A Man. And His Blog.

Season 1, Episode 1 (1)
Date of airing: Jan 8, 2012 (NBC)
Watched for review: Jan 8, 2012
Number of review in January/2012:42/42

I know writing for the big and small screen is a difficult thing to do. If you don;’t get your original ideas to the studio, then maybe adapting old ideas help. Whether an update, a reboot, a remake, or just a simple sequel – if you have a franchise under your belt, it’s easier to get the studios interested. Josh Friedman tried to bring the TERMINATOR franchise to television with THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES back in 2007, but stumbled upon the writer’s strike, which killed his first season, and finally the ever-shrinking audiences, who didn’t get their Terminator they wanted to see in the show. On NBC, another movie gets its television sequel, and here the question has to be asked again, if it’s that a good idea to take the name of the most famous John Grisham adaptation and to make a TV show in the serious legal drama genre out of it. THE FIRM doesn’t have much problems to begin with to be seen as a sequel to the Tom Cruise thriller, but about 80 percent of the two-hour pilot (finally, another two-hour pilot again!) was wasted with a procedural case, which had nothing to do with the main arc of the show. Instead, Mitch McDeere, this time portrayed by charming Josh Lucas, only gets teased from the danger of his past.

THE FIRM is set a decade after the 1991 book and the 1993 movie, and rather continues the movie than the book. Mitch McDeere and his wife Abby (Molly Parker) step out of the witness protection program and move to Washington, D.C. The continuous run from the mob and danger is tiring for the family, especially for young daughter Claire (Natasha Calis). With their new life, Mitch is hoping for a chance to live a normal life, making his life as a defense attorney, building an own law firm. And despite the financial crisis in his own little firm, which he runs with his brother Ray (Callum Keith Rennie) and Ray’s chain-smoking girlfriend Tammy (Juliette Lewis,I still love you girl), Mitch continues to take pro-bono cases, helping the people in need, and takes the case of a high-school student, who seemingly has killed another student in front of witnesses. THE FIRM wouldn’t carry the name of a Grisham thriller, when Mitch’s past wouldn’t get past him, and when he wouldn’t get an offer from a mysterious law firm, who tries to recruit him…

Admitted, it’s not a bad idea to write a legal drama under the mantle of the main character’s paranoia. One THE GOOD WIFE, which doesn’t shine light on the political side of being a lawyer, but on the dangerous past said lawyer had to live through. So, it’ pretty much a positive that even John Grisham took the time to consult and supervise on some of the earlier scripts, making sure that THE FIRM will go into the right direction. It lets fans of the movie hope that the TV sequel will be an ideal case of a great legal drama/thriller, as the movie was 19 years ago. Back in the late 1980s and early 90s, NBC had luck with L.A. LAW (currently on my to-do list, and you better give me reason to watch it now and not in three years or so), bringing the legal genre high on the list for the writers, eventually starting the career of one David E. Kelley. But today, the genre seems old, and even the serious business of being a lawyer, set to stone with THE PRACTICE, DAMAGES and THE GOOD WIFE, seems old now. Is the update/sequel of THE FIRM good enough to let the 90s story live in the 21st Century? Are the writers good enough to see more behind all the other serious legal dramas (like DAMAGES and THE GOOD WIFE) and can make their show not look like a cop of said legal dramas? Have the writers learned from the mistakes of Josh Friedman? And will it be an advantage that a conspiracy plot like in the movie can be stretched out to 22 episodes, while most of the time the episodes will deliver generic episodic stories?

Even for NBC, the success (or, after the inaugural ratings, non-success) of THE FIRM will decide whether the network is serious enough to fully end the comic/serialized TV shows for now, and go back to matured drama, as it was the case back in the 1980s and 90s (and even then, it took a while for NBC to get on the top of the Nielsen charts). But if a legal drama, looking as if it jumped right from the 1990s into the future, and filled with an already clichéd season arc, can help NBC is to be doubted. The movie is not innocent to have helped the legal genre in general, but all the TV shows coming after the movie just make THE FIRM look old-fashioned now, and it’s the question whether the audience finds interest in a legal drama with some mon people, a conspiracy, and a family in endless danger. It can’t surprise anybody anymore, and it’s a disadvantage in the long run, when THE FIRM really looks like a TV show from the 90s, and was only remastered to be aired today.

