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The verdict: Court drama is an injustice

The TV critic and the circuit judge agree: ABC's new show is shackled by shortcomings.

By CHASE SQUIRES and LINDA BABB
Published December 31, 2005

[Photo: ABC]

Kyle MacLachlan of Sex and the City fame plays a rich civil attorney out to do good in In Justice.

Upon being congratulated by a television critic last summer for not loading up his fall schedule with the ubiquitous procedural cop and court dramas, ABC's president of prime-time entertainment, Stephen McPherson, was quick to correct.

The network, he said, was eagerly hunting for a new procedural. Something along the lines of what Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI) or Dick Wolf (Law & Order) have been churning out.

The network's new entry, In Justice, is not it. And judging by the way ABC is springing the one-hour drama on viewers and critics with little warning and fanfare, the network knows it.

The plot involves wealthy civil attorney David Swain (played by Kyle MacLachlan from Twin Peaks and Sex and the City) spending $5-million to buy a rundown hotel for his National Justice Project, assembling a team of eager young attorneys and investigators who unravel injustices, free the wrongly incarcerated and punish the guilty.

By airing a "sneak preview" episode Sunday, ABC is trying to ride some Desperate Housewives mojo, as that popular program airs a "new" recap special. But by doing so, ABC gets ahead of itself by airing an episode out of context, before the pilot can set the stage and explain the backdrop. Without some background, viewers will be left adrift.

Just as well. The pilot, airing in the show's regular 9 p.m. slot Friday, does little to clear up the mess, except to hint that Swain may be financing this crusade for justice as a way to make the state's attorney general look bad while Swain himself mulls a run at the office.

Nothing works in this mishmash. The flashbacks are confusing, the wrongly incarcerated inmates aren't sympathetic. And the cute "questionable ethics" the young go-getters use to unearth clues (such as lying, burglarizing and intimidating witnesses) don't sit well.

Even the premise makes no sense. As he vacillates between naive crusader and vain, cynical politician, Swain comes across as morally ungrounded and unstable.

A glance through an online database uncovers no identifiable connection to crime-related dramas for executive producers-creators Michelle and Robert King or their co-executive producers. That lack of experience shows throughout. The team seems to have little understanding of prison life, courtroom procedures or criminology, and they mistake inventing convenient plot twists from thin air with cleverly assembling a puzzle in front of viewers' eyes.

Chase Squires can be reached at 727 893-8739 or squires@sptimes.com His blog is at www.sptimes.com/blogs/tv

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Linda Babb won the right to take a turn as a St. Petersburg Times TV critic at a charity auction to benefit Dade City's Main Street organization. She kindly mentions she was the high bidder. In fact, she was the sole bidder. With her background as a social worker, prosecutor and judge (and her marriage to husband Terry, a longtime detective with the St. Petersburg Police Department), who better to share her opinion of ABC's new crime drama In Justice?

By LINDA BABB

Special to the Times

I can't believe that you could be paid to do this.

On Winter's Solstice, instead of dancing around the annual bonfire that was burning so brightly outside, I and a few of my friends sat in my family room and watched TV.

I had the high bid at a charity auction for a St. Petersburg Times package that included a full collection of Beavis and Butt-head classics and a night with the intrepid critic Chase Squires reviewing a new TV show.

Because my husband and I do have the house that crime built (he is a law enforcement officer and I have always worked in the courts in some way), and so many of my friends are similarly situated (there is job security in crime), Chase thought it would be entertaining for us to review a justice system drama.

So, we were mesmerized for 45 minutes by In Justice.

Mesmerized might be too strong a word. How about sedated?

The premise of the show is that a millionaire attorney (played by Kyle Somebody, the guy who married Charlotte on Sex and the City) is interested in seeking justice for the wrongly prosecuted and privately funds the Justice Center where these folks can apply to have their cases reinvestigated and appeals for clemency filed.

There is an implication that he's really interested in a bid for attorney general and is just trying to make the current attorney general look bad. I guess you'll have to watch more than I did to find out if that is correct.

One problem we had was that Kyle Somebody (actually Kyle MacLachlan) couldn't perform - if you know what I mean - in Sex and the City. He's cast as a playboy in In Justice. I just can't see it.

This rich civil attorney buys an old hotel, refits it and hires investigators up the wazoo to go back and take another look at the wrongly imprisoned.

The first episode we watched was called "Brothers and Sisters." It had a short spoken beginning that we missed the first go-round, and without hearing that some of the beginning didn't make sense. This is not a show that you can walk in and out doing laundry and still get. You pretty much have to couch potato yourself.

The actors appeared a little stilted with the exception of MacLachlan, the only actor we recognized. We actually had to pause and go back and replay two or three times. I don't know whether we're just slow on the uptake, too full of nog, or what, but TiVo would help this one.

We were definitely less than impressed.

We all did like that one of the supporting characters was left reading Highlights for Children in a hospital waiting room for two hours. Haven't you ever been stuck reading stuff like that? I was once stuck with nothing but Florida Wildlife and Fishing for hours in the ER while we waited for my son to get stitches.

But I digress. We were all pretty able to figure out what was going on, and were pleased when we were right; we didn't go to years of secondary school to let TV shows bluff us for long. We had to shout out that you can't rob a house when the ex-detective said that the house was robbed. (Only people can be robbed; houses are burglarized.)

But all in all, we call this episode a dim light on the horizon if this is the quality of the series in the future.

I had time to watch the show again by myself. I discovered the pilot shown at the end (of the promotional DVD release), which firmed up my understanding of the premise and had far superior execution both in acting and story line.

If the rest of the season is more like the pilot, it might actually catch on.

In Justice premieres in a sneak preview Sunday at 10 p.m., moving Friday to its regular 9 p.m. time slot on WFTV-Ch. 28. Grade: D

[Last modified December 30, 2005, 08:46:05]