Season One Episode One, Pilot Review
“Pilot” Airing January 20, 2011
FAIRLY LEGAL Thursdays at 10 PM EST beginning January 20 on USA NETWORK
January 16, 2011
By Lena Lamoray
FAIRLY LEGAL PRESS RELEASE: USA Network unveils its new Thursday night programming block with the premiere of its latest original scripted series FAIRLY LEGAL, on Thursday, January 20, at 10/9c, following the return of ROYAL PAINS in its new timeslot 9/8c. FAIRLY LEGAL stars Sarah Shahi (“Life,” “The L Word”) Michael Trucco (“Battlestar Galactica,” “Castle”), Virginia Williams (“Revenge of the Bridesmaids,” “How I Met Your Mother”) and Baron Vaughn (“The Other Guys,” “Law & Order”). Shot on location in Vancouver, BC, the series will premiere with a 90-minute episode followed by nine, one-hour episodes. FAIRLY LEGAL centers on Kate Reed (Shahi), a top litigator who became frustrated with the endless bureaucracy and injustice she witnessed on a daily basis and decided to become the ultimate anti-lawyer: a mediator. Using her knowledge of the law, along with intuition and a whatever-it-takes approach to resolving conflict, Kate finds the middle ground for a wide variety of adversaries -- from Fortune 500 corporations to bitter divorcees. After the death of her father, she finds herself at odds with her new boss, her stepmother Lauren (Williams)...and in bed with her soon-to-be ex-husband Justin (Trucco), himself a lawyer in the DA’s office. Helping her keep all of this chaos at bay is her trusted, geek-chic assistant Leonardo (Vaughn). Recurring guest stars include Richard Dean Anderson (“Stargate SG-1,” “MacGyver”) in the role of David Smith, a man who has a mysterious connection to Kate’s late father; Ethan Embry (“Brotherhood,” “House, M.D.”) portrays Spencer, Kate’s younger brother and a new father; and Gerald McRaney as Judge Nicastro, who has no tolerance for Kate’s lack of regard for the legal establishment. Other guest stars this season include Ken Howard, Peter MacNicol, Clyde Kusatsu and Anne-Marie Johnson. From Universal Cable Productions, FAIRLY LEGAL was created and is executive produced by Michael Sardo (“The American Embassy,” “Wings”) and executive produced by Steve Stark. Russ Bucholz serves as co-executive producer.
FAIRLY LEGAL “Pilot” Season One Pilot Review, Airing 1/20/2011
FAIRLY LEGAL premieres on USA Network this week with a special extended episode, so you get more than an hour to meet Kate Reed and the cast of “The Wizard of Oz” characters that make up her life. Kate has assigned everyone in her life their very own “The Wizard of Oz” themed ringtone and character profile. Her phone never stops ringing so you find out right away how she feels about the people close to her. Kate (Sarah Shahi), a former lawyer, is now a mediator because “in court someone is always a loser” and as a mediator she can work for both sides so no one loses out. The law is so black and white whereas she works in the gray and gets things solved in the best interest of all the parties involved.
Our first vision of Kate features her getting woken up by “The Wicked Witch” while in bed with “The Tin Man” on her recently deceased father’s houseboat, “Welcome A Broad” where she is residing. Kate has a complicated relationship with her not quite yet ex-husband, Justin Patrick (Michael Trucco). Justin is a San Francisco ADA whom Kate meets with for business and pleasure. Justin is my favorite character so far and I would like to see how his character develops as the series progresses.
Kate uses her mediation skills on the way to work and still manages to have to pay full price for her cookie and coffee. Kate’s skills go unappreciated and unrewarded.
“The Wicked Witch” aka the stepmother, Lauren Reed (Virginia Williams) has earned a spot on Kate’s hate list, since it is “easier that way.” They have been forced to work together more closely since the passing of Kate’s dad. Lauren is in charge of the family law firm, at which Kate is a mediator. Lauren is doing her best to keep the firm stable since they have lost several clients due to her husband’s departure. Is Lauren willing to “go the extra mile” to keep her clients?
Kate and Lauren are trying to keep a father and son team on as clients but they are not happy with the terms of the contract. Some extenuating circumstances make it a challenging agreement to reach. Kate quizzes Justin on the facts and possible outcome of the case and she lets us in on her “greatest flaw”.
Kate also lands another job per the request of a judge that she thinks “hates” her and when you see the case you will know her thoughts are correct. It involves an actor, a singer and a cupcake maker that did not do their jobs accordingly and therefore contributed to a loss that they are being sued for.
Kate’s assistant Leonardo Prince, “The Cowardly Lion” (Baron Vaughn) does his best to get Kate to where she needs to be but as we quickly learn, Kate operates on her own schedule and she pays dearly for it. Leo saved Kate several times in the pilot and all he asks for in return is a thank you. Leo is Kate’s biggest supporter, so she should make sure that every day is an “appletastic” day for him. It is the least that she can do for him.
Kate phones “The Wizard”, her father, just to hear his recorded voice and later works on saying goodbye in her own special way.
Pilots are always a tricky thing because you have a limited amount of time to get your point across and to try to win over a crowd that will tune in on a weekly basis. While I can’t say this is the best pilot I have ever seen, it does its job in introducing you to the characters. Hopefully, it will establish an audience that is really driven to find out more about Kate and company. Sarah Shahi was in one of my favorite show’s pilot episode, “Supernatural” as their very first ghost, so she does have a fantastic track record for being in successful pilots. It also doesn’t hurt that she is gorgeous and gets to wear some really incredible shoes. I am curious to see what kind of numbers this show is going to draw in gender wise. I would say a predominantly female audience, but that is my guess. USA Network is known for putting out hit shows and honestly, I can’t think of one show on the network that I don’t like so hopefully with that track record people will tune into the premiere of FAIRLY LEGAL and give it a chance. If you like law shows with a twist, FAIRLY LEGAL will be perfect for you and if not USA Network has got you covered with the rest of their lineup, so you can’t go wrong. FAIRLY LEGAL premieres on Thursday, January 20th at 10 PM EST following an all new ROYAL PAINS.
