A Man. And His Blog.

A good episode, and surprisingly a good closer to the series. Every story has an ending (thanks to the indictment story already concluded in the last episode), and there is some sort of happy end for everybody in this show. So, for all the TV nerds, who are looking for TV shows without all sorts of cliffhangers, instead real endings: You can actually watch CANTERBURY’S LAW and see it as a mini-series.

The rape case was interesting, as well as the twists. I especially liked how Molly (Trieste Kelly Dunn) reacted to the case and was literally disgusted by Gil (Zak Orth), as well as Elizabeth (Julianna Margulies), who took on the case, even though she wanted to draw the line in rape cases. First I was thinking that the writers were working to the revelation of Molly having a same or similar experience, which is why she couldn’t connect with the case. Luckily that wasn’t the case at all, and instead the writers delivered a woman’s perspective of the rape case, since we couldn’t have Elizabeth’s perspective, because she was for redemption and was the attorney after all. Furthermore, I liked how radio host Gabriel (Damian Young) was involved in the situation, eventually becoming the buuh man for Elizabeth. The writers could have tried more with Gabriel though. At the end he was just the guy who brought Jennifer (Jennifer Mudge) to Rhode Island and to testify, and almost had the chance to be kicked in the nuts by Elizabeth. The vengeance theme could have been more worked out and brought in to the episode, as a contrast to the redemption/revelation plot with Gil. But it looked like the writers didn’t have much time for it, after giving Chester (Keith Robinson) an own case.

A case, which was kinda funny. Okay, I only laughed, when he presented the rat as the “murder weapon” in court, but somehow it was amusing to see that Chester had to win this case to keep his manhood alive, just that it wasn’t a usual case, since his defendant was just a smugly fraudster, who actually had a case to deliver this time. Well, lucky there wasn’t spent much time on the case, though I wanted to see Molly a bit more involved with Chester. It almost looked like there could have been a couple here after their “bar passed”-hug.

At the end I know why I was forgetting all about CANTERBURY’S LAW. The series is pure solid entertainment, but it makes the stories forgettable. Elizabeth became a likable character over time, and the efforts of connecting her personal story with her career was nothing but a good effort. Maybe a future series will manage to do that better, because THE GOOD WIFE doesn’t. It has too much shit going on to be considered a series, which connects the personal life of an attorney with the career of said attorney. 7/10

Chester presents the murder weapon

Gil awaits redemption

Another good episode, but I am a bit surprised that the indictment was resolved at the end. And how easy it was for Elizabeth (Julianna Margulies) and her colleagues to make a deal with Zach (Terry Kinney). After all, it was just another bluff, which saved Elizabeth’s ass.

But at the end, I didn’t quite understand how the Santos (Otto Sanchez) case helped out Elizabeth. Russell (Ben Shenkman) was going into the case, because everybody was believing that Holtz’s (Kevin Cahoon) witness statement was not properly included in the Santos case, and that Zach did basically the same Elizabeth did during the Ethan Foster case. But it was actually Russell’s mistake – so how could have been Zach blamed for the non-including of the statement, when he wasn’t even entirely involved in the situation? Yeah, he could have read the statement and decided to forget all about it, but Russel was as guilty as Zach is an asshole. Here I don’t really understand why Zach saw a threat in the situation, eventually forgetting the indictment against Elizabeth. But is the story really over now, or is there something coming in the final episode?

Other than that, it was nice that Elizabeth was in the background most of the times, letting her team work. It was a good choice to let all the characters, all of her colleagues interact with each other or different characters. I quite like the chemistry between Russell and Kate (Jenna Stern) for example, which could have resulted in a little romance, after Kate would have realized what an ass Zach is. In addition, Chester (Keith Robinson) goes back and forth in thinking about whether to stay with Elizabeth or not (otherwise there wouldn’t have been the moment during the beginning, when his face told us “guilty”, after Molly [Trieste Kelly Dunn, I love her btw, get her in a new legal drama!] asked who was talking to the press), but eventually fights for her and giving Russell enough credit to be the good guy (though it was too much of a happy end for my taste), and even Molly goes lying and backstabbing and hopes to get a case out of the Santos case. But I only liked how Russell tried to help Elizabeth. The thing with the murder book was interesting, and it made me ask a lot of questions. Like: Why aren’t attorneys able to look into a murder book? After all, they are probably needing witness statements for similar cases or cases involving the same persons. So, there was something I didn’t understand. But maybe it was just an invention by the writers? I don’t know. Anyway, I see plot holes. They might not be plot holes though.

