Showing posts with label Female Lawyers on Television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Female Lawyers on Television. Show all posts

February 14, 2019

NBC Working On New Legal Drama "Bluff City Law"

From Variety:

NBC is casting a pilot for a new legal drama, Bluff City Law.  The show centers on a civil rights lawyer and his daughter (played by Caitlin McGee), who leaves a corporate law firm to help him with his cases. We should expect the usual family drama as well. More here.

Deadline Hollywood has a short article; link here.

April 20, 2018

A New Legal Drama, "The Split," Premieres on BBC One

Writer Abi Morgan discusses the new legal drama The Split (BBC One). The show focuses on female solicitors Ruth, Hannah, and Nina, DeFoe, who handle high profile divorce cases and volatile personal relationships. It stars Nicola Walker (Hannah), Deborah Findlay (Ruth), Annabel Scholey (Nina), Stephen Mangan (Nathan, Hannah's husband), and Barry Atsma (Christie, Hannah's ex).

The Split is the latest in a new series of shows that feature powerful female characters (think Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, Damages, Madam Secretary, Silk).

August 17, 2017

"Suits" Spinoff Will Star Gina Torres In a Series Set In Chicago @Suits_USA

From The Hollywood Reporter: USA Network is planning a Suits spinoff to star Gina Torres, who plays Jessica Pearson in the current series. The pilot for the possible series will air as Suita' season 7 finale and debut in spring of 2018. The Pearson character will move to Chicago and start a new life in politics, which will propel the stories in this new series. More here from International Business Times.

February 24, 2017

@CBS Cancels Legal Drama Doubt After Two Episodes

CBS has cancelled one freshman legal drama, Doubt, after airing only two episodes, citing poor ratings. I liked this show at least as well as some of the law-related shows that have been on air lately, and I actually think it could have developed to be almost as interesting as The Good Fight. Doubt has at least one fresh new character, Cameron Wirth (played by Laverne Cox), and gives Dule Hill, whom we haven't seen since Psych, a chance to stretch a little bit, playing an experienced criminal defense attorney and law partner to Sadie Ellis (Katherine Heigl). Sadie herself is more complex than leading characters in these shows often are; she puts up a noncommittal and brave front, but has secrets, mostly centering on her mother, who is in prison for murder. Cameron's interactions with 1st year associate Tiffany Walker (Dreama Simon) are fun, and allow the show to investigate some of the stereotypes associated with lawyers and with New Yorkers. Indeed, the show's first two episodes seem to concentrate on pointing out stereotyping and bias, from Cameron's acceptance that some people don't want to deal with her because she's trans and her own stereotyping of Tiffany as a "girl from Iowa," to general assumptions that viewers have about lawyers.

I understand that there are an additional eleven unaired episodes of the show. I hope we get to see them, so that some of the story arcs get wrapped up. And I continue to wonder why the show Bull, which is going to fill in Doubt's time slot, is still on the air. But more about that another time.

February 17, 2017

The Good Fight Premieres on CBS and Then Moves To All-Access @thegoodfight

Generally, early reviews of The Good Fight (CBS) are indicating that it's superior TV. After the premiere (Sunday, 8 p.m., 7 Central time), the network will make it available only on its streaming platform (All-Access), which costs $5.99 a month, or $9.99 for the commercial-free version. I have loved the prior work of the leads (Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, Rose Leslie), but paying another $10 per month for a premium subscription (I hate commercials) when I already pay for four streaming services (yes, HBO, Acorn, Hulu, Netflix), plus a donation to my local PBS station for access to additional material,  as well as over a hundred dollars a month for cable--well, that sends my bank account into palpitations. I plan to check out the initial offering, and then see if it's worth $120 a year for how many episodes? Hmmm, what else is available on All-Access? The Good Fight might be for my pocketbook.

Some reviews of The Good Fight here:

EW

The New York Times

USA Today

December 18, 2016

More About "The Good Fight", CBS's New Legal Drama @thegoodfight

Some info about The Good Wife spinoff, The Good Fight, from Entertainment Weekly.  It will feature Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski)'s personal and professional relationships as she restarts her career at the law firm of Lucca, Quinn. We'll also get to meet Ms. Lockhart's goddaughter Maia (Rose Leslie), a newly minted attorney, who's in a relationship with another lawyer played by Helene York. The show premieres on CBS's All-Access streaming service February 19th.

