Pretty Sure CW Is Gonna Give Viewers Early Parole #LifeSentence #CW #3weekroundup #recap #review

Pretty Sure CW Is Gonna Give Viewers Early Parole #LifeSentence #CW #3weekroundup #recap #review

All pictures courtesy of the CW 

Let me start by spoiling the review section and saying that I don't find this show dreadful like I did Krypton, I just can already read the wall's ample writings. This show was moved from its original premiere day of Wednesday to Fridays and hasn't done any better than that other godawful show My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and that show doesn't even pull in a million viewers a week. It is possible that it could be outright canceled and yanked from air, which rarely ever happens to CW shows (again, see Crazy Ex). Still, I didn't think it was that terrible, it just wasn't what viewers are looking for. So, is Life Sentence living its best life or is it in desperate need of being put on support. Ay yay yay, that was a bad one. Let's find out together!

Life Sentence stars Lucy Hale as Stella Abbott, a young woman who, at the age of 15, was diagnosed with cancer. Ever since then (I think it's been eight or nine years) her family has worked tirelessly to make sure that she could have the best last days of her life ever. Her sister brought the party to her when she missed out on parties. Her brother (both siblings are older, by the way) tried to teach her everything cool he knew and dared her to live an adventurous life. Her parents cared for her even through her constant trips in and out of the hospital and lobbied for her to get into a potentially life-saving clinical trial. But she was still missing out on that one great thing: true love. So her college professor father decided to send his youngest daughter on a life-changing trip to Paris, the city of love, in order to go on that one last great adventure and maybe fall in love. And she does. She finds a great guy (black English bloke) who falls for her in a moment straight out of a Hugh Grant movie, and marries her within a couple weeks of meeting her because she supposedly only has six to eight months to live. I know that was a heck of an info-dump but don't worry because Stella does the same thing at the beginning of the first episode to get you caught up so that you can be just as shocked as she is when she goes to her doctor and finds out:

She's cured! Yay! The clinical trial worked for her, which means that her funeral that she and her husband were planning must go on hold for a long time. And though she tells her family at the strange pre-death wake she wanted to have, and they celebrate appropriately, things change for the worse almost immediately. Now that she is no longer sick she can learn who her family really is and no more be deceived by their work to make her happy.

The Family with Stella at center. 

As it turns out, while she lived the dream rom-com life that would ultimately end in her untimely death, her family was falling apart. Starting with her brother Aiden, we learn that he is a 27-year-old burnout who dropped out of college, has no job, lives at home and uses his sister's cancer to guilt-trip soccer moms into having sex with him. Things get crazy when the latest soccer mom he's banging (the one he brought to Stella's faux-wake) is actually married to a very big dude who threatens to kill him. He runs around most of the episode trying to avoid being pummeled to death by this distraught husband.

We jump to her older sister Elizabeth who seems to be the responsible one who can keep things together through the chaos. But we learn that the career-driven woman partially resents getting married to Diego and having two children so early in life, something she only did to make sure her parents had something happy to focus on. Also, because she was such a responsible one, she gave up her dream of being a writer, and a scholarship to a prestigious college, in order to stay home and help take care of Stella and make sure their mom didn't lose it.

Speaking of her mother Ida (played by veteran actress Gillian Vigman; she's been in a ton of stuff), she seems to be having the hardest time and is adopting an almost completely new second life. Apparently she's been having an affair with Stella's godMOTHER for a few years and announces that she's coming out as a “Bi” (bisexual) at a family dinner party, but only after Stella finds her mother and godmother sitting on the porch of her godmother's house making out (Stella came to talk with her mom after learning that Ida was leaving her husband and had already moved out the next day after Stella's announcement).

Stella and Paul

That husband that Ida is leaving is Paul Abbott (played by Dylan Walsh of Mighty Joe Young and Nip/Tuck fame), a conservative-looking father who, like most dads, tried to be the rock his family needed and found himself sinking deep into debt to keep his sick child alive and help her live out her dying wish. He has even been paying her rent on a small downtown loft apartment (it's not a big city so it shouldn't really cost that much).

Finally, there is her husband Wes who doesn't know if he can continue the charade he started to live when he first met her. Almost half of the stuff they do together he hates to do, including having her fall asleep in his arms every night, having sex by candlelight literally every time they do it, eating boiled eggs and a bunch of other stuff. He was attending a grief counseling group for spouses of terminally ill people until they kicked him out after hearing his story of woe that his wife is going to live far beyond the six months she was given to live when he first married her. Basically, Stella got the best news of her life—that she would even have a life—and then that said life immediately went to crap.

So, as she learns all of the secrets her family is keeping from her, she also must plan a celebration party for her doctor who cured her just to tell her thank you. Basically she does that while telling everyone throughout the episode that these problems they have can be fixed, and even does a big speech on that very subject. But the speech goes terribly and her sister once again points out that most of the family's problems stem from her having cancer and them trying to create the happiest, safest environment for her to live in, in order to foster a recovery. Still, all is not lost because she has now committed to change each one of her family members' lives so that they have a great one just like she did, in a huge pay-it-forward kind of thing.

We end the first episode with her talking to a sick kid and realizing that even though life is tough, it's not the end of the world so long as you have people who care about you. She, for the first time, has sex without the candles, tries to setup her brother with her doctor only to learn that he has already impregnated that married woman, gets her mother to tell her dad the truth about her sexuality, gets her dad to realize that he needs to sell the house to pay his debt, and tells her sister that she will start babysitting the kids more so that she can finally start on that book she's been meaning to write.

Episode two is the classic example of the best laid plans of mice and men. Paul puts the house on the market but can't part with it when a couple low-balls him and wants all the furniture inside. This drives Ida into a crazed tizzy, and she wants to tear down the walls (bangs a huge hole in one of them) and dig a pool as part of the upgrades her husband wants to make before selling it. It's an overreaction even when you discover her reason for overreacting is because while Stella could remember all of her best memories in the house she grew up in, her mother can only remember the house as the place where her daughter got sick and her love story fell apart. Forget the fact that it's also the place where you learned that your daughter was cured from a cancer you thought would kill her, where you learned of the news that you had grandkids and where you learned that you were actually more into women than your husband. Her complaints about the house feel more like a jilted soon-to-be ex-wife craving for money. If she didn't want to have to see the house anymore, she could've opted not to come around until the house was sold. And when her husband offers to instead rent out a few rooms in the home which would give him enough time to make renovations and updates that could raise the price, she flips out and bangs a hole in the wall. And there I started to wonder why she would lower the buying price if she wanted the damn house sold so much. It didn't make logical sense.

Stella Talking To Another Sick Kid

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has lost her writing moji on account of not having done it in so long. She is easily distracted by Stella's bad parenting/babysitting skills which result in her daughter (Stella's niece) swallowing Stella's ring. Surprisingly, she's on the show so little in the first three episodes that it made me wonder if the actress had double-booked another TV series or film. But she is around long enough to team with Stella to try to get their brother to take some responsibility.

Yes, Aiden's now got a baby mama, but if the rest of his life is any indication, he's gonna not be responsible about that, too. In fact, he tries avoiding the woman completely, shutting the doors of his guest house and hiding out from the still-married woman, while also banging out every girl he meets. He says he'll change but that's going to take some time. His father gets tough on him, and they have a little heart to heart about how he knows his son is a smart kid, but just doesn't apply himself. Aiden's deal is that once he discovered that he was going to lose the person he loved the most in his life, his baby sister, he decided to never love or really care about much of anything anymore. But Stella convinces him that he can be a great dad if he just tries and stops selling pills to housewives. Stella also gets her sister into a writer's retreat, starts volunteering at the hospital that treated her and commits to listening more to her husband. 

