Past Life

All in all, it's a pleassant enough series. Just don't think too hard about it, or it will deconstruct into psycho-goofiness before you get out the door of the Talmadge Institute and onto the first case.

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.

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.

There is some undeniable chemistry between McGinn and Whatley, but it isn't enough to rescue Past Life. Not in this life.

Even as you’re hoping that she won’t have to conjure up variations on this explication theme every week, she does it a few more times in this episode alone.

It's bad writing. It's lazy storytelling. It's ridiculous.

The weakness of the plot might matter less if the regular characters had something special to offer, but Past Life's are standard-issue blanks.