December 8, 2016

"The Good Fight," New CBS Legal Drama, Premieres February 19th on CBS All-Access

The Good Fight, the spinoff of CBS's long-running legal and relationship drama The Good Wife, will premiere February 19th on CBS's All-Access service. The show stars Christine Baranski, who reprises her role as Diane Lockhart, and episodes will follow Ms. Lockhart's fortunes after she departs Lockhart, Lee for a new firm. Other actors signing on include Cush Jumbo, Sarah Steele, and Bernadette Peters.

More here from Variety. 

October 20, 2016

September 28, 2016

An Early Review of the New Legal Drama "Conviction"

Tim Goodman reviews the new ABC legal drama Conviction for The Hollywood Reporter. For him  this law procedural is derivative and repetitive. So, he finds it a trial. It lacks appeal. He judges it deficient. In brief, he dislikes it. Oh, dear.

Conviction premieres October 3 at 10 a.m., 9 Central time.

August 30, 2016

NBC Commissions Pilot Based On Marcia Clark's Novel "Blood Defense"

NBC has commissioned a pilot (and very likely a series) based on former L.A. prosecutor Marcia Clark's novel Blood Defense (Thomas and Mercer, 2016). Ms. Clark, Elizabeth Craft, and Sara Fain will co-write. The protagonist is criminal defense attorney Samantha Brinkman.  More here from The Hollywood Reporter.



 Blood Defense

May 15, 2016

"The Night Stalker" To Air On LMN June 12

On June 12 Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) will air made-for-tv movie The Night Stalker about an attorney seeking a confession from Richard Ramirez (the convicted serial killer known as "the Night Stalker"), whom she suspects to be the actual killer of a number of people, murders for which her client is going to be executed. Bellamy Young plays the attorney, Lou Diamond Phillips is Richard Ramirez, and others in the cast include Louis Herthum, Mark Kelly, and Annalisa Cochrane.

Another TV movie about Ramirez, Manhunt, starring A Martinez as a detective on the case, aired in 1989, and a film, Nightstalker, was released in 2002.

More here about the 2016 film from the Lifetime Movie Network website, IMDB, and moviepilot.com.

May 13, 2016

Yes, Even More New Legal Shows For Fall 2016

ABC has ordered up the new drama Notorious, based on the the career of high profile attorney Mark Geragos, for the fall season. It has also scheduled the new legal drama Conviction, staring Hayley Atwell, about a former First Daughter in charge of investigating cases in which persons have been wrongly convicted.

Note that "Conviction" is a popular title for law-related tv series and films. A 2005 movie with that name starred Lisa Gay Hamilton and Jenni Baird,  Conviction (2010) starred Hilary Swank in the docudrama about a woman who went to law school to exonerate her brother who was jailed for murder, and a 2006 Dick Wolf series with the name lasted one season; it was vaguely related to the Law & Order franchise.

May 10, 2016

How "The Good Wife" Is Like the Real-Life Practice of Criminal Law. Not.

Anne-Marie McElroy (McElroy Law) discusses how The Good Wife and real life criminal law practice part ways here at her wonderful blog, which won a 2015 Clawbie Award.   Yup, critique a little like a poke in the ribs. But not like a malevolent hockey stick to the head. After all, she's Canadian.

March 28, 2016

Pop Culture Political Marriages

Caryn James discusses television political spouses for The Hollywood Reporter here.
Of particular interest--those political wives who are also lawyers, like The Good Wife's Alicia Florrick.

March 24, 2016

Pop Culture Women Lawyers Everywhere!

New law-related shows on offer:

From the WE: Sisters-In-Law. This reality series premieres tonight (March 24) on the WE at 10 p.m., 9 Central time. It features African-American female attorneys based in Houston. Here's coverage from The Electronic Urban Report (EUR).

WE is also offering up Ladies of Law, a reality series about African American female attorneys who practice entertainment law in NY. More here from Deadline: Hollywood. 

Meanwhile, Viola Davis ("How To Get Away With Murder") is involved in a new project, a series based on the career of the dynamic Kym Worthy, chief prosecutor in Michigan's Wayne County. The series, "Conviction," would air on TNT. More here from Deadline: Hollywood. 

Meanwhile, Hayley Atwell ("Captain America") is joining the cast of ABC's tv series centering a female attorney, which is also called "Conviction."

Lots of potential new members of the Popular Culture Lawyers Bar Association!

November 9, 2015

Jada Pinkett Smith Signs On For ABC Legal Drama, Playing a Prosecutor

Jada Pinkett Smith will star in Murder Town, a new drama for ABC that A&E Studios will produce. Pinkett Smith will play Wilmington, Delaware's first African-American district attorney, who faces lots of personal and professional problems in her new position. Barry Schindel is the showrunner. More here from the Hollywood Reporter, here from Deadline.