The pilot has a different problem going for it though: It relies too much on the movie in its first part, and has to have flashbacks to explain the current storyline and what has happened with the McDeeres. A five-minute teaser, drowned in bleached lighting (to differ the various flashbacks in the pilot), feels too much like a real sequel to the movie, instead of slowly going into character work for new audiences. THE FIRM is not successful to premiere in a more universal and creative note, instead it has to be the sequel to a movie. The pilot is not successful in looking new, modern and suspenseful. To make the audience clear from the beginning that THE FIRM is a sequel of some sorts, it had to have all the information coming right from the movie, to make a TV show out of it. At least Grisham and his team of writers knew from the start, which information to take and how to start the TV show, to not slam the unknowing audience with useless information. Basically the mistake THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES did in its pilot, which is why THE FIRM is kind of better because of it. That the pilot had to suffer anyway was because of its generic, episodic main plot, whose investigation and conclusion did not just remind me that those arcs in the show don’t have anything to do with the season arc, but also reminded me that those kind of stories need more spice to be surprising and good. After all, the whole murder/self-defense plot looked like a more crazed-up and mutated spouse of one THE GOOD WIFE or DAMAGES.

But if the audience is able to make the movie forgotten (or haven’t see it at all), then they get a nice little TV drama out of THE FIRM, where the cast can succeed not to suck, Josh Lucas gives a great Mitch McDeere, and I don’t even see Tom Cruise in his role anymore. Lucas is sure to make you believe that this role is his now, which has a great positive effect on believing his character’s actions and decision-making. That’s also a positive, because the TV show continues where the movie ended with Mitch as a character: Instead of being a selfish bastard in the middle of a dangerous situation (like in the book), Mitch continues to be the “all white vest” man, as “holy” and “pathbreaking” for his job and his colleagues. Typically for TV lawyers in the early 90s and even earlier, they have to have a good heart, they have to fight for the innocent, they have to believe in the good of their job and in the law. Mitch is the hero of the hour, the man to go, when you’re in trouble, the man who could step in front of a camera in Washington, D.C. and make fist bumps. (And get killed by the mob at the end of the week, lol). Yes, it feels outdated nowadays, but NBC has the opportunity with THE FIRM to shine a pretty much different light on the legal drama genre – making the lawyers heroes again, not trying to be all-edgy and complex. Not all lawyers have to have dirty vests and need to scheme their way up to the top. And when the writers learn to kill off the logical mistakes (I didn’t even have problems with the pay phone. Rather with the “bad guys” not making their shoes wet), and make the episodic stories more compelling, then THE FIRM is able to entertain on a high level.

The future of the show lies in the hands of the writers, and if they want THE FIRM as a stand-alone drama in the genre with a conspiracy a la 24 as a great story arc, or a real and honest sequel of the movie. Former would be great for the genre. Latter would only work, when the show manages to keep the universal and thrilling episodic stories going. From the beginning, and not in the middle of the season, because it’s closer to the season finale. Sony has agreed to produce 22 episodes, thanks to THE FIRM being produced under an international model, which is still unusual in my eyes. But it has some advantages. The production is scheduled to end in the final days of April – so, when the show is a flop on NBC (which it looks like, but it was a success on Global in Canada with more than three million viewers), then the writers have enough time to write a proper series finale, when Sony doesn’t find a new partner to produce the show with. There’s also enough leeway for the show to be compelling, to prepare the story, to have a bigger outcome at the end. Hopefully the writers don’t fall into a delirium to write a cliffhanger finale. 6/10

Mitch is running again

Mitch has mysterious colleagues again