Stella and hubby Wes

Episode three opens with her and her husband being confronted by INS. Yeah, dude married a terminally sick American white chick after knowing her for about a month. INS was bound to show up sooner or later. To make sure their relationship is real the agent is going to ask them a series of personal questions, but oddly gives them time to prepare for such a test. They have the weekend to make sure that they know possibly everything there is to know about each other. And Stella realizes that she really doesn't know this man at all. Not only did she not know his favorite meal (bangers and mash) but she didn't know that he slept with 11 people before her, doesn't have a great relationship with his mom and believed that this was the first time he had ever fallen in love. In fact, he had actually lived with a woman for two years prior to going on that fateful France trip. She's got a lot to learn.

But as she is trying to learn everything that she didn't know about her husband, which is everything, she decides to try to get the young cancer patient girl she was talking to at the hospital into the same clinical trial that she was in. Bad news, she lies to keep the girl's spirits up when she learns that the rich guy who was sponsoring the trial pulled his funding. So she, along with a hottie doctor, scheme to visit the rich guy at one of his hotel's restaurants to beg him for the funding or at least figure out why he pulled the funding. As it turns out, she talks to the guy after mistaking him for the bartender, and learns that he pulled the funding because she was the only survivor and that the FDA couldn't support the trial procedures any longer. So she must go back and tell the girl that she lied about getting her into that particular trial, but says that they will try to get her into a dozen other trials.

Her nighttime adventure to the restaurant leaves Wes at home to babysit Elizabeth's kids while she is at the writer's retreat and her husband is taking off work to go visit her. But when the niece gets sick, he calls Ida to come and help, only to learn that she doesn't do well with sick kids and overreacts to everything. Hello! She had a sick child that was probably suspected of having a stomach ache and ended up having cancer. She basically says what I just typed, and they have a come-to-Jesus moment with each other.

Stella and brother Aiden

Back at the restaurant, Stella happens to run into her loser brother and equally-loser father on a father-son night out. On Stella's request, Aiden decided to get their father out of the house because all he could do was look in at the new owners all day. Oh yeah, they sold the house but made a deal that allowed for Stella's father and brother to continue to live in the guest house. Now Paul lives with his rather disgusting son, who he hasn't hung out with in forever. Aiden thinks they should go and chase tail at the local hotel bar. His dad isn't that interested in it, but after a few very strange encounters, including a woman who had serious daddy issues, he finds a woman also going through a divorce and they vibe. They go back and have some meaningless sex only for Aiden to come home later and run into the woman. Yep, he's slept with her. Slightly older women seem to be his thing.

The night ends with that hottie doctor telling Stella that he wishes he had met her seven months ago (she got married six months ago). This show is the epitome of “life comes at you fast.”

Sick Stella

What's my grade? I give it a solid C+. The problem with this show is that it is neither wholly dissatisfying nor satisfying. It's very middle-of-the-road. Yet, it kind of feels like this show could've been so much better if put into the hands of the producers of either Grey's Anatomy or This Is Us. It is a pseudo-sweet show that doesn't quite push far enough to get to the emotional peaks you might want it to, nor does it sink to the level of funny you want it to either. It feels like a nondescript CW show or one that doesn't have a hook to it. I know that it does have a hook, but it doesn't feel like it does. It's hard to explain it because it's all so vanilla. Ultimately, the show is about figuring out how to live life once you've been given a second chance at it and everything you thought you knew about living it the first time is terribly wrong. It is similar in tone to last year's No Tomorrow which I actually loved. (Goodness, I don't know what it is about CW but between this show and that show, these lighthearted comedies have made me fall in love with their respective female stars--Lucy Hale here and Tori Anderson off No Tomorrow). This show is OK, but I don't think it is better than that show. In fact, I would prefer to watch that show again than to watch this. Frankly, I absolutely hate the mother. I have seen the actress in so many roles before and this is, by far, the one I hate the most. She's an annoying, over-reactive, boring character that I really don't care about. And I would've loved if her character magically disappeared for multiple episodes at a time rather than the sister.

Should you be watching? It's a decent show but it premiered in the literal middle of March (like March 14^th; the exact middle) when there're tons of other shows that are more heartwarming and better written. But these characters are easy to relate to and the acting is on point. I'd say check out at least one episode before this gets canceled. Life Sentence next airs on April 27^th, CW Fridays at 9pm.

What do you think? Have you heard of Life Sentence? If you haven't, do you think you'll check it out now? If you have heard of it, have you seen it? What do you think? Should this show really be facing the axe so soon in its life? And with the CW expanding to six days of programming next season (now they'll be showing stuff on Sundays, should this earn a shortened season order? Let me know in the comments below.

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend. #AhStalking If you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 4 coming summer 2018. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary on Amazon. Season 2 of that coming real soon. And look for the mystery novels The Knowledge of Fear #KnowFear and The Man on the Roof #TMOTR coming this fall/winter. Twisty novels as good as Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, you won’t want to miss them. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.

Until next time, “Oh my god! This discovery... could change life as we know it.”

'Dude, I totally loved that show.'

“By show you mean movie, right?”

'Wait, aren't we talking about the show currently known as 3^rd Rock From the Sun?'

P.S. Yeah, I just hit you with a little TV history that is super-easy to learn if you do just one IMDb data search. I hate when shows that could do fairly well aren't given time to find an audience while shows that clearly should've been canceled (lookin' at you Crazy Ex) have somehow remained on TV to suck resources and opportunities for better programming. Oh well! I'll try to think of a better sign-off next time.

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Oh! Oh! Ohh! It's Magic #Deception #ABC #3weekroundup #recap #review #newseries

Oh! Oh! Ohh! It's Magic #Deception #ABC #3weekroundup #recap #review #newseries

 

All Pictures Courtesy of ABC

I am back once again with another super-late review. Again, some shows I'm not even gonna get to review so get off my back. They probably suck anyway. I'm sorry. That was wrong. I shouldn't have written that and then not edited it out. I know we all work very hard to be creative, so saying that something is terrible without even seeing it is something a troll would do. Let's start this review before I get totally off track. So, does Deception bring back that magic feeling or is it a one-trick white guy—uh, I mean pony. White guy. Whichever. Let's find out together!

ABC's Deception is the newest procedural that follows the craze of taking one hardened officer of the law and partnering them with a rather goofy genius of his trade. Before, ABC succeeded in spades with this concept by partnering the quirky mystery novelist (shameless plug: The Man On The Roof on sell June 22^nd on Amazon Kindle) Richard Castle with sizzling, yet dedicated tough cop Kate Beckett on the show Castle. While it had a great run that saw the pair slowly fall in love and eventually get married while solving murders and mysteries together for the better part of seven seasons, it ended rather abruptly after ABC, in a hugely sexist move, refused to pay lead actress Stana (happy early B-Day Ms. Katic) the raise she rightfully deserved, while Nathan got a raise and the idea floated around that the series could go on with just him at the helm. Yes, it's been two or three years and I'm still a little bitter at that non-finale finale that they had (what the hell are we to think about them both being shot and then suddenly cutting to a scene of them as a family with two new kids? Was that a dream sequence? Are they dead or was that real, and they both survived being shot?). I digress. This time around ABC has decided to pair an FBI agent with a magician. Yeah, this is gonna be tricky.

