TVSquad

I'm sort of glad to hear that Mehcad Brooks is leaving HBO's True Blood to join the cast of ABC's midseason legal drama The Deep End. At least, I hope that's what it means.

Between his character Benedict "Eggs" Talley, whiny Tara Thornton, and shaky Maryann Forrester, I won't be sorry to see that whole storyline come to an end. And if my recent conversation with Alan Ball means what I think it means, Brooks probably won't be returning. Well, maybe. Stay tuned for that interview.

Canterbury's Law didn't last too long (be honest, you barely remember it), but Juliana Margulies is donning the power suit and getting back into the courtroom in CBS' new drama The Good Wife. This show is "ripped from the headlines" in every way. Her husband is a politician who goes to jail after a money/sex scandal, she's all over YouTube, and even her boss has her picture taken with Hilary Clinton and looks a little like Gloria Allred (it's Christine Baranski). Margulies' character could probably get a few million for writing a tell-all, but she decides to practice law again.

It's looking like David E. Kelley's plan is to have at least one of his legal shows on the air at all times.

The producer/writer is now pitching a new legal drama series to the networks. CBS and NBC are particularly interested. No word on whether or not ABC is interested in the new show, which would be odd since they've had some success with one of Kelley's other legal shows, Boston Legal, which is ending after this season.

To refresh your memory, here are the other legal shows that Kelley has created, written, and/or produced over the years: Ally McBeal, The Practice, The Law Firm, Girls Club, and L.A. Law. Actually, even some of his non-law shows have had strong law elements, including Picket Fences.

Kelley was working on the American version of Life On Mars, which premieres on ABC later this month, but left after the pilot. The show is getting good buzz so far.

Shark will swim again -- at least for the rest of this season. The future, however, remains unclear. CBS today announced that Shark will return on April 29 in a new timeslot. The network is switching the L.A. legal drama from Sundays at nine to Tuesdays at nine, where it may benefit from the strong lead-in of NCIS. Chances are that if Shark holds NCIS's ratings -- or improves on them -- that could mean more Shark for fall. If the show stumbles, CBS will likely pull the plug.

Fans of Shark may need to get more militant if they want to keep the show on the air. In a recent story we did about CBS renewals, there was fervent outcries for bringing back Moonlight and The Unit, even Cane. Out of 40 comments, only two came to Shark's defense. It may be a small sample, but still...

Paul Attanasio, House executive producer, has conjured up a legal drama for Fox. The network greenlighted a one-hour pilot, Court K, which is set in Milwaukee and involves a judge, a prosecutor and a public defender. Just because it's set in Milwaukee, don't expect to see Laverne and Shirley.

Like House is not your typical medical drama, Court K will not be a typical lawyer show, not that Boston Legal is typical, but you know what I mean. Court K is reportedly a lot grittier, with sardonic, dark comic elements. We'll have to see if any of the principals are hooked on Vicodan. I wonder if it'll remind me of the movie ...And Justice For All, which was also a dark comic look at a Baltimore courthouse. But then, wasn't that Night Court, too?

One of my older sisters is an attorney, and we've been talking about the new season a lot lately. She doesn't watch much TV, but she's really into legal shows (which stands to reason - I gravitate towards shows about writers) and she keeps asking me if I've seen the FX series Damages yet. I keep telling her that it's really hard to watch every show out there when I have to write about so many. And I also tell her that if she watches Mad Men then I'll give Damages a chance. No word on the deal yet.

However, October 20 might just be my chance to catch up on the show, as FX is going to air a 12 hour marathon starting at 8am. They already aired a shorter marathon on Labor Day (five episodes), but this marathon will include the first 12 episodes of the series.

The season finale airs on October 23 at 10pm.

[via Pop Candy]

A season squaring off with Michael Chiklis on The Shield must have whetted Glenn Close's appetite to do edgy series TV. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Close has signed on to star in her first TV pilot, a legal drama for FX.

The pilot is the creation of Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, and Daniel Zelman. The Kesslers worked together on the short-lived Robbery Homicide Division, and Todd wrote and produced for The Sopranos. The series, yet to be titled, will have Close playing Patty Hughes, a famous litigator who always works on high-profile cases.

