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Series debut Jan. 8: The Firm, from 9-11 p.m. ET on Global and NBC

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Name: The Firm

Debuts: Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012 from 9-11 p.m. ET on NBC and Global before moving to regular slot of Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC and Global

Cast:
Josh Lucas (J. Edgar, The Lincoln Lawyer, Life As We Know It) is Mitch McDeere, occasionally sounding a lot like he watch the Tom Cruise film a few too many times. But otherwise, easy on the eyes and dashing in all the right ways.
Molly Parker (Dexter, The Road, Deadwood) is Abby McDeere, but she is no mere teacher, wife and mother. She is a near-full partner in the legal cases. Feels a little forced to me. I’d like to see Parker resisting her husband instead of being his cheerleader. Anybody can play supportive wife. Wife with a backbone? Parker could do that and I hope she gets a chance at the more complicated and interesting character.
Juliette Lewis (Whip It, Home Fires, The Switch) is Tammy Hemphill, his chain-smoking gal Friday and fixer. Nice gams, too, which are scissored about quite a lot in the pilot, but to no good purpose. Sigh. Hoping for more depth in this character, also.
Callum Keith Rennie (Californication, Shattered, The Killing) is Ray McDeere, the ex-con brother who is now his investigator. I love t his actor. This is a perfect role, but hope for a bit longer leash here as well. Especially here.
Shaun Majumder (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Detroit 1-8-7) is Andrew Palmer, lawyer. Evil? Not sure. Nicely done.
Tricia Helfer (Battle Galactica, Human Target) is Alex Clark, Palmer’s boss. Evil? Damn well better be.

Plot: 10 years after Mitch McDeere brought down a prestigious Chicago law firm via a deal with the local mafia, in the story covered by John Grisham’s novel and the Tom Cruise movie that followed, this new TV Mitch McDeere emerges from protective custody and a life on the run with hopes of settling down in his own small legal practice. Complications ensue. As the title implies, another firm is on the McDeere horizon.

Review in six words*: Pilot tries too hard, cast redeems.

Review in a few more than six words: The worst part of watching the first episode of any series? It (or the original version of it) was created as a calling card on which to sell the full series, so it’s often pumped full of expensive effects or lavish turns of plot or overacting or unnecessary and obvious exposition or … well generally it just has too much of something. Or everything. It’s a little like a first date. Everybody’s trying way too hard and even if there’s chemistry, you have no idea if it’s all adrenalin and best behaviour or the real McCoy. Nor whether it has the cojones to keep showing up every week with a kind heart, a nasty-good bit of humour and/or something interesting to say. (Did I just write my profile for lavalife.com? Where was I? Oh yeah.)

Despite a lot of overly complicated explanation of the back story, leaps of illogic and some not-yet-earned shoehorning of teacher/mom Abby McDeere into the legal cases,  I’m gambling that this series will be worth watching. In part because the cast is great and in part because I think the story has credible potential (and none of the following is a spoiler; if you are aware of the title and are not aware that McDeere will hook up with another firm, you should turn off your TV right now): With the knowledge of how evil a firm can be, has McDeere chosen wisely and chosen a firm that is not at all evil? (Where’d be the fun in that?) More to the point, dramatically, will McDeere be able to anticipate evil in this firm or use it to his advantage? My only substantial fear is a bad case of narrative whiplash: The writers/producers know viewers will expect the new firm to be evil, so they’ll make the firm look evil only to be revealed (by McDeere, of course), to actually be good, but only apparently because, in another scene, viewers wil be shown evidence of another deeper layer of true evil and … I have definitely watched way too much bad TV.

Additional reviews:
My old friends at metacritic.com  have rounded up a load of reviews, reporting an average of 54 out of 100, with the L.A. Times and the N.Y. Times both giving it a weak 30 out of 100. Not so firm after all?

* The six-word conceit is inspired by Smith Magazine’s six-word memoir series, in which they invite people to submit six-word memoirs, often on a theme such as Father’s Day, and then publish them. Lovely. Wonderful. An excellent exercise in boiling stuff down. Which I don’t do often enough and thought I’d try here.


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