Steven Bochco Tries "Raising The Bar"
TNT's new legal drama "Raising The Bar" is from veteran TV producer Steven Bochco and though it tries to be the "Grey's Anatomy" of the legal world, it doesn't quite break out of just being ordinary.
After having watched the first two episodes, I found the show interesting, but not interesting enough to live up to say "The Practice" in its heyday.
The show stars Gloria Reuben, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Jane Kaczmarek and J. August Richards among others. It's set in the world of the public defender's office in New York City and includes classic law show caricatures: the scruffy haired, firebrand liberal who rails against the injustices of the legal world, Jerry Kellerman (Gosselaar) and the hard-nosed, hard-assed judge with no mercy, Trudy Kessler (played beautifully by Kaczmarek).
Then there's Marcus McGrath of the District Attorney's office, a black prosecutor who has very little sympathy, especially for black defendants. Played by J. August Richards, McGrath looks a lot like Charles Gunn in the last season of "Angel" when his character transformed from a street tough to a pin-striped legal eagle. Of course he did it with the help of a demon, but that's a story for another day.
Gloria Reuben as Rosalind Whitman, the head of the public defender's office is her usual solid self, but there's not much to her character, at least so far. A subplot I found unintentionally funny was Charlie Sagansky's (Jonathan Scarfe) relationship with Judge Kessler. He's supposed to be her law clerk but all he ever seems to do is lounge on the sofa in her office, or sit next to her bench in the courtroom. There wasn't one scene where he even had a file in his hand, much less did any clerking.
Another odd thing, both primary storylines had black male defendants, and if that wasn't enough, for some reason, both were referred to in relation to "lynching." I thought it not only weird, but sloppy of the writers to make that kind of reference in two back to back episodes.
All in all, if you like courtroom dramas, this one won't send you screaming from the room, but it won't make you miss a night out either.
"Raising The Bar" premieres September 1st at 10 PM on TNT.
