'Past Life'
Two-and-a-half stars
8 p.m. Tuesday on WFLD-Channel 32
There's no way to just stick a toe in "Past Life." You are required to jump head-first into this reincarnation/crime series, and to accept without question the following:
1. We've all been here before.
2. We've got memories of those past lives.
3. Sometimes when "our souls are in conflict," those memories surface.
4. To make those memories stop, we must confront them and "reset the natural balance."
It helps that the rules are explained by Kelli Giddish, who plays a lovely blonde with a soothing tone who reminds us every few minutes that she has a PhD. in something. In the first episode, she probes why a 14-year-old boy keeps glimpsing the memories of a young murdered girl.
The doctor - she's a doctor, you know - enlists the help of a former New York homicide cop, played by the gruffly appealing Nicholas Bishop, to help solve some of these mysteries. He has a tragic backstory (dead wife) and is skeptical about reincarnation. But he fits right in with the crime-solving team, philosophizing and talking about his feelings a lot. "This case needs you," the doctor tells him. "You need it back."
The series also stars Judith Ivey as the doctor's mother, and Richard Schiff ("The West Wing's" Toby) as the doctor's boss, but they don't get much screen time. In general: If you regularly DVR "The Ghost Whisperer" and "Medium," you'll want "Past Life" too.
Me, I struggled with the whole reincarnation thing - and kept rooting for someone to turn out to be Napoleon.
It's hooey. But it's fairly well done hooey.
The show takes itself too seriously. When the mother broke down in tears at a 14-year-old boy acting like an 8-year-old girl, I nearly turned it off. Somehow everyone believes in reincarnation just because some kid is mentally disturbed? At the end he hugs his once-upon-a-time sister (who had just had her life turned upside down and had zero idea who he was), and she just accepts it. It strains credulity, which would be okay for a more light-hearted show like bones, but Past Life is dead serious. As such, it remains in conflict with itself.
We are also left to wonder how these murderers will ever be convicted if the only evidence against them is the memory of a past life. They skirt the issue in the pilot episode by having a kidnapping/false imprisonment charge as a possibility, but should we expect that every week? Sorry, the premise is simply too inherently flawed to be taken as seriously as this show demands.
I absolutely loved this show. I thought it was brilliant. I do understand what you mean by saying that it was a little hard to wrap your head around it, I watched it with my mother and I had to explain some parts to her, but all in all I thought it was extremely creepy, but brilliantly done. The first episode blew my mind, and the actors were incredible, especially Noah, I can't even imagine the talent he had to have to create those types of scenes. Amazing job FOX, well done.