Debuting on ABC on April 24, “My Life and Times” is basically a barrage of flashbacks. In each episode, Ben Miller, the 21st-century codger, spins tales of the pivotal events in his younger years. This allows the series to do what its what its creator does best;switch moods as well as settings. Miller (played by Tom Irwin) escorts us through the birth of his first child during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, his hilariously mismanaged wedding, his plunge into poverty during the “crash of ‘98,” the death of his wife and his subsequent struggle to forge new human connections. Let’s see:suspense, terror, humor, tragedy and regeneration–this show hits all the buttons.
Mostly, though, Koslow diabolically tugs at our heart-strings. You realize what he’s up to even as you reach for the Kleenex. It can’t be the show’s writing, which tends to list into Soapspeak. More likely, it’s the lush, soft-focus haze–wasn’t that how we always observed the Beast?—combined with Irwin’s brilliant evocation of Miller’s physical and psychic evolution from twenty-something to eighty-something. In the opening episode alone, he witnesses the gory death of his boss, becomes a father and decides to switch careers. “Moments of great depths of feeling,” explains Koslow, “are the only moments that interest me.”
Now all he has to do is futurize that retirement home; it looks as 2035-ish as Archie Bunker’s old place. “I know,” concedes Koslow. “I may install a TV set to show what series might be on then.” Lovely,though we already know what all those shows will be about: weird guys on even weirder trips, somehow moving us as well.