Cameron and Kay 

FBI special agent Kay Daniels (played by Ilfenesh Hadera. Damn, I just bit my lip thinking about her. I really have to cut down on the creepy sexual stuff on this blog if I ever wanna be successful or at least stop mentioning it to you all. Damn, I just bit my lip again. Hey, if Christian Grey and Ana can get away with it...) is magically paired with world-renowned magician Cameron Black (played by Jack Cutmore-Scott). Wait, let me reverse this a little.

It all starts with Cameron's Vegas show he calls Deception. He starts small by talking directly to the camera about a card trick and describing the idea behind a magician's setup, his slight of hand and the prestige. After the trick, he walks to his behind-the-scenes assistants. We first have Gunter (Vinnie Jones) who seems to be the props guy. He builds the contraptions for Cameron to use in his show. We also have Jordan (Justin Chon; happy to see more Asian men getting some shine) who seems to play the techie behind the more advanced illusion parts of, uh... illusions. We round out the team with Dina (Lenora Crichlow; how many beautiful, in-charge women can this show have. Apparently, only three) who seems to be his business manager. He handles the magic while she handles everything else.

The Mysterious Woman and Johnathon

Back to the trick, Cameron moves from the cards to an escape act that sees him hanging above a bed of spikes while escaping binds as a blow torch burns through the rope. Gunter says it's too risky, but he still goes through with it and has to swing out of trouble and crash through a mirror only to...

...end up in New York's Times Square, having completed the illusion for a TV special. The trick and show ended, he walks off and gets into his car with a gorgeous mystery woman played by Stephanie Corneliussen. As they flirt and go back and forth, and she throws herself at his feet in hopes of being his next conquest, he notices that she has two different color eyes. And then they crash. While he is able to get up and walk away from the crash, he finds that she has been thrown from the car and is dead on the road. The problem is that when he goes to check on her, she no longer has two different colors of eyes. It's a different woman and this new woman has been dead for some time. He then runs.

The next morning police come to Cameron's Vegas hotel room/home and try to arrest him for the accident. The only problem, it isn't actually him. Nope, this dude pulled a Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and has lived his entire life with a twin that no one knew about. His brother is the one that ran. Now, his brother Johnathon, is in prison for the murder of that woman. He explains what he remembers about that night and hopes that Cameron can find this woman. Now that their secret is out, Cameron swears that he will do everything in his power to find this mystery woman. And then we jump a full year into the future, and he's made no progress.

Meanwhile, special agent Kay Daniels and her partner Mike Alvarez (Amaury Nolasco) are hot on the trail of a big drug-cartel member. She even is sitting on his private plane, ready to take him in when things go haywire. As soon as she gets off the plane and is joined by her partner and the other agents, the other tactical agents' smoke grenades start going off, sending up clouds of red smoke that fill the plane hangar. Kay and the others evacuate right before the plane explodes, leaving a terribly marred wreckage and zero bodies. This shows on the news. Cameron sees it and recognizes the red smoke as a signature that he used in a trick where he made a plane disappear on one of his specials. A take-initiative kinda guy, he goes to the still-active crime scene and does some charming magician's stuff to tell them that their plane didn't blow up but disappeared, and he thinks that the magician that did it specifically wanted him to know that they did it. He even theorizes that they drove the plane away to another hangar somewhere close in the middle of the night. Kay is naturally skeptical about all of this until Cameron shows her the tracks they used to move the plane and knocks down the false back-wall that was the door through which they snuck out the plane.

And that's it. It's over. But of course it's not really over. Somehow, Cameron believes that the magician that did this trick did the red smoke thing to tell him that they were also the magician that framed his brother for the murder of that one woman a year earlier. So, he devises a plan to dress as the cartel's accountant in order to insert himself into the investigation about this gangster because he wants to talk to the man and ask him who the magician was that he used. The disguise doesn't work and Kay sees through it immediately, but her magic-obsessed partner Mike doesn't see through the disguise and seems impressed with everything Cameron does. They do use the disguised Cameron to fool another one of the low-level cartel members that they catch only after Cameron and Kay find out where the plane went (a chop shop). Along the way Cameron uses small magic tricks to impress people and get them to open up about what they've seen.

The plan changes after Kay sees how convincing Cameron's disguise is to everyone else. He agrees to be used as bait to lure the cartel boss out of hiding because they know that word will spread that the banker has supposedly been talking to the Feds. They kidnap the real accountant and replace him with Cameron, and follow the SUV that takes him straight to the cartel boss. Cameron is tied up and blindfolded and nearly killed when he causes some chaos, knocks the cartel boss's guys out and grabs the wheel of the SUV while still blindfolded. After a harrowing drive through the city, he and the boss escape into an alley where the boss is about to shoot him until he notices that the end of the alley is only a painting. He hasn't even realized that he walked literally right into a trap, a fake alley surrounded on all sides by wood. He's already imprisoned. He still tries to shoot Cameron, and thinks he's succeeded when the magician goes down. But our guy pops back up and shows the bullet he caught from the old bullet-catch trick. Really, he just replaced the cartel guy's gun with a Gunter prop during the chaos in the SUV. Unfortunately, the guy gives him some gobbledygook about a dragon when Cameron asks about the evil magician.

We end with Cameron in a wrap party with the special agents and Kay unveiling a small piece of evidence she found at the scene of the plane disappearance. The trick was exactly like his, except for one thing: a deck of cards was left behind. Cameron takes out the deck of cards to reveal a one-way burner phone. It automatically calls the evil magician who is... the mystery woman that Johnathon had in his car with him that night. The two-colored-eyed mistress set the trick up on his brother as well. In her best Carmen San Diego impression, she stands in a Germany airport in all red as she is a globe-trotting, sexy, magical illusionist. And the game is on, because it seems like she wants to be caught, or at least pursued.

Jordan, Gunter and Dina

Episode two focused on Cameron and his group's attempt to stay working with the FBI. While their expertise proved useful for the first crime that involved a magician's trick aimed specifically at getting his attention, every crime is not like that. Even more, the FBI doesn't really care that much about his brother and the supposed “I was framed” story that Johnathon is telling. But Cameron knows that he needs the resources of the FBI to help find magical Carmen San Diego. And unlike Richard Castle who had a legit reason to shadow the NYPD, not to mention a very close friendship with the mayor who owed him a favor, Cameron has none of that. So, he decides to audition by using magical tricks to impress the special agent in charge. Unfortunately, she is not impressed and while Kay may be semi-open to the idea, she is not about to bend over backwards to get him privileges.

And then another murder happens. This time some criminal lawyer who has worked for the Russian mob for years is murdered during his morning run. At a stop in his run, some young kid (19) comes and shoots him in the face with a water gun, yells “got you” and runs away. The man first thinks that the liquid is just water, but then breaks out with red splotches on his face and kills over from a poison. The mob wanted him dead because he had just recently decided he had enough with criminals after having a child with his foreign wife, and was working on a deal with the DOJ to rat.

Cameron injects himself into this investigation by overhearing the breakdown of the crime, then showing up to the murder scene like he did with the plane disappearance. He explains that while it was not a magic trick, this whole thing—the gotchu, the bright blue and orange the killer was wearing, even the full-framed appearance in a security camera that caught the murder—is all a performance. He surmises that this was not just a killing but a well-planned, staged killing. Kay and Mike decide to see where this could go.

