Fairly Legal set visit: Advanced preview review (part 4)

(Check out our set visit in part 1, our Virginia Williams interview in part 2, and
our Michael Trucco interview in part 3)

Whenever I receive a DVD or a sneak preview, I feel guilty if I cannot give a 100% positive review. Unfortunately, that occasionally applies to shows as well. When I visited Fairly Legal (then called Facing Kate), after the Psych visit in August, the show sounded like the chick flick, strong female lead type that I’d normally watch. While we there, they showed us the advanced copy in a makeshift viewing room. The premise surrounds quirky Kate, who, tired of working as a high level corporate lawyer, becomes a mediator and moves into her father’s boat. Think Caroline in the City meets Gray’s Anatomy with a legal twist. Unfortunately, based on the rough cut, a couple things stuck out at me concerning the show’s legal conceit, the main character, and the portrayal of supporting characters. While I enjoyed visiting the set and meeting the actors, a couple things stuck in my craw, particularly:

The show’s lack of mediation focus.
Because friends of mine used mediators for handling divorce and school issues, I found myself excited for a “non-legal” legal show. Unfortunately, we did not see an actual mediation session until the final fifteen minutes. Instead, the show’s initial segments followed Kate doing lawyer-like items such as talking to her client’s defendants (for another case) and drawing up contracts.

While the premise of a corporate lawyer wanting to change the system isn’t new (hello, Ally McBeal, The Practice, Family Law, The Defenders), the corporate lawyer working at the same corporate law firm with the same corporate clients is. Honestly, I would’ve preferred to see her do pro bono work (without a court order) or continue as a lawyer but work as a public defender for the “little people.” So, in a way, I’m glad they changed the title to Fairly Legal, giving Kate leeway to do less mediator-like items.

Kate is too fabulous.
On a network welcoming psychic detectives, obsessive compulsive investigators, and penniless art thieves, Kate’s biggest quirk is she’s too fabulous. No matter how outlandish generation one USA shows appeared, they all had an element of reality from maternal abandonment to spousal mourning, but Kate’s life is all fantasy and no hardship. Despite becoming a mediator, she doesn’t lose her salary and maintains the same awesome office. Despite leaving her husband, who seems absolutely perfect, he still loves her and wants another shot.

The writers seem afraid to show her flaws, which generates a superwoman complex.  Similar to the initial episodes of In Plain Sight, where Mary could do no wrong, every single scene showcases Kate’s fabulousness. In the morning she conveniently talks down a robber from her local deli. She’s late to court, but the judge talks up her mediation resume. She spends her day hanging out with her brother and ignoring her boss’ calls, but, hey, it’s okay, she’s trying to save the conveniently placed inner city kids, affiliated with her client’s other case, from going to prison.

Or perhaps Kate isn’t quirky enough for me. While her accessories are technically quirky, having a pretty woman wear pretty shoes and a lot of pretty jewelry doesn’t exactly break the mold. I love her fashion sense, her Louboutins, her red leather trench coat, but it would have been more interesting/realistic if she wore patent leather wellingtons everywhere as opposed to three inch heels.

The supporting characters need fleshing out.
I felt the supporting characters stuck too closely to type from the slacker geeky assistant who’s smarter than his boss to the stay-at-home brother to the too-perfect ex-lover.

I won’t lie, I loved the Leo character. They chose an excellent actor for the part. However, he struck me as smarter than Kate. So, the loyal, geeky assistant who is more professional and slightly smarter than the boss, made me slightly uncomfortable (hello, Rules of Engagement). Las Vegas made this mistake with James Lesure’s character in the first season, but rectified it in the second. Because, really? An African-American MIT PhD is happy opening cars? Speaking as a minority, it’s possible that would happen, but Interviews with Hideous Men’s bathroom attendant’s son’s monologue indicates why it might not. While I loved Leo’s comic book writing, Buffy collecting fetish, his creating a comic book character based on Kate because she is the most fabulous, exciting woman — who he does not love romantically — seemed more about Kate’s awesomeness. At this point we already have tons of slacker, geeky assistant characters, so, I would have loved if he were a lawyer writing a comic book instead.

When we first met Kate’s brother rocking a pink sweater midday while carrying a baby and complaining about his lover’s absence, I knew which character he was and wished the writers had gone against type. Rather than making him a former lawyer with a high-powered off-screen lover, it would’ve been more interesting to watch him go toe-to-toe with his stepmother over the firm’s control while trying to raise a family.

Although I loved Kate’s almost-ex-husband, he felt like the “guy.” We see Kate’s stepmother having dinner with clients, we watch Leo drawing in his comic book, but we never see Justin doing anything outside Kate. From what I’ve read, the character changes but whenever I see a show include a significant other with personality who doesn’t overtake the show (hello, White Collar’s Elizabeth), I’m happy.

At the end of the day I’ll probably wind up watching Fairly Legal. And, as someone tired of romantic comedies that pretend their highly attractive lead can’t find a guy, I liked they didn’t pretend the absolutely gorgeous Kate did not have men interested in her outside her ex-husband. As things typically change between the rough cut and the preview, the preview and the final pilot, and the pilot and the show itself, I’m banking on the latter for when the show airs.

Mediation Sessions
If you’re interested in the show’s premise, Fairly Legal will sponsor mediation sessions throughout  New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco. If you’re interested in attending for Wednesday, 1/19, check out the following spots:

• New York – Times Square 9:00am – Herald Square 10:15am – Union Square Noon
• Chicago – Daley Plaza 9:15am – Lake/State Street 10:15am – Michigan Avenue 11:45am
• San Francisco – Union Square 9:30am – Fisherman’s Wharf 11:00am – Ghirardelli Square Noon
• Philadelphia – Liberty Bell 9:25am – Rittenhouse Square 12:15pm
• Los Angeles – The Grove 10:45am – Rodeo Drive 2:30pm

Clacked by An Nicholson
on Jan 19, 2011 @ 09:00 EST5EDT