Philly is Terrible! (1 Viewer)

[Dave Scarpa]

Nypd Blue lost it's time slot For this? I don't care how Tired it might be it's better than this. Starts off with pure exploitation a little Breast Wagging. Then A judge brings a dog in the courtroom? Yeah Right. All the characters are unlikeable jerks. The Script is a Joke. And while Kim Delaney's Horrible Acting can be overlooked in an Ensemble it's Glaring on a show whe's expected to Carry. And what the Heck was Homicide's Kyle Secor thinking?
Bring Back Blue !

 

[TonyD]

well i wouldn't say it was crap but i was dissapointed some.
but the strangest thing to me was the music. i grew up in and still live near philly and as there are irish people here i think the irish sounding theme music was way off and sounded odd to me.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Very disappointing, given the talent involved. Also highly derivative. The opening scene with a lawyer flipping out was straight out of Bocho's earlier series Civil Wars. And Delaney's being jailed for contempt was straight out of Norman Jewison's And Justice for All, from which a lot of the courtroom atmosphere and attitudes were also borrowed.
I may give it one more episode, but I'm really waiting for the new season of 100 Centre Street, which is the only decent lawyer show currently on the air.
M.

 

[Michael Reuben]

WARNING. SPOILERS BELOW.
Well, I said I'd give it one more shot, and I did. But now it's coming off my list. I like Kim Delaney, but the plotting is simply too artificial and, in many respects, preposterous. I can accept that a judge might be so eccentric as to insist on bringing her dog into the courtroom, but when the mutt busts loose and attacks a lawyer, triggering a heart attack, and then pees on the lawyer while he's writhing on the courtroom floor, I have to wonder what response the writers are trying to provoke. Laughter? Irony? Joy at seeing a lawyer victimized? Disgust that the halls of justice have fallen so low? Or just cheap shock value?
When Al Pacino and Norman Jewison made And Justice for All, it was contrived as hell but at least it added up to a coherent indictment of the criminal justice system. You could disagree with it, but it made sense. Philly makes jabs in the same direction, but then can't resist trying to redeem itself with one case where Delaney gets an innocent guy off the hook -- not through solid legal work but by blackmailing the D.A., who also happens to be her ex-husband. Then the guy breaks down crying and she looks deeply gratified while the music swells in a sentimental rush.
Bochco seems to have run out of real plots. Now it's all gimmicks. I predict Philly won't last the season.
M.
[Edited last by Michael Reuben on October 03, 2001 at 10:01 AM]