It goes up to a second floor apartment just outside of where the man was murdered. A young boy, who always throws paper airplanes out of the window in the morning, happened to have seen a blue van with a very distinct business decal sitting outside filming the murder. As it happens, they spot the van at a park across town and catch the murderer about to do the same thing to the lawyer's wife and baby. But when they catch him, the kid thinks he's on a reality TV show and wonders if he's won the game. The van gets away and they catch the kid. Cameron thankfully stops the agents from shooting the kid who doesn't even know the squirt gun is filled with a toxin. They take him back to questioning and discover that he only just moved to NYC and was approached on the street by a supposed producer. The producer, as it turns out, is a Russian mobster who works for the big boss. If the young boy can tell them more about this guy, they could maybe get him. The problem: the kid suddenly falls ill with the same poison while in the interrogation room, presumably for having gotten drops of the liquid on his skin after carrying the squirt gun around all day.

Now, the race is on to find the gangster so that they can find an antidote to save the innocent kid's life. Even worse, the special agent in charge has to follow the law which states that the kid is the killer until they can actually get the real killers behind this plot. Cameron and the agents go to the square where the kid was picked by the producer and find a street performer to ID the “producer” he saw trying to get volunteers for the reality show. But they still need the kid to ID the Russian in order to get a warrant for his nightclub.

Cameron, however, doesn't have to operate by the same rules of law. He and his team devise a plan to go to the club and speak to the Russian. Cameron sneaks through the club, uses Dina to help him get into the private part of the club and gets into a place where he can talk to a secret VIP bartender to ask where the Russian is. The old bartender tells him that he shouldn't be there. Still, Cameron pushes farther and discovers where the blue truck is, but is caught by the Russian. He does a magic trick where he breaks the guy's phone in half, then puts it back together before pulling a disappearing act before they shoot him. Kay and Mike finally show after getting the near-death kid to ID the “producer.” There's some gun-play and the Russians get away. But Cameron has a plan.

Kay and the Special Agent in Charge

While Cameron gets sent into the Dunce corner by the FBI, he and his team concoct a plan to not only catch the Russian but also get him to give them the antidote to the poison. The FBI discovers where the Russian is hiding and stakes out his place. Cameron comes and tells them of his plan and begs them to believe in his idea. The decision is left in Kay's hands.

They go and arrest the guy against Cameron's wishes. But then, as they are transporting him, their car is hit by one of the Russian's underlings who, instead of rescuing him, says that the big boss wants him dead, then squirts him and Cameron in the face with the water gun. As it turns out, this is a trick. The underling was a very good mask done by Gunter. The setup is to show Cameron dying from the poison and convince the Russian that he, too, is about to die from it unless he tells them how to combat the poison. He does only to realize that the hospital room really isn't a hospital room but a well-constructed set and that Cameron isn't dead or sick at all. In a moment of severe oversight, everyone takes their eyes off of the dude, and he gets up and holds a knife to Dina's throat. Mike manages to knock him down from behind and Kay says that they aren't going to arrest him, but release him back to the mob who will kill him for sure unless he gives up the big boss. As it turns out, the big boss is the bartender Cameron met, disguising himself as a low-level worker. Cameron has helped them throughout the case and the special agent in charge agrees to keep him on. But he knows that his brother's case will still not be a priority. Luckily, Kay has already started a board for his brother's case and has agreed to help him.

In Episode three Cameron, Kay and the gang had to deal with a Thomas Crown Affair-style heist (the 1990s one with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo both looking maturely hot). For the first time in three episodes, this one doesn't open with Cameron doing a magic trick straight to the camera. Instead, we open with him talking over a young woman walking through a museum (clearly not the NYC Metropolitan) and into a special exhibit wing where she notices something strange around all the paintings. She touches something and suddenly the gate goes down, and she's trapped inside. This is a job for... an escapologist!

Cue Cameron, who we find in bed with a random black woman. This serves two purposes: let's us know that he is definitely single, and lets us know that he likes a little coffee with his cream (see what I did there). He slips out of bed and tells the one-nighter that he's gotta go because the FBI needs him. He gets there just as the person behind this whole trap calls the FBI and demands a ransom of some 125 million dollars or else he's going to blow up the entire room one priceless painting at a time. Yeah, those strange things on the paintings that the woman saw: bombs. So, they have to figure out how to get the woman and art out of the room and/or find the madman behind the bomb threat. The rules: don't touch the gate, he will see (he's got two of his own cameras installed in the room) and if you don't transfer the money within 90 minutes, he triggers all the bombs.

Cameron sees this simply as a bad escape trick, and he's done them a thousand times. All he needs is to figure out a way in, and he'll be good. The exhibit happens to be sponsored by some big-time billionaire businessman who shows up with his adult son to complain about the pictures. Unfortunately, Cameron touches the gate and the guy blows up one of the paintings. Luckily the woman and the other paintings are still fine.

So, time is ticking away, and they need to first figure out a way into the room. The museum director tells them that only one man has ever snuck into that room, but he was caught and is in jail. As it would happen, he's in jail with Johnathon. Johnathon must get the man's secret by promising him a favor. He tells him that there is a secret opening through a floor panel. The next thing is that they then have to figure out how to distract the cameras. Through a simple roll-out mirror trick, they are able to trick the camera into seeing an empty floor as Cameron worms his way across the floor to a camera blindspot (most of the room is in a blindspot). They replace most of the paintings in 90 seconds but Kay sneaks into the room also and grabs the final two paintings that are still in the camera frame. They manage to get out of the room just in time as the man blows the room. We learn that Kay saved the painting because her sister used to be a painter and loved this particular artist. Sadly, we learned in the second episode that her sister died by overdose some years back before Kay became an FBI agent.

We move on to see Cameron meeting the museum woman for a lunch after they are safe, while the FBI have to still find out who was behind the bombing. As it turns out, they discover the guy behind the cameras only to find him shot dead in the head. They then discover that he was the janitor and that this was a total inside job because the woman was also in on it. But she tells Cameron that it's not what he thinks right before they get kidnapped.

Cameron and the woman wake up in the trunk of a car where she explains that the mastermind behind this whole thing contacted her online, and took advantage of her desire to be an art restorer and seduced her with the possibility of money. But he always planned to kill her. She was supposed to take down all the real paintings and throw them into the garbage can where the janitor would then take them down to the dumpster to be picked up later by the mastermind. Well, Cameron escapes the trunk just as the car stops and rolls into the backseat and into the driver's seat. They then manage to dress him as the janitor, go back to the museum and capture the billionaire's son as the mastermind. He stole the paintings because he was tired of his father loving the paintings and his “life's work” more than him.

We end the episode with Dina getting close to Mike, and Kay and Cameron getting closer through her story about her sister's desire to be an artist. It's far from there, but it's getting there.

