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Raising the Bar (TNT)

post #1 of 9
9/18/08 at 10:18am
Thread Starter 
Already renewed for a second season.

It's not bad, only three episodes so far. The storyline follows a set of public defenders and low-level city prosecutors who go after mostly minor crimes. It's about the back and forth between the attorneys that should be interesting.

The acting on some parts is very good, though I'm much more drawn to the way the prosecutors are played then the defense attorney characters.

The defense attorneys should have the easier case, so to speak, of winning over the audience. But every case is presented as a rail-road job. This show would be a lot better the moment the public defender has to defend someone they know is guilty and they don't want to defend. The moment that happens, this show goes up several notches.

It would make it a lot easier to follow the attempts to help those who are getting screwed. Right now, it's just a bit too sugary.

That having been said, all of the roles on the prosecutorial side are really well acted and you feel for them as they present troubled cases. The most recent episode (#3) easily the strongest.
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Raising the Bar: The Complete First Season
Hawthorne: Season One
post #2 of 9
9/18/08 at 10:48am

Re: Raising the Bar (TNT)

I've just written about how I usually don't judge a show by its pilot, but sometimes I make an exception. That's because I'm very familiar with Bocchco's work and the way he writes characters and I saw enough in the pilot to know I don't like and never will like the series lead. He is shrill, "idealistic" to the point of stupidity, and smugly self-righteous to boot. I don't blame the judge for slapping him in a cell for contempt. I would have written him up for felony dumbass. Oh, and no lawyer who actually wants to help his clients in a courtroom is going to dress and wear his hair like a surly 14-year-old, which many jurors find off-putting.

Stephen B. covered a lot of the same basic ground with Philly, which had a much more engaging main character and an even better cast. (And it didn't last long.) If anything the time since has made him a worse writer of this kind of show.

Do I really want to spend 13 weeks watching the adventures of the world's dumbest and most irritating lawyer? Not really. I've already canceled my DVR recording.

Regards,

Joe
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post #3 of 9
8/10/09 at 10:17pm
Thread Starter 
I've just realized this far into season 2 what I really dislike about this show. It's not that the main character is a whiny d---he, it's that every single case we see the defendant is innocent and/or being railroaded by the system. 

Look, I think the show could use some of that, and it's a nice counterpoint to many other legal shows.  But it loses realism when the public defenders never find themselves defending a real scumbag who they hate defending, but have to because it's their job.

 

The fact that nothing like that happens here .. even once in a while, hurts.

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post #4 of 9
8/10/09 at 10:38pm
Its Bochco, when it happens it will hit you over the head like a Tex Avery anvil.
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post #5 of 9
8/11/09 at 11:56am
 I don't get where you get that sense.  The last episode had two cases.  In one, someone being railroaded, but they never reveal whether she was innocent or not.  In the other, the guy was unambiguously guilty, but the point of the plot was his attorney failed to read his client's stubborn refusal to admit guilt as shame over letting his attorney down [having represented him in the past when he pledged to get clean], which led him to refuse a good deal until the window for it had closed.

I think this show is doing a remarkable job of showing the rot AND the good in the system and treading a unique path by focusing on the little gray procedural or interpersonal aspects of practicing criminal law with a circle of people you have to maintain a relationship, both as adversaries and colleagues.

There was a recent episode where a destitute guy had scofflawed a fine because he 'allegedly' didn't have funds ever to pay it.  While the show did portray his situation compassionately, it didn't portray the prosecutors or the judge as unfair, just unmoved.

Gosselar's character is an idealist and I can see how that could grate some, but it's realistic of a PD.  The rest of the characters come off generally shrewd and capable.
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post #6 of 9
8/11/09 at 7:56pm
Thread Starter 
Really?  I took it almost entirely like "boy, isn't this person getting screwed" and a second case of "boy, isn't this person getting screwed, he committed a crime, but 5 years.. outrageous!"

Meanwhile in previous weeks, we've had repeated cases of the DA's office being portrayed as out for blood and where sycophants etc. rise, and meanwhile gold hearted public defenders who wander off and wallow in their sorrows for being outmatched and always feeling heartbroken for their clients.

I understand a lot of cases are like that.  But I wouldn't mind mixing it up with a few "we are representing an absolute scumbag" in there.  
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post #7 of 9
8/24/09 at 8:31pm
Thread Starter 
I don't think I've ever completely hated a protagonist the way I did on TNT tonight.. the argument being put forward here on both sides of the issue was both incendiary and ridiculous.  But the acting of the one kid (can't think of his name, but let's just say "Zack") is so damn bad that it makes his arguments and reasoning that much more whiny and ridiculous.
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post #8 of 9
8/24/09 at 9:02pm
I never thought I'd hear the words "bullshit" on TNT
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post #9 of 9
8/28/09 at 8:36pm
Missed a couple early episodes of HawthoRNe (also on TNT) but am finally watching those. They also used "bullshit" in the first episode, although I haven't heard it since.

It's actually kind of refreshing to hear people talk the way most of us really do.
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

Raising the Bar: The Complete First Season
Hawthorne: Season One
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