Because the man didn't have enough to do with a sci-fi and legal drama in development, the hardest working man in showbiz will be producing The Wedding Store, an hour-long dramedy for Fox set to premiere mid-season. Along with Tim Minear's Drive, the two series represent Fox's big Spring offerings.

The show has a strange, but not unfamiliar history, to Hollywood watchers. The series is based on a similarly-themed 2004 pilot project that Kelley and co-producer Jason Katims, now the showrunner for Friday Night Lights, developed for ABC called DeMarco Affairs and a Fox project that was in the process of being redeveloped. That project was entitled The Wedding Album. The amalgamation we'll be seeing on TV this Spring is described by Kelley as "a romantic comedy about a group of wedding planners dedicated to having their clients live happily ever after, or at least until they get to the parking lot."

The wedding industry has never been more ripe for satire than now. Let's hope the great premise ends in great results.

(S01E02) This opens with a game of Texas Hold'em -- James Woods' character Sebastian Stark seems to enjoy playing poker as much as the actor himself does. Then it occurs to me, maybe a show about a poker-playing actor would have been a better idea (it's only been done a couple times) rather than what this is -- another legal drama.

The case this time involves a murdered cop -- and a chance for new prosecutor Stark to enhance his reputation with the police department following his years as a high-profile defense attorney, which is a good idea for a story, so I've got high hopes starting out. However ...

(S01E01) The premise here is that a high-priced defense attorney grows a conscience and heads up an new unit of the prosecutor's office to convict high-profile (read rich and/or famous) criminals. This set-up is dispensed with in a couple short scenes so we can get on with it. I appreciated that. There's also a subplot with Sebastian Stark (James Woods) learning to feel and become a better father to his daughter. Squeeze in a couple scenes to establish Jessica Devlin (Jeri Ryan) as a no-nonsense D.A. who is doubtful about having Stark in her department. Then add in four or five difficult-to-distinguish attractive young associates to complete Stark's team, and even before we get to his first case, the one-hour pilot is packed full of character types we've seen in prime time many times before.

Having read or seen next to nothing about this show -- only that it stars one of my favorite actors, James Woods (stepping away from the Hold'em table) and involves lawyering -- I found my excitement-level raise immediately in the opening scene when the action cuts away from Woods' closing arguments in a trial, to Jeri Ryan rolling her eyes at him in the courtroom audience. She plays District Attorney Jessica Devlin. Okay, I'm in for now.

Woods plays Sebastian Stark. That's Stark, not Shark. Don't call him "the Shark" he hates that, at least that's what he says, although there's evidence to the contrary too. Not unexpectedly, Stark is in love with himself, and has mad skills at getting the rich and famous off the hook. Shark the series has a "what-if" premise. What if a high-priced defense lawyer had a crisis of conscience and decided to become a prosecutor? (Slight spoilers after the jump.)

According to fellow TV Squadder Bob Sassone, I could be reviewing one of the last episodes of In Justice before it goes on "hiatus". I'm surprised at this, considering that ABC has been touting the show as the highest rated new drama on Friday nights. That, and I never had a chance to warm up to the show.

Or, this could be all bogus and we could be talking about the show ten years from now and how it jumped the shark in season seven when it became a three-camera, studio audience sitcom. 

Despite the speculation, I shall plow ahead. This week the focus is on Constance Zimmer's character Brianna. What I didn't realize last episode was that Brianna, as well as Jon (Daniel Cosgrove) and Sonya (Marisol Nichols) are attorneys at the National Justice Project. Charles Conti (Jason O'Mara) is the exception; he's a former cop.

I didn't set out to watch In Justice, and the last thing I need is another courtroom drama to love. But it was Sunday, all of my favorite shows were in re-runs or supplanted by tedious TV movies or double-length episodes of Extreme Makeover, my boys were all feverish, and I wanted to do nothing for a while. And so, I didn't change the channel from the very dull Desperate Housewives recap.

And look! There's Kyle MacLachlan, who last played Charlotte's impotent Scottish husband on Sex and the City. And hey! That's Constance Zimmer, who I finally identified as the only reason worth watching the insultingly awful Good Morning Miami. And the criminal who is so grateful to be taken in by the Justice Project - that's one of my faves, she played Sela Ward's sister on the fabulous and much-missed Once and Again. (And if you're still wondering where it is you've seen Marisol Nichols - she played Audrey Griswold on Vegas Vacation. *groan* She's still a hottie, though.)