What's my grade? I give it a solid B+. Yes, we've seen this show before and its name was Castle. Yes, Castle felt somewhat like the originator of this modern wave of eccentric non-police partners with police, and the two leads (hear that, ABC? Both the man AND the woman led the show) had some serious chemistry) but since that show has been taken off the air, this show can serve as a very good child or clone of that one. You have the overly stylish lead female cop or in this case FBI agent with demons in her personal past that motivates her to be in law enforcement. Beckett's mother was a lawyer and was murdered when she was young; Kay's sister had the overdose, although that is a crime that can easily be turned into her having been murdered for some reason in later years. Castle slyly charms his way onto the force and into the good graces of all the cops around him; Cameron ditto, both impressing and mystifying his fellow workers along the way. Castle had a rather complicated but relatable family dynamic in that he was a single dad who took care of both is daughter and, to some extent, his aged mother, and had money to burn in order to do it; Cameron, instead of a mother has a brother who he needs to get out of prison for a crime he didn't commit, not to mention a team of trusted technicians he must care for and pay, still with money to burn after one year away from the stage to pursue his brother's innocence. Speaking of family, we have the highly intelligent woman in both men's lives—Castle had his daughter while Cameron has his business partner Dina—and we have the quirky but dependable sidekick to our lead law enforcer in Mike on Kay's side (you could choose from Havi or the other guy for Beckett on Castle). We have the boss who is skeptical, and we even already have a budding romance between the two side characters that will most assuredly be complicated in Mike and Dina on Deception, and Havi and the ME on Castle, literally mirroring the Latino man falling in love with the black woman. Hell, even the names Kate and Castle, and Kay and Cameron start with the same letters. If you're looking for a carbon copy of that show, I guarantee that you probably will not find another one quite as close as this without them infringing on some copyright or just straight-up rebooting Castle. But with that said, there are some flaws in this setup even if you were a fan of Castle.

First, I don't like the boss. I figured I should just get that out of the way right now. I don't like the special agent in charge. I think she's bland, she comes off as too tough and rather emotionless. Where we had Castle doing some great comedy against Beckett's original straight-man captain, here she feels more like an energy suck if ever I saw one. I'm hoping that she gets better and fits more into the tone of the show, but as someone who has seen that actress before I will say that I think she mostly belongs in harder-hitting political dramas than this one, if she wants to stay in political or cop dramas. But, frankly, she's not a chief concern.

My first chief concern is the charm of Cameron Black himself. OK, so I am not sure that he matches the level of charm that Nathan Fillion had. Don't get me wrong, I like him in the role so far, but he still doesn't seem quite like the lady's man that Richard was and doesn't come off as quite as confident. I think this is mostly due to age and especially his age compared to Kay's (Ilfenesh) age. In Castle, it was not only clear in the narrative but also just from looking at the two of them that Castle was at least a good ten or 12 years older than Kate who he would eventually fall in love with. There was a goofiness and maturity which only came either from age or from being a dad. He was dad-goofy, dad-mature and dad-sexy which made them a perfect match on the chemistry level. They had a playful banter back and forth that I could see evolving into something deeper from, literally the second episode, and made me believe that they could actually be a couple in real life. Here, I can't quite see him ending up with Kay if that is where the show takes it. Are they both single? Yes, but he, so far, just doesn't fit. For starters, he still feels stuck in the goofy stage where he's trying to impress everyone too hard. Yes, Castle was goofy but you often felt that he was really only trying to entertain himself and kudos to you if you came along for the ride. She almost seems too old for him. This might just be my age/male bias because we've seen so many older men with younger women, but something doesn't quite sit well here with their chemistry.

On the flip side, she is not exempt from this criticism. My partial criticism with her has also to do with the writing and her acting. I love me some Ilfenesh ever since really taking a look at her in the disastrous Baywatch film from last year. I think she could be really good if she keeps getting work or is able to have steady work like a weekly show over the span of a few seasons, but here she tends to switch a little too often. From what I've seen on the show, she goes from hardened law enforcer at the beginning of each episode to soft, jovial regular girl at the end of the show. Yes, some of that is because they've usually solved the case and whatnot, but some of it is also how she plays the character and how the character is written. The girl at the end of the show you can potentially see yourself meeting in a grown folks lounge/bar setup and having a deep conversation with. The girl at the beginning of the show seems like she's got kids, a husband, 9 to 5 job and no time for anything outside of what orbits in her personal bubble. She's closed off and often not as charming as Beckett. Again this could be just the fact that the actors are all still getting to know both each other and the writing staff, and are trying to build character so much that they haven't taken leeway to build the small quirks of character, so I'm not saying this couldn't or won't get better over time. But if I'm looking at the original, Castle allowed Beckett to smirk and smile and make snide comments back to Castle, feeding viewers a humor sandwich. He came with the slapstick/goofy/absurd comedy like a classic Steve Martin film; if you didn't like that, she came with the sarcastic/sardonic/cutting humor that felt like her showing her dominance in that field and properly putting Castle in his place when his britches got too big. They played well off each other. Here, Kay and Cameron haven't quite gotten to play well off each other. It feels more like mother or teacher chastising her child or the class clown, than girlfriend and boyfriend joking with each other. We'll see how this picks up.

Oddly enough, everything else feels fine. The pacing is what's to be expected. They actually make the rather whimsical idea of a magician consulting with the FBI work (with Castle, and I don't just say this because I'm a writer, the idea didn't feel as whimsical even if it was rather novel. (A-tee-hee!) He was a crime novelist who had to research ways to kill people to write convincing crime novels). The cast is nice and diverse and each one of the cases has, so far, supplied enough of a wow factor to keep people's attention. It won't blow you away as something new and original, but it could distract for an hour a week.

Should you be watching? If you are/were a fan of Castle and still feel a little peeved at that finale or just want to see the old gang solve more cases, well, unfortunately you're outta luck because I doubt that show is coming back anytime soon (check back in ten years). But if you're OK with satiating your thirst for hot law enforcement woman potentially falls for equally handsome, but very intelligent goofball, then Deception might be for you. But fair warning, they are going to expose a lot of magic tricks throughout the series, so if you don't like knowing how things are done when you go to your next magic show, then this might not be the best show for you. Yes, not watching a show because you don't want to know all the magic tricks sounds crazy, but some of you out there have your reasons. While I think that this show is far better suited in the Monday time slot that was previously held by Castle, or even on Tuesday nights, Deception currently airs on ABC Sundays at 10pm EST.

What do you think? Have you heard of Deception? If not, do you think you'll tune in now? If you have heard of it, have you seen it? What did you think of it? Who is your favorite character? Do you think Kay and Cameron will end up together, and if so by what season? And when will they manage to catch Carmen San Diego and get his brother out of prison? Let me know in the comments below.

Check out my 5-star comedy novel, Yep, I'm Totally Stalking My Ex-Boyfriend. #AhStalking If you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 4 coming summer 2018. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary on Amazon. Season 2 of that coming real soon. And look for the mystery novels The Knowledge of Fear #KnowFear and The Man on the Roof #TMOTR coming this summer. Twisty novels as good as Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, you won’t want to miss them. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.

Until next time, “The trick is to make hay while the sun is out.”

P.S. Yeah, my mind totally blanked on something good to say there. I couldn't even think of a proper magic joke or a good old saying. Geez, I am mentally out of shape. I've gotta start doing more mind calisthenics. I'll try to think of a better sign-off next time.

