Fairly Legal

• Director: Bronwen Hughes
• Screenwriter/Written By: Various
• Starring: Baron Vaughn, Michael Trucco, Sarah Shahi, Virginia Williams
• Running Time: 41 mins.

Following the trend of lawyer shows, this new USA series, nights, drives deep into the law with less of an intriguing back-story. “Less lawyer. More appeal” is what Fairly Legal is promoting, but after watching the first episode, this soon becomes ironic. Sarah Shahi (Psych, The L Word) plays the quick-witted Kate Reed who becomes a mediator after leaving her job as a lawyer at her father’s San Francisco firm once her dad dies. Yet, there is no time to get interested in her relationship with her once-lawyer father, besides a connection to her boss Lauren Reed (Virginia Williams- How I Met Your Mother) who happens to be her stepmother and Kate’s same age. Instead, the characters are introduced, and without as much as a background check, several law cases unfold that eventually pile into a single overwhelming situation. Even Kate’s guiltless anger towards her stepmother becomes overshadowed by the job at hand.

In one episode she solves a quarrel between a clothing tycoon and his son as well as a married couple fighting over a missing ring. These are not the most alarming cases ever, nor are they the most exciting. However, the concluding results prove to be somewhat entertaining and even humorous at the end. Mediator Kate smashes the husband’s watch to make the man and wife feel like they are equal, and the son of the merchandiser complies because of an embarrassing photo of him driving in woman clothing. Yet, all the events leading up to these discoveries create confusion. You might be able to follow Kate’s quick antidotes, but it does not leave a lot of time for viewers to figure out what will happen next before she shouts it out. Not surprisingly, her skills in resolving conflicts allows her to get her way every time, which is something that could sour any exciting law story if done repeatedly. Perhaps future chapters will have a more gripping storyline.

Besides the questionable writing, I thought the supporting actors were not believable in their roles.  This is especially true for Virginia Williams as stepmom Lauren Reed. She does not seem to be focused on any of the problems between her and Kate and this makes it appear as though there is no friction there at all.

On the other hand, while the program’s opening lacked an attention-grabbing design, Fairly Legal’s main character could help pull the upcoming plots together as the audience eventually discovers more about her past. What’s more, it is a praiseworthy thing for a show to place a headstrong female personality at the forefront of seemingly challenging issues for the characters. Additionally, she has the ability to see past the lies of her charming ex-husband Justin Patrick’s (Michael Trucco- Castle). Reed is definitely the woman who gets things done, and all with picturesque San Francisco as the backdrop.
Overall, you should see this show for what it is—a good thing to have on in the background while working on something else.