Some Early Entries In the Legal Series Summer/Fall Sweepstakes: Northern Lawyers, Southern Poets, and New York Murders

As expected, a new crop of law-related shows is on tap for summer and fall. Some early entries:

NBC has green-lit the legal comedy Trial and Error.   In this "fish out of water" comedy, Nick D'Agosto (Josh Segal) is a Yankee lawyer who goes South to defend a professor of poetry (!) played by John Lithgow, accused of killing his wife. (What? There are no high profile enough criminal lawyers in the South? No, I get it--we're looking for opposites here to spark the comedy).  This will be the attorney's "first big case." Hmmm. Again I ask, no lawyers in the South available to take this case?  Never mind; I'll watch. Mr. Lithgow is always great, and I'm up for anything depicting suspected homicidal poets. (Incidentally, this is why I think he's probably not guilty. All the male poets I know are brilliant, charming, quirky, and often highly annoying. But homicidal? It's counterproductive).

HBO will begin airing The Night Of, a miniseries based on the British series Criminal Justice, that begins after a New York woman's murder on July 10th. 

Meanwhile, Fox's The Grinder (starring Rob Lowe as an actor who made his mark playing a lawyer on TV and Fred Savage playing his brother, an actual lawyer in Boise, Idaho) might be cancelled--it's on the bubble. Too bad, as it's a funny show--a satire on Hollywood, lawyers, family life, just about anything it turns its eye on. Catch it while you can and catch up on already aired episodes online.

Update: Fox has cancelled The Grinder.