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It's About Justice, But For Who? #ForThePeople #3weekroundup #recap #review #ABC #newseries

It's About Justice, But For Who? #ForThePeople #3weekroundup #recap #review #ABC #newseries

All pictures courtesy of ABC

Is it late? Yes, it's late. Very late. Like, super late. Like, the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland kinda late. But I've been very busy cooking up good stuff for you all, desperately trying to get people to read and review my upcoming novel The Man On The Roof (#TMOTR) and getting a thousand other things ready. I'm also trying to get The Knowledge of Fear ready for release by the end of this month (yikes!), and get work on the second season of Extraordinary done and ready for summer release, not to mention start this new mystery novel entitled The Ones That Stare, due out this December. I'm very busy and booked to capacity, as bald-headed Tamar Braxton might say. But I'm still reading and viewing some of the latest in entertainment for you all. (I know I haven't put up a single book review in the life of this blog, but it's comin' eventually. I think). With all the excitement going on, I am set to miss more shows this year than ever before, not to mention I have decided to skip this year for The Writer (eek!). I might have mentioned this before, but yes, I am skipping a year of my summer serial The Writer in order to try (keyword) to catch up on some other projects that have been languishing in editing or development and desperately need my attention. How the hell I will finish all the work that I need to do this year, I really don't know. Every year it seems like I'm slowing down far more than I should be and I'm still not that old yet. But enough about my deteriorating health, we're all here for For The People. So, will Shondaland's new show bring it, or do its legal antics already seem like old-hat? Let's find out together. (Oh boy, that was a terrible opening paragraph. Sigh! This is gonna be rough).

ABC's new show For The People comes straight from super-producer Shonda Rhimes. Using her Shondaland production banner, she has recently built an incubator of talent, often cultivating new show creators from the inside, while also reaching beyond her own imaginative bounds to grab intriguing intellectual properties. While the most recent Shonda-produced show didn't fare so well (see: Still Star-Crossed), the creator behind this one is hoping to piggyback off of the initial concepts, tropes and starry-eyed qualities that made Shonda's original hit Grey's Anatomy a phenomenon when it first premiered some 14 (13?) years ago. For The People follows a group of young, wide-eyed lawyers headed by Britt Robertson, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Susannah Flood as they take on some of their first cases in New York's famed Southern District Federal court, also known as The Mother Court. This is supposed to be a show not like most other legal shows. Both sides work for the government and are split up at the very beginning of the first episode.

The two sides we see are the public defenders and the US prosecutors who, essentially, bring the cases against criminals for the people. You get it? The show's name has a double or even triple meaning because technically both sides are working for the people, the common man, the little guy and oh my god, I'm explaining the meaning behind the name as if I'm talking to a bunch of idiots or children. Sorry. When you're away from reviewing for a while things get super sticky when you come back.

Sandra Bell played by Britt Robertson

Anyway, we have on our public defenders' side: Sandra Bell played by Britt Robertson in her first major TV role, Allison Adams played by Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Jay Simmons played by Wesam Keesh. Sandra, while not a loner, is a super-driven defender with a Meredith Grey-complex: she expects to one day be either the best or the second best but doesn't let her ego overshadow her drive to do what's right. On her first day, after being sworn in with all the other lawyers (both defenders and prosecutors), she immediately jumps at the chance to be the “on-duty” defender, or the person who is automatically sent a case by the court clerk because the case needs to go in front of a judge that day, and hasn't been vetted and assigned by the defenders' boss. The public defenders' boss, played by Hope Davis, tells her that “on-duty” is usually for more experienced lawyers who have gotten a handle on this high court. But she is brash and bullheaded, so Sandra takes the duty anyway. Her first case: defend a young man (college-aged) accused of terrorism (trying to blow up the Statue of Liberty). Her opposition: Leonard Knox.

The other side or the US prosecutors are led by (meaning led by star quality, in my opinion) Kate Littlejohn. Played by Susannah Flood, Littlejohn is the essential Cristina Yang of The Mother Court. While Sandra shows up first to the swear-in, hours before they are supposed to be there, Kate shows up a close second. She is the rule of law hawk, the stickler for details, the everything-must-be-done-by-the-book woman who tolerates no fool, not even her boss or fellow all-male colleagues. Let me mention here that it is a very intriguing power and sexes (genders) dynamic that this show has setup. I will discuss it more in the critique section, but just know that battle lines are clearly drawn almost exclusively by gender and the gender politics are quite easy and rather blatant to pick up.

The Prosecutors (Lto R): Littlejohn, Seth, Knox

Anyway, the prosecutors team is rounded out with golden-boy and God's gift to... himself Leonard Knox, played by Rege-Jean Page; the oafish everyman Seth Oliver played by Ben Rappaport; and their boss played by Ben Shenkman. We all know that every lawyer is arrogant because they have to be in order to think that they can win their cases, but Knox's arrogance has been taken to another level, and for good reason. Reasons we'll get to in the next episode. But in the first episode, upon getting assigned their first cases, Knox asks Seth what case he got, only to find out that their boss handed Seth the terrorism case. While he pats Seth on the back, he wholly plots to snatch the case from him because the case he's been given isn't high-profile enough. His next stop is his boss's office where he lobbies for the case and wins, already dumping on poor Seth who recently worked in a rinky-dink law firm.

So, it is Knox versus Sandra in trying to convict this young brown-skinned Muslim man (kid, really) of terrorism. Meanwhile, as Sandra ignores her boss's advice to not let the case go to trial because she will inevitably lose, Sandra's friend and current roommate Allison takes a case about a man's embezzlement that has affected his family. That case just happens to be the one that was handed off to Seth after Knox pulled the robbery. Seth just happens to be Allison's on-again off-again boyfriend. They made a deal to not let their relationship get in the way of their work, but didn't know they'd be pitted against each other on the first day because I guess they've never seen any TV involving any kind of competitive environment and romance, like, ever! Seth's boss has given him what he thinks should be a complete gimme (Knox knew this) but somehow the young attorney manages to mess it up by leveling with his girlfriend during an at-home argument. Allison doesn't want to use the in-private information he freely gives her, but she does and ruins his case, allowing for the wife of the embezzler to slide, resulting in Seth losing his first case. Now, he's on probation.

Jay Simmons played by Wesam Keesh

Finally, Ms. Littlejohn outwits both Jay Simmons and his client. Jay, a brown-skinned law romantic wants to see nothing but the good side of people and give them compassion and an ear to bend because all criminals are simply people who society has chosen not to listen to. While I will somewhat agree with that, he takes it too far by going into his first case without reading the brief on his client and instead relying on the word of the man. In an embarrassing turn, he stands up to plead for the court to go light on his client because the man was just trying to take care of his brother while stealing money, only to immediately find out from Littlejohn that his client is a conman and pathological liar who didn't even tell Jay his real name and doesn't even have a brother. Jay's naivete and gullibility continue when he goes to the jailhouse to talk to his client about the government bureau he concocted in order to rob people of their cash. Jay is convinced that the man truly believes he works for this fictitious bureau and that he is insane, only for Littlejohn to hit him with the jailhouse video of the man talking up the effectiveness of his con while on his one call. Littlejohn then tells him that he could be a good lawyer if he tried, he's just not trying.

Back to Sandra and Knox who both give it their most valiant effort. Sandra learns that her “terrorist” client was not alone in the attempted bombing and that he was, in fact, set up by undercover FBI agents who posed as college kids, coached up what little radicalism he had for 18 months, picked a soft target for him to bomb and even built him a fake bomb to carry in a backpack. While all of this evidence is admissible and heard by the jury, she loses the case based on jury bias (he's a brown-skinned Muslim with a bomb. Doesn't matter if he was completely setup, he fell for the trap), and her own outburst at one of the ferry captains that day—a well-strategized ploy from Knox to draw out the jury's bias.

