Critic Reviews
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Past Life feels overly formulaic from the first moments of the first episode. It’s the kind of procedural that’s stuffed with lightning-bolt revelations and convulsive tears by guest-of-the-week actors and yet still seems bland.
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Reincarnation, recycling, rip-off. On network TV, it’s all the same. Whatever you did in a past life, you don’t deserve this drivel.
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Star Kelli Giddish is so distractingly pretty and charming, even to other characters, that it adds a layer of deconstructive interest to a silly series.
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Whatley’s quick conversion to the cause takes away what little tension there is in the partnership, and is emblematic of a larger problem. McGinn needs the people that she meets to buy into the idea of reincarnation, or else she can’t get anything done.
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Past Life is a straight-down-the-middle cop procedural--"Cold Case" with a gimmick--when quirkiness, humor and even some bogus science or crackpot theology would have given it some heft or at least a sense of fun.
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It's standard murder-of-the-week type stuff with just a hint of pseudo spirituality. Trouble is, characters who speak in cliches don't deserve to be in your living room.
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Past Life has neither [heart nor energy] and leaves us only with hope that it will reincarnate next season into something better.
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It all begins to feel like forced gobbledygook--like "Without A Trace" had a bad date with "Ghost Whisperer."
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There is some undeniable chemistry between McGinn and Whatley, but it isn't enough to rescue Past Life. Not in this life.
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The bottom line is that while the show tackles its spooky subject matter earnestly enough, for those expecting to enjoy a mere single life, time's simply too precious to squander on this.