Pilot Review: Doubt

Doubt (CBS)
Premiered February 16 at 10pm

I wasn’t sure what to make of this show since I presumed ahead of time that it was just going to be a normal procedural, and then I read a summary about how it had more to do with the protagonist of this show falling in love with the man who may or may not have killed his girlfriend twenty-four years earlier. It turns out it’s both, though as always my first question has to be whether it really constitutes something that can go on for a whole season or even more than that. This feels like a pretty standard legal show with one particularly high-profile case mixed in that’s going to draw most of its attention. This series has managed to attract a lot of strong acting talent. I’m not Katherine Heigl’s biggest fan, often finding her appealing but not nearly as much as the diehard “Grey’s Anatomy” fans and Emmy voters who gave her a trophy for her performance. I liked Steven Pasquale best in his stint as a dim-witted firefighter on “Rescue Me,” and this part feels more like his less enticing gigs on “The Good Wife” and “Do No Harm.” There are three other members of the cast with great TV backgrounds who stand out much more: Dulé Hill from “The West Wing” and “Psych,” Dreama Walker from “Apartment 23,” and Laverne Cox from “Orange is the New Black,” all playing lawyers with some decent personality. And then there’s Elliott Gould, who has a great role and even a deeply personal connection to Heigl’s Sadie, namely having fallen in love with her revolutionary mother, who just happens to be in prison for the murder she committed years earlier. There’s more intrigue here than there is on similarly-themed shows, but I still don’t think it’s enough to distinguish it from many other series of the same sort.

How will it work as a series? The question is what the time split is going to be between Billy’s case and everything else that’s going on, and how many lawyers are going to play a part since Sadie has now recused herself to take a separate interest in the case’s central figure. This episode’s subway pusher was a decent subplot, and so I think this show could replicate it well in the future.
How long will it last? The ratings for this pilot weren’t great, and neither were the reviews. The former is a much bigger problem given CBS’ high demands on its programs to perform. I wouldn’t give up on this one just yet, but I think it’s going to need to improve its viewership soon if it wants to live a long life.

Pilot grade: B-

What I’m Watching: Wilfred

Wilfred: Season 1, Episode 11 “Doubt” (B)

I’m still enjoying this show, but I do have to admit that this episode wasn’t really terribly productive. The main reason that Ryan’s interactions with Wilfred are so funny is that he’s the only one who can see and hear Wilfred. Last week, it was revealed that Ryan’s mother talks to her dog in exactly the same way, but this is different. For one thing, Bruce isn’t an altogether interesting character, and he’s plenty peculiar, which isn’t exactly necessary on a show already filled with weird characters. Wilfred does a good enough job on his own messing with Ryan’s head, and having another person there to play mind games with Ryan seems excessive. The gun-with-blanks scene was considerably over-the-top, and things definitely fell apart in the already stretched-thin logic department at that point. Bruce did raise a few good points about the ways in which Wilfred manipulates Ryan, like his intrusion on his dating life and his poking a hole in his condom. I was pleased to see Katy Mixon from “Eastbound & Down” as Angelique, Wilfred’s choice to be Ryan’s date, even if, like many of the other guest stars on this show, she didn’t have a terribly large or distracting part. I would also have loved to see more of Kristen at yoga since she was always one of the zanier personalities on this show. I’m a sucker for Wilfred preying on gullible Ryan, and therefore his repeated stories about how he met Bruce via different Matt Damon roles was rather hilarious.

What I’m Watching: The Good Wife

The Good Wife: Season 1, Episode 18 “Doubt” (B+)

This was a nice fresh angle for the show, starting out in the jury room with all of the jurors discussing the merits of the case before the evidence was presented onscreen. It provides hope that this show can remain vibrant and original as it progresses, keeping the lawyer drama alive with new takes on potentially familiar case prototypes. The case presented here was cool also since it hinged on Kalinda’s investigative reporting and the minor details of a photograph that turned out to have been taking by a video camera. David Paymer’s recurring role as Judge Cuesta was extremely entertaining in this episode and resulted in me cracking a few smiles. The events in the jury room were far more dramatic and thought-provoking, which makes for a nice balance of tones on this show. Kalinda and Diane picking up on the sexual tension between Alicia and Will is a good thing since their romance has to come out sooner or later. A different romance seems to have become public first, however, and that would be the extraordinarily peculiar and amusing connection between Diane and Gary Cole’s innocence-only ballistics expert Kurt McVeigh. Their conversations about their opposing views on Democrats and Republicans were quite fun, and while its public revelation has probably stuck a pin in their relationship, it would be nice to see it play out some more. I have a feeling that it’s all about Alicia and Will from here, especially since Peter’s case takes a backseat for thee first time in a while as neither he nor his legal both don’t appear at all in the episode.