And finally there was another fight between Elizabeth and Matt (Aidan Quinn). It didn’t bring much, except Matt realizing he has to let go. I’d wish for a development for this story. After all, they can’t just talk about Sam all day long, and how his disappearance destroyed their marriage. It would be boring after half a season. 7/10

Chester is moonlighting for the press

That's a pretty big pile of paper trash

Another good episode. I think I will miss this show for a couple of days, when I’m done with it, since I’m getting acquainted to the characters. Elizabeth (Julianna Margulies) doesn’t behave that antagonistic anymore and gets a lot of edges from the writers, and the other characters are getting at least some screentime in the early stage of the series.

The story with Izzy (Brianna Steinhilber) and Linda (Lauren Weisman) being charged with solicitation to murder was okay. There were a few nice twists in it, beginning with Linda selling out Izzy for the prosecution, and Elizabeth having troubles to get into the case because of her recent “scandal”, also known as jail time. There was this interesting question, if she was actually still able to perform her duties, but I wondered if that’s realistic. I mean, Elizabeth must still be investigated, isn’t it logical that she is suspended from the bar during this time? I wouldn’t risk to have an attorney in the job, who is being investigated, but handles cases, and at the end it comes out the attorney was guilty of whatever the attorney did. That would make bad PR, and I don’t know if the writers really thought about it here. It would have made a good story though, when Elizabeth would have fought to continue working. Until the throwaway phone came to play, I liked the story though. A bit more kick-ass could have resulted in making the two girls a bit more uneasier though. Their chuckling and laughing all the time was definitely uneasy (and somewhat creepy too), considering the charges, but it would have made the story a bit more nastier, if one of the girls actually showed their dark-deep guilt in her face.

And here we are, the phone deus ex machina. Totally ridiculous. So, Izzy had it the whole time, could have destroyed Linda with it, but she decided to bring it into the game, after she was convinced by Elizabeth not to run away. Umm, yeah, totally believable. But it was the only unlikable moment in the episode, because I liked the rest. Thankfully because the family drama was missing this time and Elizabeth was only sleeping with Frank (James McCaffrey). I don’t need that relationship crap, but it keeps the drama alive, so I’ll take it. But I have to say I loved Molly’s (Trieste Kelly Dunn) scene, when she pretended to be from the prosecutor’s office. So, she can be kick-ass too. I would wis for more scenes with her, and I can see the writers have planned something with her. Otherwise the scene, where Elizabeth was almost about to smash Molly in the office wouldn’t have been in here. It’s nice to see that there is still conflict material between Elizabeth and her colleagues. Though I ask myself why she and Russell (Ben Shenkman) are such good friends now, after they practically hated each other’s guts in the pilot.

Two episodes left, I think I’m gonna need a new legal drama after that. Maybe JUSTICE? 7/10

Creepy girls are creepy

Terry Kinney wonders about this new technology of ours

Yep, it was a good episode. But now I’m not so surprised anymore, why I didn’t love the series three years ago and why I didn’t miss it. Even though the factor of entertainment is solid, the writers don’t really manage to bring in the legal drama, because they are too focused on having half legal, half family drama in the show. And this time the family drama almost dethroned the legal drama, which was at its best in the series so far.

But there was still something I didn’t quite get story-wise. Maybe it was not such a good idea to have Zach (Terry Kinney) investigating Elizabeth (Julianna Margulies) in front of a grand jury after the Ethan Foster case. We know he has a grudge against her, and we know she’s crossing the line a bit too often. But the grand jury case would have been a better story, if the writers had enough time to prepare everything for it: the characters, the situation, the aftermath of the Ethan Foster case, and so on. But having Elizabeth in the grand jury after three episodes, it seems too fast. Almost as fast as the camera is moving sometimes. Nonetheless the story was good, and I was surprised it didn’t end here already. Instead this episode just seemed to be the introduction of the case, and it could have been blown up to bigger proportions in an eventual second season. Which could have been interesting after a while – having an attorney as the titular character, who can’t practice law, because she is being investigated, could lose her license, and even go to jail. Maybe that’s what the writers were thinking, when they created this show.

