Justice

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

I suppose there is something to be said for a TV program that is pretty much exactly as advertised. This is Jerry Bruckheimer's take on a legal drama, and, as expected, it makes heavy use of the CGI-intensive camerawork and effects that he's had a lot of luck with on CSI. Like CSI, the show makes use of the same gruff infallible middle aged guy/young idealist pretty boy/no-nonsense younger woman/black guy character sketches (though they dropped the intelligent middle-aged woman - I suppose she didn't test well).

The question becomes whether this is enough to differentiate this show from any of the other legal dramas out there. I should probably point out at this point that I don't really have any particular interest in the legal drama as an ouvre. I'm pretty sure I've never watched more than a couple episodes of any legal drama (at least not on purpose), so it's safe to say I'm a pretty tough audience for a new legal drama. Justice doesn't come close to overcoming my resistance to the genre, given that, aside from applying to CSI formula to the legal drama, it adds two new elements: the emphasis on media-intensive trials and the epilogue (in which the actual events are revealed).

The first is tedious. Like everyone else I know, I have no interest in media circus trials, so the behind the scenes machinations involed hold no interest for me whatsoever. The second aspect is possibly an interesting twist, but, really, there are only a limited number of permutations that could occur (guilty verdict/innocent client, innocent verdict/innocent client, guilty verdict/guilty client, innocent verdict/guilty client), so it seems like it'll get old quickly.

Rating: C-

Reviewed by Padgett Arango
Contents
The Hills Have Eyes 2

Hostel Part II

Six Degrees

Shark

Jericho

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Justice

The Hills Have Eyes

Love Monkey

Out of Practice

Head Cases

Crunchwrap Supreme

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Batman Begins

Garden State

Hero

13 Going On 30

LAX

Starman

quirkyalone.net

Kill Bill, Vol. 2

Line of Fire

We Shall All Be Healed

Happy Family

Arrested Development

Love Actually

A Minute with Stan Hooper

Tarzan

Karen Sisco

Stop All the World Now

Cold Case

Skin

10-8

Joan of Arcadia

Eve

Luis

Lost In Translation

House of 1000 Corpses

Bubba Ho-Tep

Darkness Falls

Pirates of the Caribbean

The Amazing Race

Treasure Island

FearDotCom

Adaptation

To Hit Armor Class Zero

Without A Trace

8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter

Life With Bonnie

JalapeƱo Cheeseburger

The Mothman Prophecies

Happy Campers

The Man Who Wasn't There

Kiss of the Dragon

Josie & the Pussycats

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Dr. Pepper

Know By Heart

Waking Life

L.I.E.

Thirteen Ghosts

Earthlink presents Chang and Eng

New York and Country Bar

Change

Motivation and Water Tower Grammar

Crossing Philly

Makeout Club

Undeclared

The Gap

The Abolition of Work

3000 Miles to Graceland

Kolobos

Duets

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Diesel Sweeties

The Cold Six Thousand

The Grilled Stuft Burrito (Rebuttal)

60 Second Wipeout

The Patriot

Grilled Stuft Burrito

Cowgirls

Crystalline

Frankenfinger E.P.

One Force Down

Shake

Both Our Secrets

Happy Birthday Captain Columbus!

Fight Club

Whatever It Takes

Committed

That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice?

Joe Dirt

The Veggie Whopper

Taco Bell Nachos

Palmetto

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero

The Terror of Mechagodzilla

To The Center

Infiniti+Infiniti

American Psycho

The Del Shredder

What Lies Beneath

The Cheesy Gordita Crunch

Bring It On

Chill Factor

Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars

Bad Company

The Blair Witch Project

Hyacinths and Thistles

Lake of Dracula

We'll Have a Time

Home Depot

Snow Day

The Virgin Suicides