Past Life

Like "Ghost Whisperer," "Medium," and "Fringe," this is another mystery-solving drama. Whether you are a skeptic or believer in reincarnation and past-life regression therapy, it is worth suspending reality to enjoy this moving drama. I will admit that I had tears at the end of the first two episodes I've watched, which was unexpected for me.

The series was created by David Hudgins and inspired by the mystery-thriller "The Reincarnationist," a novel written by M.J. Rose. It is set in New York City at a Behavioral Health Institute. Dr. Kate McGinn (Kelli Giddish) is a psychologist specializing in past-life regression therapy. Price Whatley (Nicholas Bishop) is a former NYPD homicide detective, who was fired after he turned to alcohol to deal with the accidental death of his wife and his guilt over it. They're not as compelling a team as the cast of "Bones" or "Fringe;" however, I've only seen two episodes.

The rest of the cast includes Dr. Malachi Talmadge (Richard Schiff) who seems to be the boss, as well as mentor, and Dr. Rishi Karna (Ravi Patel), a research-focused behavioral scientist/M.D. from India.

Each week, a person suffering from unexplained and terrifying visions, seeks Dr. McGinn's help. With her understanding of past lives and Whatley's investigative skills and connections, they unravel the mystery of intrusive and traumatic past-life memories that wreak havoc on their clients' lives. Dr. Talmadge and Dr. Karna play supportive roles back at the office adding their own insights in understanding the presenting symptoms and clues.

So far, the plot begins with a relevantly current event that triggers a past-life trauma which presents itself through flashback-type visions. They've all had to do with a solving a murder using the clues from past-life memories. It's another twist on the crime/mystery-solving drama that I look forward to watching more of.

My only problem is that I don't buy that people reincarnate as soon as they die, let alone reincarnate in the same country, same ethnicity, etc. However, there has only been 2 shows so far. I don't know, though, whether the writers can keep things fresh with more diversity and stranger cases. There is a high likelihood that I will eventually get bored if the stories remain simplistic and predictable.

I give the first two episodes 10 stars. It held my attention. I was intrigued, even with my skepticism. I had tears in my eyes at the end. What more can I ask for from an hour of television entertainment?

Past Life is just predictable, formula drivel. It's basically just another cop show. It does not favorably compare with Fringe which I think is fantastic! The acting in Past Life is OK but again does not compare with the incomparable John Noble of Fringe. A much more interesting approach to this would have been to develop story lines based on the work of Ian Stevenson. He studied the reports of children who began talking about their past lives as soon as they were old enough to talk. Also, it would be great if they could find some better actors. The ones they have now are just mediocre. The program won't work if they continue to follow the formula of young person troubled by past life intrusions on their current life consciousness. The subject is invariable connected to a murder that the psychologist and a cop solve handily. Ho! Hum!

I've only seen the first 4 episodes of the series but it's still enough to get a good perspective on what the series may go like. When I watch movies or series, I don't just watch for the stories. I see how the actors interact with each other. Sometimes, even with bad actors, you can still get some entertainment from their perceived real emotions.

The story isn't just linear as it appears on screen. If you just follow the story as if you were reading a script, you won't get a 3 Dimensional story as opposed to the substance that the individual actors add to the film. In this series, Kelli Giddish, shows bits and pieces of her character's feelings towards the people she investigates and perhaps, a little bit of her real emotions. It's the same with Bishop. Bishop seems to be the kind of guy who can focus well on a certain task. In the first and second episodes, these two actors didn't seem like strong actors. After I watched the other 2, they seem to grow into their parts and begin to add to it.

This is one of those series where the story may not seem that interesting at times but if you watch their interaction, you can probably make a more interesting story in your head about their relationship to other characters. It's something that I do when the plot line gets boring.

There are so many cool ways that the idea of dealing with "past lives" can be used to create interesting story lines. In this series, the primary focus was on dealing with crime related issues. That's fine - crimes are an area ripe with mystery.

However, whenever I watched it, I got the feeling that I kind of know what the overall story would be, how it would proceed and how it would end. ... And honestly, sometimes it was a bit of a struggle to watch.

I think part of the problem is the writing - it really needed more imaginative story lines and more realistic characters. The former is a tough one to solve - they probably needed to bring in new writers. As far as the characters, they really needed to be overhauled. Kate McGinn (the lead) was really not believable -- she smiled too much at the wrong times and came off as not fully committed. As for the people she approached - they were not really believable either. They didn't seem to bat an eye when she told them that their problems may be related to a "past life" issue. On a series like "Medium", people often slammed the door on the lead character when she told them that she had a psychic dream about them - that's more believable.

Given that the series has been canceled (even before all the episodes have had a chance to run), it won't have a chance to recover from its problems. The idea was good though - it just needed to be conceived and executed better. Hopefully it will be reborn into and better life down the road.

Once you see one episode you basically seen them all. First of all ever incarnations (3 episodes worth) just happen to be found in the United States what are the odds of the people being reincarnated in the exact same place when the worlds population is around 6,692,030,277. Now if they would travel to different locations around the world it would be a tad more believable even though its science fiction The acting is so boring because as I said its all the same except for the fact its different scenarios. I give this show 3 stars only because its original as far as I can tell. The writers should have just made a movie because it would of made room for much better shows to keep us entertained but then again it seems that bad shows last and great shows such as Jericho, Kyle XY and The Listener ( to name a few) have gotten the axe.

Hopefully for all of us it won't last more than 6 episodes I for one have watch my last episode unless I can't sleep then I'll use it as a sleep aid