Left to Right: Boss played by Shenkman; Knox

While Knox gets the old pat on the back from his boss and freshly poured concrete for his golden-boy status, Sandra gets a parental talking-to from her boss who tells her that she should get something from every case, and today she got beat, but she'll learn from that. Everything wraps with a tinge of both hope and cliff-hangery-ness when we see Seth breakup and move out of Allison's apartment, and Sandra cement her living status as permanent roommate with Allison. While Allison has hope that she and Seth are just going through another off-again phase, she and Sandra take a walk across one of the many bridges in New York (maybe the Manhattan bridge? I don't live there, so...) so they can turn back and see where they work all lit-up at night. Oh, and they also discover that the two bosses—lead prosecutor and lead public defender—are pseudo-seeing each other or at least hang out often and go to ball games together.

Episode two sees Jay have to step up to defend a white supremacist who was accused of shooting and wounding a congresswoman during a protest clash. A skinhead, a myriad of offensive tattoos adorn the man's body, including on his neck and face. He believes in the RaHoWa, which, if you aren't familiar with it, stands for the Racial Holy War: the belief that one day all “minority” races will rise up, band together and come to attack whites... and the whites will win and eventually dominate the planet as one race. Side note: I found out about this theory while doing research for my as-yet to be released future sci-fi novel Mulatto. It's an insane belief.

At first Jay wants to cover the man in makeup and present him to the jury as a regular citizen who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he changes his mind upon hearing about the RaHoWa. Instead, he seeks to prove that the US hasn't brought in any good witnesses that can effectively ID the racist as the shooter, and shows three pictures of other tatted-up skinheads that attended that protest. He wins the case, but feels terrible about himself. He goes back to his parents dry cleaners only to have a good pep talk from his father who, even though he dislikes that he got this racist man off, tells him that what's most important is that he was able to utilize the law and actually have a trial because in many places in the world that is not guaranteed.

Meanwhile, because of Seth losing his first case and earning himself probation, he is paired with Littlejohn as her helping hand for her case. It comes from their boss's boss that they need to make an arrest that has an effect on the opioid epidemic. The prosecutor's office has been looking at a gaggle of doctors for over a year now, trying to pin over-prescribing charges to someone in order for the president to save face in this drug war. Littlejohn wants to comb through all the info they have gathered on the doctors to see if anything sticks out about their medical practices, and she wants Seth to sit quietly in a corner with his hands folded, so he doesn't touch anything. His idea: don't look at their medical practices but at their houses because they could've slipped up there. He wants to get warrants to randomly search 25 houses with no cause or evidence of any wrongdoing because I guess he doesn't know how the law actually works. The judge shoots them down, only for Littlejohn to use a twist of his idea and look into the doctor's personal finances instead of their business books. She finds that all but one of the doctors has a housekeeper. This man has three children, a dog and a working wife, not to mention a giant house and more money than he knows what to do with in New York. But no housekeeper in a culture where it's natural to have one.

Littlejohn and Seth get their hands dirty and go to see about the housekeeper, suspecting that he not only has one but that she is illegal which is why he doesn't have her on the books. Lo and behold, he does have one. Not only does he have a housekeeper but she is actually his unpaid (yes, you read that right) slave who has worked for him for 17 years so she can get back her passport, which he took, to go back home. She doesn't even want to be in this country. Even more shocking, he's been using her name to setup shell corporations to funnel international drug money for a cartel that ranges in the hundreds of millions. They not only bust him for human trafficking (slavery), but for the drug stuff, too, and are able to guarantee that his never-paid housekeeper gets no less than five million dollars of the seized money.

Allison 

While Knox mopes around the office, thinking that he has suddenly fallen out of favor because he was given a simple gun possession case, and Allison battles to out-wait Seth, so she doesn't have to be the first to apologize, Sandra takes a non-duty case when she sees a black woman come five minutes late to file some court papers concerning her living arrangement. Here, we meet court clerk Tina Krissman, the no-nonsense clerk who shows little to no emotion about doing her job, and, similar to Littlejohn, is a stickler about following the rules to a T. Sandra sees this as an outrage and decides to take the woman's case when she learns that the reason the woman was late to file was because she has poor living conditions. The stairs in her tenement are crumbling and there is no elevator, so she had to carefully and cautiously carry her special needs son down the stairs and frantically drive him across the city to his therapy before coming to court. She takes it to trial and gives a story about how terrible it is for people (children especially) to have to live in terrible conditions where they are always threatened with the idea of having to move—something which she herself experienced, which is why she refuses to unpack her things in Allison's apartment. She wins the case.

So while we learned that Knox is a rich-boy son of a US Senator and calls his mommy to the office to parade her around his boss in order to try getting him better cases, we also learn that Seth was completely done when he moved out because he no longer wants to be second fiddle to Allison who made all the decisions during their time together.

Episode three sees Allison take on a trial in which a young black man has stolen something. It is a routine trial but the judge orders that she will ultimately make her judgment with the aid of Evaluate, a new computer program that uses a complex and complicated algorithm to make a sentencing suggestion. After doing some research, she believes the software could be bias against black and brown-skinned people and needs a mathematician to testify on this point before the trial. As it so happens, her brother is a mathematician (and possible college professor) who lives a borough away from her. But they don't get along as well as she'd like. She is the oddball out in the family because she is the only one who didn't go for a math and/or science discipline like her mother, father and brother. He thinks she is the chosen one in their family because their parents gave her that apartment to live in rent-free. Even worse, he knows of the Evaluate technology and thinks it's brilliant, but he does tell her that bias is human and that she needs to look at it with humanity. That leads her to come up with the percentages of tough sentences, which shows that the software recommends tougher sentences than both the national average and the current judge. She would rather trust the judge's own human-error-filled sentences than the machine's. She gets the young man a light sentence.

Knox, the slimey worm he is, tries to poach a case from the very woman he is sleeping with when she, a lawyer for the northern court or some other big court in New York, lets slip after their coitus that she is pursuing the stalled boat of a billionaire embezzler—think Bernie Madoff—trying to flee the country. Unfortunately, a storm is coming, which makes getting to the boat nearly impossible, so the harbor master is willing to let the boat drift to whichever island the wind blows it. Knox uses Seth's meteorology expertise (he was a weather nerd in his youth) to predict where the boat will have to dock in the storm. It docks in New Jersey, but Knox knows this ahead of time and sends a group of Manhattan cops to a restaurant that literally sits right near the dock where the boat has to pull in, and he gets his billionaire.

But the biggest case comes when Littlejohn and Sandra go against each other in a national security case ala Eric Snowden. A young NSA agent and former military soldier procures some information that exposes that the US government was apparently using medical records to track down and deport illegals. While that might sound good to the Blood and Soil type, they had to secretly dig through millions of medical records, mostly of citizens. To the prosecution, the soldier is a traitor. To the public defenders, she is a hero doing her civic duty to protect the rights of citizens.

Each woman matches the other's wits as they battle over this young woman's life. Sandra goes to the press with the woman's story. Littlejohn prepares to make a deal of 78 months in prison. The woman believes she has started a movement and doesn't want a deal at all, but she is too young and naive to realize what she is doing. Sandra counters in court by saying that she wants all of the documents exposed, otherwise the US should dismiss the case. Littlejohn knows that by exposing all the documents or “evidence” they are opening up millions of classified documents that could be harmful to national security. Yet, she is willing to do it to win but asks that all the classified information be redacted and blacked out, which she estimates will take at least 18 months. The judge realizes they are both going to go for each other's throats and tells them to hash out a deal in his chambers. After Littlejohn tells a story about how she never got to go on a field trip to DC to see the capitol building—a lifelong dream—because some idiot thought the rules of the class didn't apply to him, they hammer out a deal that sees the young woman in jail for no more than a year and a lengthy probation. In the end, we see the respective groups (minus Jay) hanging with each other and the two leading ladies of each group feeling more comfortable around the people they will ultimately call family.