And nice that the other characters were included. Russell (Ben Shenkman) and Chester (Keith Robinson) learned about the grand jury investigation, and they tried in their own ways to get the weights of Elizabeth’s shoulders. With it, we were introduced to Chester’s father (Keith David), as well as Zach’s two-way partner Kate (Jenna Stern), who obviously had/has a crush on Russell (and vice versa), and is now fucking with Zach, maybe even helping him to manipulate Russell and his boss (that would have been interesting, if Zach uses the same methods as Elizabeth did). Only Molly (Trieste Kelly Dunn) came a bit short, even though she had her own case. But unfortunately I didn’t understand why she didn’t tell Elizabeth she didn’t pass the bar (wasn’t she waiting for the results?), and I was a bit disappointed that Elizabeth had to help her out in the drunk driving case (notice: with another big bluff, which I was totally buying, like the rest of the crew in the court). I really would have wished that Molly would somehow find a way to kick ass. Think Nancy Crozier here.

The family part of the story was okay. I don’t really buy that Elizabeth and Matt (Aidan Quinn) have such big problems, and I don’t really think that no one has heard of Sam from one of the two. That lets me ask, if Elizabeth’s colleagues know about Sam’s disappearance, or if her private life is such a secret (seeing that the writers always try to keep Elizabeth’s private life separated with her job). I loved the scene when she was drunk and started to fabricate the story of her son to Matt’s friends, and I kinda loved the fight between the two after that. But then again, it seemed kinda over the top and not connecting to the rest of the series.

The cliffhanger didn’t wow me either, except the realization that the music department of this show was obviously a big fan of Tina Dico. Three episodes in, and it’s the second song I’ve heard from her in the show. But the episode was still good, because it could havoc a lot of shit for the remaining three episodes – which I, thankfully, can’t remember at all. 7/10

Molly looks confused, because she is

Drunk and sexy: that's my Julie!

Hey, the episode was pretty good, despite the ridiculous main story. The drama was working this time, but only because the writers took some time in getting into Elizabeth’s (Julianna Margulies) background, and the case wasn’t much faulted, though it showed some characters from a complete different side, compared to the pilot.

Which is why I think the writers were rethinking their approach to the show between the pilot and this episode, and I have to say this episode works better because of it. But again, the story wasn’t much logical. Zach (Terry Kinney) literally saw in Louis (Pruitt Taylor Vince, typecast much?) the killer, even though he had no hard evidence to back him up – like in the pilot with the bone, where Elizabeth had no hard evidence of it belonging to the dead kid. But this time it was even worse: Everybody but Elizabeth was seeing in Louis the killer of the guy (and eventually the killer of the additional five murders too) without any kind of evidence backing them up. It was ludicrous to see that even the Judge Hanlon (Gerry Bamman) was seeing that, though there was the moment before Zach charged Louis with five additional murders, when even the judge was on Elizabeth’s side. I really can’t take the story serious, when the writers are going way too easy on those kind of cases. Maybe I should watch THE PRACTICE, after all the good things I’ve heard (but seriously, I wanna watch L.A. LAW first, before I go into THE PRACTICE – and both were fairly long-living shows).

But as long as I wasn’t burying my head in my hands, the case was fine. I especially liked the second half of it, when Louis was outed as the “crazy psychic”, and when it was clear he had a tumor and not long to live. With it, the question whether he actually murdered those six people, but can’t remember, because of his state of mind was nice. It brought some emotionality into the episode I liked, and it connected with Elizabeth’s current state of mind. Unfortunately, the episode wasn’t focused too much on that story arc and only had it as a minor one, until Elizabeth was driven to catch Dr. Petch (James Rebhorn). And then the next moment came: Just because Elizabeth learned that Petch is too much of a boss, when it comes to his work, she suddenly saw him as the killer? That’s like “The episode is almost over, we need a solution now, but we haven’t prepared anything”, and that didn’t look good. And again there goes the realism of the moment, when Elizabeth catched him during the hearing – I mean, Petch should have been a pro, when it comes to keeping his cool, so why did he go nuts, after Elizabeth served the search warrant? Yeah, ridiculous.

