David E. Kelley Gets Real

Much to the shock, and curiosity, of many critics, as well as reality TV vets, long time anti-reality TV rampager David E. Kelley ate his words (he once called reality TV "an erosion of respect for the medium by its guardians," as reported by RealityTVWorld.com) with the announcement of his new show The Law Firm, debuting this Thursday, 9/8pm central on NBC. An Apprentice meets Judge Judy hybrid, The Law Firm has the best of both worlds, with task-oriented competitions as well as courtroom melodrama, a cute receptionist a la Donald's, and, of course, a hefty cash prize for the last lawyer left standing. Each week, young lawyers, referred to as associates, are broken into groups to try real life cases in front of real life judges and juries to dispense "real justice," as the show's teaser tells us. Senior partner Roy Black, a legitimate premier trial lawyer best known for his defense of William Kennedy Smith, later evaluates their skills.

At the onset, The Law Firm hits all the right notes, the associates are catty and arrogant, some crumble under pressure, some shine while delivering closing arguments, but most are just plain full of themselves, and the cases are mostly far-fetched a la Ally McBeal. The pilot has the green lawyers dealing with a coroner posing as a traffic cop and a three-legged dog Dingo getting bit by a rowdy neighbor's bigger breeds. Though it's odd to have the fates of real people hang on the abilities of these novice trial lawyers, who are mostly in it for the money, it's OK because the cases don't feel monumentally important (the "outcome" of the trials are binding however, reports RealityTVWorld.com.) But at the boardroom-style elimination ceremony, Black brings up an interesting issue in Kelley's program. While pointing out the associate's mistakes, some of which are downright stupid, he states that the team that was prosecuting the siren-happy coroner should have made a point to ask the judge for punitive damages. As Black starts talking about the numerous nutcases in America that would be discouraged from taking the law into their own hands if the team had set a precedent for higher financial penalties, the reality of The Law Firm becomes a bit overwhelming. Suddenly Kelley's happy little competition has raised the stakes by exploiting real crimes for entertainment sake and the audience is left wondering if the "real justice" will take a back seat to the associates' keep-your-eyes-on-the-$250,000-prize attitude.

Fast forward to episode four (Warning: spoiler alert ahead) where the remaining lawyers are assigned the task of trying a family dispute in front of a jury. In this instance, the plaintiff claims that the father of her five year old son, with whom she is currently in a custody dispute, choked her and threatened her life. An ex-gang member, things look grim for the father and he offers to take a polygraph test to prove he's telling the truth. To match their opponent's tactics the plaintiff also takes a lie detector test and it turns out that she's making the whole story up. When both sides continue to the courtroom, one still actively maintaining the story that an assault had taken place, the show ventures into the perverse. Suddenly The Law Firm isn't a mind numbing, survival camp, summer escape; it's a glib undermining of the law. Three-legged dog attacks are one thing (and sad in their own way), but actively pursuing a false allegation seems bizarre. Sure it happens all the time, the judicial system has huge flaws and in a way that is what The Law Firm highlights, but between the smirks on the lawyers faces as they cross-examine witnesses and the grotesque air punching "we won!" dance of the prosecution, done in plain sight of the man they just wrongly convicted, Kelley succeeds only in blurring the line between the truth of reality entertainment and cruel schadenfreude.