S01.E03: Sweet Bird of Truth

[WendyCR72]

To air on October 7, 2019:

Lola immerses herself in the world of online gaming when she presides over her first trial concerning cybercrimes, after two friends go head-to-head over a deleted avatar and all the assets associated with it. Also, Mark discovers life without Lola in the DA’s office is going to be lonelier than he thought, and Luke is set to be honored at the annual Valor Awards for his heroism.

[TigerLynx]

This was bad.  These are the kind of dumb antics I expect from desperate attorneys, not judges, and definitely not in a criminal proceeding.  I'm glad Marg called Carmichael out on her behavior, but it wasn't enough.

Guy attorney should have just stuck to the facts, and not wasted time lecturing.  The video showed the idiot man trying to hit the woman with his car.  To prove assault, all he had to establish was action on the part of the man that put the women in fear for her life or bodily harm.  He had that with the video.

[Irlandesa]

There are so many aspects of this series I root for but, after three episodes, it worries me that this show is not getting better.

There's a reason why there are so few fictional TV shows centering on a judge.  It's a tough formula to make work.  On most legal shows, the judge is a recurring role and the lawyers go up against different judges depending on the case.  In order to be involved in the story, we learn about the victims/defendants through those attorneys. 

A judge doesn't, or shouldn't, interact with the victim/defendant outside of court so that leads us to the silly situation where Lola is constantly overseeing the cases of one of our other regulars so we have some connection to the cases she's hearing. 

Meanwhile, her friend usually have his own cases because clearly they're saving up so his appearance in her court is big.  His cases so far have actually worked better for me because, while the law part might be weak, at least he's acting like a prosecutor.  And the defense attorneys act like defense attorneys.  And judges act like judges without trying to "solve" the case the way Lola does in her courtroom.

But it creates a situation where the personal relationships feel a bit murky.  Everyone is simultaneously in silos yet also contorted to be fit into the A and B (and sometimes C) story structure because we can't have a D and an E....etc.

I can only think of two other fictional shows that focus on a judge.  The main cast related to Amy's job on Judging Amy were largely people who worked for her. They weren't attorneys who might go in front of her.  And the rest of the cast played characters related to her family or her mother's job.  Night Court might be the only show that successfully pulled off being focused on a judge, in his court, with a prosecutor and defense attorney as regulars.  And that was because of the kind of court Harry oversaw where the crimes and punishments were pretty low stakes. (100 Centre St. also worked along these lines, although I don't recall the judges palling around with the lawyers.)

If the show lasts (and it probably won't), I think they're going to need to rethink the alchemy of this show.  Maybe they need to make her friend a judge too.  Have the ex-cop/new lawyer work for her as some kind of law clerk.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Irlandesa

[rove4]

I want this show to be better but the whole bit about allowing the one girl to testify as her avatar persona was just silly.  What jury in their right minds would take her seriously? Her lawyer was right in that it only served to prejudice the jury against her.  

So we met Lola's husband and Mark's girlfriend both of whom were bland. 

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, rove4 said:

So we met Lola's husband and Mark's girlfriend both of whom were bland.

We, at least established that Lola wasn't the gay judge (there was speculation based on "Robin" being a gender-neutral name)---it seems to be Marg H (while one could argue the woman she was holding hands with was her mother, it didn't seem like a "mother-daughter" hand hold, more like "girlfriend" handhold).

[Waterston Fan]

I admit, I did fast forward through most of it... Just didn't' keep my attention. I will give it a few more episodes but I admit, I'm just not liking this show. 

[vibeology]

1 hour ago, rove4 said:

I want this show to be better but the whole bit about allowing the one girl to testify as her avatar persona was just silly.  What jury in their right minds would take her seriously? Her lawyer was right in that it only served to prejudice the jury against her.  

And the Bird woman was obviously able to explain to the police what happened and what she lost financially so it's utterly ridiculous that in court she was suddenly unable to. Socially awkward isn't the same as stupid and there's no reason to think she didn't understand the importance of her testimony. I could buy her not being a great witness, but everything about that was ridiculous.

[bybrandy]

I genuinely like the relationship between Lola and Wade (argh that was his name in Heart of Dixie... what is his name in this show? Mark thanks IMDb.)  and I like the bailiff (Luke again with the IMDb) and.... um...yeah.  And I'm the choir when it comes to what this show is preaching.  This was the worst of the series so far and I don't see a formula to fix it.   Is Rocket Romero (Paul McCrane from episode 1) the judge Mark faced again?  If they are going to have recurring judges Lola should interact more with them.   

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, bybrandy said:

Is Rocket Romero (Paul McCrane from episode 1)

Just because I'm that annoying person (I admit it!), it was actually Dr. Robert "Rocket" Romano!  🙂

[bybrandy]

8 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Just because I'm that annoying person (I admit it!), it was actually Dr. Robert "Rocket" Romano!  🙂

The worst part is I totally looked it up and then got distracted and forgot to change the spelling.  

Thank you!

[tennisgurl]

The friendship between Lola and Mark is the highlight of the show for me, they have such a sweet real feeling friendship, they really feel like best friends who have known each other for years and really get each other.

The guy who played the racist truck jerk was really turning on the smug, like holy crap! The guy didnt have a single line in the courtroom, but he just oozed smug piece of shit.

