Seriously, are there any other professions other than Law or Medicine? I don't see a show about Accountants or Marine Biologists...

I have my doubts anything could make the justice system look THAT retarded, ever again.

Excluding real life of course.

I can't wait to hear their new campaigns this fall: "From the network that gave you something to live for and brought meaning into your otherwise empty lives with the Closer and Saving Grace, TNT brings you the greatest television show ever made by anyone, anywhere, in history: Raising the Bar.

Critics are raving: 'shockingly … A whiff of [incredible, godly, genius] permeates this earnest ensemble piece' -TV Guide

"The Wall Street Journal raves about it's 'updated gloss and cast.' And the New York Times heralds it's 'rants about the primacy of truth.'

The Los Angeles Times gushes: 'It's not all bad' and '. . . it needed to be made.'

The Chicago Tribune effuses: 'these thinly drawn characters is compelling', and the San Francisco Chronicle screams in joy: 'fits squarely within the parameters of a TNT series.'

Variety proclaims triumphantly it 'springs from a well-worn playbook' and the Hollywood Reporter tearfully acclaims its 'above-average dialogue.'

Coming this fall, TNT gives you a show better than oral sex, ice cream or Jesus: Raising the Bar."

Yes, Mark Paul is best known for NYPD Blue, at least by people who have never seen the kid's show he made as a child actor. And for some Jane Kaszmarek is best known for her sting on Hill Street Blues.

Of course for fans of Bochco and legal dramas, we recall that Steven Bochco already tried channeling David E. Kelley once before with the short lived Kim Delaney vehcle "Philly". The fact is, every scene from the promos for this show that have been running on TNT make it look exactly like a recycled version of the Practice - in subject matter if not cast. "Sometimes we defend the guilty. sometimes the innocent are convicted and the guilty get away." Yawn, welcome to America.

Yes, I plan to watch it anyway. But it does seem like TNT looked at the kind of shows they were buying in syndication and decided to make their own.

Though maybe it it has Saving Grace's level of raw language and nudity it can get some of that old NYPD Blue "R-rated television" buzz going.

If seeing a naked fifty year old woman cares your horse, maybe you shouldn't be watching TV with your horse in the first place.

And actually, in that nude bareback riding scene from the season finale, the horse didn't look all that scared.

Best line on TV of the entire post-strike season: "Shit, Rhetta, you've been touched by an angel."

But cop, legal and medical dramas? I like Bones, House, Boston Legal. I like Numb3rs and Grey's Anatomy. I like Criminal Minds. I'm not enthused about but can, if bored, watch CSI: NY and Private Practice. I enjoyed Shark and The Practice and, yes, Ally McBeal. During the period after I got out of the hospital ans was taking vicodin I even watched the whole runs of Diagnosis Murder and Matlock.

These popular genres are the basic building block elements that television if made of. I don't have a problem with that. The question isn't whether the genres are cliched but whether the writers can twist any new juice from the familiar husks.

I'm 55.5 years old. I could have stopped watching private eye shows with The Outsider and lawyer shows with Judd For The Defense and spy shows with... well name any '60s espionage show, though I think The Prisoner was the capper.

there are books I'll never read and classic albums I'll never hear, but I continue to watch television because it's a lifelong habit and it's easy and convenient.

And the following mantra should be posted as a caveat at the top of every AICH talk-back: if you don't like it, don't watch it.

That said, "Raising the Bar" sucked ass.

And yes, one data point is enough to draw a conclusion.

And did I mention the director sucked?-----later-----m