Of course I was thinking about PSYCH and THE MENTALIST, when it was mentioned that psychics and mediums are/were laughed at, when they helped the police, so I saw that episode as a contrast to both shows. What were the MENTALIST writers thinking about this episode, since they were probably shooting the pilot right about the airing of this episode? 6.5/10

There's a skull in the office

Elizabeth alone in booze land

I think I’m remembering the show in the worst way possible: not realistic, not much of a legal drama, the main character annoying and unlikable, and the other characters never had anything to do. I can only remember I was sometimes annoyed of it and didn’t miss it, when FOX cancelled it, but I think I also liked this show. Now I’m rewatching it, and I must say I like it. I don’t know what was wrong with me three years ago, but somehow this show works, even though Elizabeth (Julianna Margulies) is still an unlikable hero, who might go a bit too far for the viewers.

The pilot was alright. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much of a pilot, instead it just looked like a normal episode with a normal case of the week, a normal development with it, and the normal character relationships. Not many information were given during the 44 minutes, so I’m a little bit concerned, because I don’t know anything about the characters. There’s just something about Elizabeth’s son, and that Russell (Ben Shenkman) quit his previous job with Zach (Terry Kinney). And that’s it. For the pilot, the writers rather focused on the case at hand, instead of introducing the characters. That’s clearly a mistake, but on the other hand there was much light on the case, which was interesting. Yet, riddled with moments I couldn’t understand because I couldn’t understand the characters’ choices.

Namely Elizabeth’s trick of getting Scott Jasper (Boris McGiver) in the stand. First I wondered how she could have been so sure about him being the murderer of his kid, then I asked myself if the medical records couldn’t have been a bigger play in the story. After all, the medical records were only mentioned a couple of times, but only to give Elizabeth the scenes, where she completely hates Scott’s guts, and wishes to catch him in the stand. Though I liked the trick she used, it shows me that Elizabeth is one of the worst TV defense lawyers possible: She lies to get out the truth, and she doesn’t stop crossing the lines, even risking her job and reputation (and eventually the new-found friends in her little office), to get justice. It surely makes her a good-hearted character, but the ways she is getting the truths out in court makes her unlikable. Elizabeth is too much of an angry-faced woman, who wouldn’t hesitate to rip your balls off, if you just say “Fuck you” to her, and I think with today’s network standards and in mainstream television or cinema, it’s a mistake to do that. You can have unlikable characters in shows like LIGHTS OUT or movies like PHONE BOOTH, but those were not made to entertain a mainstream audience (otherwise LIGHTS OUT wouldn’t have been on FX, and PHONE BOOTH would have had all the studio support possible). Which is why a character like Elizabeth will never work in a show like this made for the audience, who was supposed to be watching. Despite her winning cases.

The rest of the case was okay. I would have wished a stronger focus on Ethan (Charlie Hofheimer), and how everybody is thinking he lies to Elizabeth (as well as everybody thinking that Elizabeth is being punk’d by Ethan), and I would have wished a few more moments in court. Somehow it became something of a barbecue in there, after both Elizabeth and Zach were buddies with the judge, and especially after watching THE GOOD WIFE, who went in a different way with those court scenes (I could never imagine the face-punch happening on THE GOOD WIFE). Other than that, the case proved to be hole-y, since Elizabeth was believing from the get-go tha Scott was the killer. Especially the thing with the bone was ludicrous. Elizabeth knew it couldn’t be taken into evidence, when there is no DNA proof, but nevertheless she wanted it in evidence, just so she could convince Ethan to not kill himself. Every rational lawyer would have accepted the fact that it was not possible to enter the bone in evidence. 6.5/10

The arm of a kid killer

The arm of a current lover