I am – Hercules!!
Oh, that wacky David E. Kelley! A few years ago, the “Boston Legal” creator was moaning about how reality shows were ruining television. Tonight, his own reality show premieres!
For the record, “The Law Firm” is far, far better reality show than “The Apprentice” and similar shows of its ilk, largely because of its cast. Some (though certainly not all) of the competing lawyers are pretty brainy, and it’s great fun to watch attorneys of differing skill levels chew on each other’s skulls in pursuit of a quarter-million dollars. As a bonus, I’d guess “Firm’s” Trump figure, big-deal criminal trial attorney Roy Black, probably has at least twice The Donald’s IQ.
I’ve seen tonight’s premiere, which is swell, and another episode from the middle of its run, which depicts a miscarriage of justice so appalling it will likely leave more than a few viewers’ jaws on the floor.
Not everyone is as enamored as I:
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… There is nothing inherently annoying about the hour apart from its very existence. It does what it does with slick, formulaic aplomb. The dozen well-scrubbed, avaricious competitors play their roles as willful, cutthroat barristers just fine. Black, who once repped William Kennedy Smith in his notorious rape trial and is handling things for Rush Limbaugh, does his thing with appropriate consequence and conviction, if not a whole lot of charisma. But in the main, "The Law Firm" is as good as any other "Apprentice" wannabe out there and generally pretty interesting in the way it shows our cast of snide prima donna lawyers strategizing, sniping, maneuvering and working hard to look really good while doing it.…
Variety says:
… Skillfully assembled … Not surprisingly, homely attorneys need not apply, and the participants spend the first hour sizing each other up and squabbling -- including, no lie, a case involving a three-legged dog. If that's Kelley's idea of a subtle commentary about reality TV, more power to him, though the stakes do grow as the competition progresses. … The series does what it can to build suspense regarding the outcome of the trials and which lawyer will get the boot next, but it's still hard to breathe much freshness into this musty formula. On the plus side, Black's rationale in deciding who is sent packing benefits from a higher degree of well-articulated logic than Kathy Hilton brought to the party, and at least the combatants are vying within their chosen field, not arbitrary "challenges."
The New York Times says:
…"The Law Firm" is watchable: there is some amusement in watching the young lawyers jostle and bicker before retired judges playing along stiffly with the camera. The promos promise "real cases, real people, real consequences," but, actually, none are dire. Plaintiffs and defendants agree to abide by decisions reached by retired judges and, sometimes, even a jury, so little is at stake. Mostly, the cases are Judge Judy silly (one involves a three-legged dog allegedly mauled by the mastiff next door) and the conceit wears thin quickly. … Mr. Kelley was once a pioneer of using frivolous lawsuits to great satiric effect when he was a writer and producer of "L.A. Law," and later on his own shows, "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal." Now, he seems to be hanging on to a threadbare daytime conceit. …
However, it is reassuring to learn from his new show that it is possible for a pretty young lawyer like Kelly to graduate from law school believing that the term "vigilante" is a compliment. …
The Chicago Tribune says:
… For all those out there who cheer whenever the character in "Henry V" says, "Let's kill all the lawyers," there are plenty of us who find the law more interesting to snoop on than the business world. On that score, "The Law Firm" admittedly isn't much more adult than the doings overseen by Judge Judy and all those other daytime jurists. … But, as with "The Apprentice," the fun is in watching the dogfight among the Type A, overachieving, ambitious attorneys vying for the show's $250,000 prize, shouting, insulting each other and generally behaving like spoiled, inconsolable children. "I'd rather choke Michael than stab him, because I think that's more personal," one of them says about a competitor of whom he's not particularly fond.…
The Miami Herald says:
… As much fun as a barrel of rattlesnakes, this courtroom version of the The Apprentice could be the worst black eye for the legal profession since the Dred Scott decision. … They lie, they cheat, they stab each other in the back, they slither on their bellies like a devolving sub-reptilian life form. They don't even make any pretense otherwise. ''I thought you were gangsters, in that car,'' jokes one client. ''Almost - we're lawyers,'' replies one of the contestants. The most appalling thing about The Law Firm may be that this self-portrait in slime is not inadvertent but quite carefully managed; like most so-called reality shows, it's a study in artifice. The clients and witnesses in the mock trials the contestants stage for Black's approval, though supposedly drawn from actual cases, bare every sign of careful coaching. …
The Boston Globe says:
… It all has the tabloid air of ''Judge Judy" about it, but with the added feature of having the lawyers bicker with one another, and the judges bicker with the lawyers, and Black bicker with the lawyers about the judges. And the bickering isn't namby-pamby when you've got 12 lawyers in the house. These guys don't give up easily. When Olivier, who looks like Simon Baker of ''The Guardian," and Regina clash over their approach to the dog case, it's a fierce battle of wills, and we're not talking last testaments. The show has a little something to offer viewers on how the law works. But that material would be news only to those who haven't seen ''Law & Order," the Kelley shows including ''The Practice" and ''L.A. Law," or anything on Court TV. The trial maneuverings on ''The Law Firm" are low-key, and they promise to offer few revelatory twists. And while the players may actually have presented and argued their cases in great detail, time constraints have forced the show's editors to whittle their courtroom scenes down to nothing. We don't get to see nearly enough of the lawyers' work to learn anything from it. …
Entertainment Weekly gives it a “C” and says:
… as stale as, well, shows about young lawyers. Weirdly dim legal novices, robotic mentors, and terminal boredom? It's all here. …
Happily, NBC is running it after, and not opposite, CBS’ summer powerhouse “Big Brother”:
9 p.m. Thursday. NBC.
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