What's my grade? I give it a C+. Grey's Anatomy this ain't. I know this is a cliché, and we writers are supposed to hate them, but it is as they say that lightning almost never strikes twice in the same place. It will be hard for Shonda to ever replicate the success of Grey's, especially because of the steadily changing landscape of TV (although, you'd be hard-pressed to see the change with all of these crappy reboots). Again, Grey's Anatomy (along with Desperate Housewives) was a show that essentially changed the entire fabric of TV-viewing for a generation. It came with its own language, its own way of doing things and its own style that made us care about the characters and truly showed heart in TV making. It was, arguably, far more emotional than ER, and felt like it came from a younger mind with a different voice and way of looking at life. None of that is really here in For The People. Grey's had an angle. While it was definitely a good medical drama, it was far more of a contemporary romance. Sure, some people tuned in for the medical stuff, but most watched for the relationship drama that went on from week to week. It was about the adult-coming-of-age story of finding your true love, your clan and how that effects our work lives. Frankly, this is the criticism of Grey's in recent years: it focuses far too much on the medical and less on the romance, and while the medical has gotten more cutting edge and wowing, there is hardly one single couple that you can look at on the show right now and say, “Yes, I want that. I'm shipping them.” And don't tell me you're shipping that Avery/black Grey half-sister (I can't even remember her name most times) because they are very boring and their romance is as tasteless as tap water.

For The People, essentially, comes from the same place. While recent Shonda launches like How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal both still tried to employ the old Grey's formula (HTGAWM's love story was more familial with Annalise and Wes being like mother/son), For The People drives hard at the legal aspect which, after 50 or 60-some years of legal dramas, has to do something amazing to grab audiences. While this may reflect well the life habits of Millennials—more are work and cause-driven rather than relationship and sex-driven—it does little for the audience and doesn't allow us to connect with the characters nearly as much as we might want to. The one romance we have is immediately disassembled on the first episode, and there don't seem to be any other tenuous connections between anyone else, save for the sad attempt of Seth to try bonding with Littlejohn on some human level. Could they sleep together at some point? Sure. But do I care? At this point, not really. That means that the show has but one aspect to it and that is the legal aspect.

That one aspect? Eh! It ain't that great. While I appreciate the differences in using a higher court and in having everyone be a government employee, there isn't much to separate this from any other legal show. The one great thing it currently has going for it is that there aren't many legal dramas on right now. This show feels devoid of... feels. Do you feel a sense of family? No, not really. Sure, that last shot on episode three went a long way in trying to install some sentimentality, but it was held for so long and so little about the characters own families or struggle to fit in in life is still known that it almost felt synthetic, like they were trying to manufacture a connection to these people. This isn't a quirky, work-intensive bunch that all need acceptance and are super vulnerable, it's just a group of young, attractive people who work at an important place.

Then there is the subtle politics of today: gender politics. The fact that almost every main character on the public defender's side is a woman and almost every main character on the US prosecutor's side is a man is not lost on me. In fact, it also doesn't bother me, which is actually rather... saddening because I feel like it should bother me a little. No, not because they are playing gender wars on the show, but because the show is failing to exploit its fundamental design. A great deal of these cases are, I'm assuming, going to be ripped from the headlines and focus on hot-button issues of today that are highly political and easily dividing. Yet, here, I have yet to feel a tear in my heart about which side I should root for or come down on. For instance, the terrorist case should've had me more invested and questioning which side was right and which one was wrong. I should've agonized (as much as you can about a show) over the fact that the prosecutors easily won that case, even though it was clear that the young man had been set up by the FBI. But... I didn't. In fact, I really didn't care which side won. Granted, I sorta wanted Sandra to win but only because I like Britt Robertson so much, which has nothing to do with the narrative of the show. Would it have been nice to see the arrogant Knox get put in his place on the first case out? Yeah, and it might have given his character more dimension, but even that idea can only induce a shrug from me.

The show's premise is that the law is a two-sided coin. The exploit is (or at least should have been) that the public defenders are the compassionate ones, thusly why they are almost all female, while the prosecutors are the ruthless, cold, calculating ones, thusly why they are almost all male. And even though they do somewhat make that distinction, they never drive it home in a meaningful way. Instead, they fail to setup a good versus evil, and they fail to setup a good you choose who to support debate. I want to root for the public defenders and see Knox get crushed every time, but I am often left asking why should I cheer for anybody? 

To me, this show feels similar to FOX's The Resident. Where that show had people that I didn't feel I could properly root for, this show feels like it doesn't have people I could properly remember. Everyone feels like a walking, talking ideal, more of a symbol for something rather than an actual person. Yet, they don't even feel like very strong symbols and I can't particularly pinpoint why that is. Maybe that is because it doesn't dwell in the extremes that often make these shows watchable. It's cutthroat, but doesn't feel cutthroat enough. It tries to be real like a Law and Order, but is far from that level of grittiness. It doesn't employ the over-the-top wackiness of Boston Legal and isn't the hard-driving tough-issues-dealing kind of drama that The Practice was. It's really sorta ho-hum, and I can see why it was a mid-season replacement for the month of March. It couldn't even get a prime January spot.

Should you be watching? This is a tough one because while I think that the show could be ten times better, or that it could make a really great summer show, I'm not sure it's worth a watch right now. Considering what it replaced was Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, which I rather adored because it showed middle-America in a nice light while also mixing the good-naturedness of a My Name is Earl with a pseudo-religious magic, I don't think this warrants a full season in its current time slot. Again, as a writer and creator myself, I really hate talking bad about someone else's creation, but this doesn't ring the bell. It's a shame, too, because I think that it has a pretty good cast. I like Jasmin and really like Britt, and think that Hope steadies the show. For The People airs on ABC Tuesdays at 10pm EST.

What do you think? Have you heard about For The People? If not, do you think you'd tune in for an episode or two now? If you have heard of it, have you seen it? Did you like it? Was I too hard on it? And do you think Seth will get back together with Allison eventually, or will he hook up with Littlejohn? Let me know in the comments below.

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If you’re looking for a scare, check the YA novel #AFuriousWind, the NA novel #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or the bizarre horror #ThePowerOfTen. For those interested in something a little more dramatic and adult, check out #TheWriter. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are out NOW, exclusively on Amazon. Stay connected here for updates on season 4 coming summer 2018. If you like fast action/crime check out #ADangerousLow. The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Look for the mysterious Sci-fi episodic novella series Extraordinary on Amazon. Season 2 of that coming real soon. And look for the mystery novels The Knowledge of Fear #KnowFear and The Man on the Roof #TMOTR coming this fall/winter. Twisty novels as good as Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train, you won’t want to miss them. Join us on Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my blog with that Google+ button to the right.

Until next time, “...that it be for the people, by the people.”

'Right. But remember that we also need to do something for big corporations, too.'

“What? But they're not the people.”

'OK, I see your point. But check this out, what if they were?'

“Ohhhhh!”

P.S. It's still rather baffling to me that corporations can legally be treated as people. I try not to make political statements on this blog but it would seem that if we are supposedly so economically sound now that we almost have full employment, then our next focus should be on one of two things: healthcare, and a critical and sound look and restructuring of the criminal system from new ways to police and all the way up through to new ways of picking judges and how trials are decided. Currently, our legal system is a mess and will only get worse. That is something that politicians should do for the people. I'll try to think of a better sign-off next time.

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