Edited October 9, 2019 by tennisgurl

[txhorns79]

I like the actress who plays Lola, and want her to succeed, but this episode was terrible.  The bird lady was absurd.  The idea that even an inexperienced Judge would have let her testify after seeing the get up and bizarre behavior was ridiculous. 

It deeply concerns me that this is only episode 3 and this is the best they are doing. 

[NYCFree]

I imbded (new verb!) the defendant actress because she looked familiar to me at the start of the episode. She is an identical twin and both she and her sister had a story line on The Good Doctor. I thought they were going to somehow use the two of them (real person vs. avatar) in a special way. I was wrong and it was just a weird coincidence that the person had two identities and was played an identical twin.

[mojito]

I noted the ambiguity of the name "Robin" but really gave little thought to the reveal of the character. It's 2019. It's hard for me to get sucked into speculating  Robin's gender (the actor will always be Dershowitz to me).

I think it's kind of annoying that TV and movies (and the teenage girls who obviously write these scripts) have people speculating on two characters "getting together" because they are attractive and like each other and couldn't possibly have social lives outside of work that don't involve each other. 

The absurdities of this show remind me a lot of Boston Legal, which I appreciate. I've missed the bizarre levity and contrivances of the courtroom. I also like the professional diversity of the show's supporting characters.

[piccadilly83]

I really like all of the relationships on this show so far. Judge Carmichael seems to be into her husband and he's quite the cutie; Mark Callan's girlfriend is pretty cool and not unnecessarily jealous of her boyfriend's relationship with the judge; the PD and bailiff have a whole young love thing going on; and really, everyone seems to like each other and get along. The only one missing a partner is the court reporter and I hope she ends up finding someone soon. It looks like she has a unrequited crush on Mark, but I hope that changes and she is able to find someone else.

On 10/7/2019 at 8:50 PM, TigerLynx said:

Guy attorney should have just stuck to the facts, and not wasted time lecturing.  The video showed the idiot man trying to hit the woman with his car.  To prove assault, all he had to establish was action on the part of the man that put the women in fear for her life or bodily harm.  He had that with the video.

I didn't mind the speech. I thought he made good points. What I didn't understand is how no one noticed the driver was stopped before he started accelerating to hit the woman in the first place. Wasn't that obvious? I mean the car jerks forward.  That's not the way a car already in motion moves forward. Maybe I missed something.

On 10/8/2019 at 8:55 AM, rove4 said:

I want this show to be better but the whole bit about allowing the one girl to testify as her avatar persona was just silly.  What jury in their right minds would take her seriously? Her lawyer was right in that it only served to prejudice the jury against her.  

You're right that it didn't seem realistic that a judge would push for a witness to testify as her avatar. It only served to weaken the prosecution's case, whereas the judge kept suggesting that it would strengthen it. I did love that girl's acting though. It was so weird, and yet absorbing. I totally believed her as someone whose avatar was as real if not more real to her than her flesh and blood life.

On 10/8/2019 at 9:02 PM, bybrandy said:

I genuinely like the relationship between Lola and Wade (argh that was his name in Heart of Dixie... what is his name in this show?

I originally wrote Wade Kinsella like three times in my first paragraph. I'm terrible with character names. It usually takes two or three years of me watching a show before I can remember the names.

[TigerLynx]

There are ways to have the show be about the judge without heading into ridiculous territory.  In the first episode when Carmichael asked the defendant if she wanted to plead guilty, if she had agreed to the deal, that was something a judge would do.  A judge does not have to accept a plea agreement, and the defendant will have to allocute.

What annoys me about having the witness testify as her avatar and all the other antics, is this was a serious case that got lost in the craziness of the judge's bad decision.  Hacking into and destroying someone else's intellectual property is a major crime.

[Lady Calypso]

So, I just got around to watching this episode. I really want to like it, but this is the issue I knew I'd find with the main character being a judge. Because Lola's the lead, there's no way of her NOT getting involved in each and every case. I don't know exactly to what extent the role that a judge does in each case, but I highly doubt it's anything to the extent that Lola is doing. She's too emotionally invested in each case so far, and it's taking me out of the show.

Fortunately for this show, the Lola/Mark friendship is what is keeping me around. I love their friendship so much and the actors are really selling me on their years-long relationship without making it seem romantic in any way. I love that Mark's girlfriend immediately bonded with Lola and there didn't seem to be a hint of jealousy. Same with Lola's husband and Mark, who obviously have a longer history so it's easier to see that her husband isn't jealous of Mark. 

Lola's court case with the hacker was dumb. Bird Lady needed to suck it up because she was testifying as the victim. Having her represent herself as her avatar could have really screwed up her case, but Lola seemed to steamroll the jury anyway so....

I felt bad for Luke. I liked his scene with Lola a lot, though. 

Seriously, Lola needs to stop getting so wrapped up in getting her own ideal ending for each case that she's a part of. Because all she's doing is showing how biased she is, and I would assume that makes for a shitty judge.

[LakeGal]

I find myself expecting the person that is cleared to get shot on the court house steps at the end.  I can't help it.  Two weeks in a row I had this bad feeling that it was ending too happy.  I guess I watch too many shows that do not end well.