CBS has been the number one network
for more than fifteen years, but over the past few years, the series that have
been powering have been more formulaic, and have less room for originality and
plot development. When both The Good Wife
and Person of Interest reached
the end of their runs last seasons, it seemed that there was very little real
in the way of procedurals. Which is why it comes as something of a relief - albeit
a measured one - to see a series like Doubt
on CBS, a series, that while at
times formulaic, demonstrated why the formulas work so well.
The series lead character Sadie -
played by Katherine Heigl - is an attorney for a small Manhattan
law firm. One of those focused lawyers on the job, she has a more interesting
back-story than some characters we've gotten. The head of the firm (Elliot
Gould, finally getting a role on television worthy of his talents) was a
defense attorney on the case of her mother, a political radical (Judith Light,
continuing her late career renaissance) when she was 2. Her mother has been in
prison ever since, and Gould's character has raised her ever since. As a
professional, she seems solid, and when she handles individual cases, like last
week when she had to handle the case of a judge being charged of abusing his
wife, the story clicks.
However, Doubt is also trying to handle a long term story for its season,
where Sadie is defending a doctor (Steven Pasquale) from a prominent political
family accused of committing a murder nearly a quarter of a century
earlier. As the case begins to get
tighter around him, the doctor seems more interested in proving to Sadie that
he is innocent than he is about the public, which caused him to voluntarily
submit his DNA earlier. This seems like a
weak idea to begin with, but its amplified by the fact that she seems to have
romantic feelings for her client. This is a very dated idea for a TV plotline,
and feels way too reminiscent of a similar storyline that played out with
Heigl's character on Grey's Anatomy. What
may save this from being a bad idea is the fact that her second chair (Dule
Hill, finally getting a role he can sink his teeth into on TV), knows this is bullshit and calls their client
and Sadie on it. Its a still a plot I'm not a hundred percent comfortable with,
but it does seem to have more direction than that storyline.
Doubt
has all the earmarks of what used to have the material for a good TV series
back in the day. It has well written legal plots, interesting characters, and a
dynamite cast. (I haven't even mentioned Laverne Cox's work as a trans
attorney, simply because the story manages it far more naturally than a lot of
other series would) Normally, it would have the material to make a fairly
successful series. But given CBS' track record of late, and their lack of
patience with any series that doesn't immediate poll with 15 million viewers,
it may not be an easy sell. I hope not, because broadcast TV needs more series
like this, and less Criminal Minds spinoffs.
My score: 4 stars.
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