adrian Monk of the series Monk) did not portray "law enforcers as believable soldiers of the working class", which she considered a negative. Tonally though, she described the show as "a musical version of a Thomas Harris novel" (Harris is a noted and acclaimed author of crime novels) and found the narrative to be "incredibly satisfying". David Bianculli of the Daily News (New York) also likened the character of Crews to Adrian Monk, noting that "Lewis is commanding, and draws your attention without saying a word, almost as much as does Tony Shalhoub on Monk." He also praised Sarah Shahi for her performance as Dani Reese, stating that "it's easy to imagine her as the star of her own spinoff, taking her no-nonsense character front and center". Alan Sepinwall, reporter for The Star-Ledger instead cited a resemblance between Crews and main character Gregory House (played by British actor Hugh Laurie) of House, but noting that "where House's quirks and bad behavior are ceaselessly amusing, Crews' idiosyncrasies -- also including a bafflement at modern technology like camera phones and instant messaging -- are already tired by the end of the first episode". Robert Bianco similarly made the comparison between Life and House and Monk but noted that the character of Crews is covered "with so many quirks, foibles, and eccentricities you can hardly spot poor Lewis underneath", concluding with "strip away the abrasive flourishes and what's left is a standard issue TV mystery with cases that are too easy to solve and internal conflicts and conspiracies that make no sense". Ratings U.S. television ratings International ratings In Australia, TV ratings for the first episode of Life on Network Ten reached 1.085 million viewers, making it one of the top programs viewed for that day and timeslot. The season finale aired in that country (episode 8) on 21 November achieved the ratings of 908,000 viewers. In the UK,