Television

Because the new drama Life has received zero buzz, there's a chance it will have a hard time finding an audience. Which would be terrible, since it promises to be a great show.

Premiering tonight at 9 on NBC, Life follows the strange and painful tale of Los Angeles police detective Charlie Crews. Twelve years ago, Charlie was convicted of a triple homicide and sentenced to life. Only he didn't do it, see, as his heroic and lovely attorney Constance (Brooke Langton) proved. So now Crews is a free man, or as free as he can be after all the physical and psychological damage done to him in prison, with a $50-million settlement and a chance to return to the force as a detective.

But that psychological damage is pretty extensive, with the result that Crews is more than a bit strange. Brilliant but strange. With the watchful half-smile, he's just Zen to the point of disassociation. "You don't have to understand here to be here," he tells his new partner Dani (Sarah Shahi), who has teamed with Crews partly as punishment for past drug abuse.

Playing it long and lugubrious but with a tantalizing twinkle, Lewis may well wrest the mantle of sexiest troubled American played by a Brit away from Hugh Laurie.

Like House, Crews has been damaged by the profession he serves; like House, he sees things that other people miss. But Crews is working toward transformation. His serenity, however, is obviously self-imposed and, at times, barely there, a thin mask of hard-won wisdom veiling the pain and anger within.

Crews also has some pretty terrific quirks to keep him real — no furniture, a passion for fresh fruit, a penchant for self-help tapes and a nice, dark sense of humor.