http://tvtastic.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/outlaw-nbc-friday-1000-p-m/ Before we go any further with this review let me just say that I didn't have to even watch this mess to know how awful it would be but I did it anyway. Not because I wanted to, but because I felt that it was only fair that I exhibit some level of integrity with a review considering that the producers exhibited none whenhttp://tvtastic.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/outlaw-nbc-friday-1000-p-m/ Before we go any further with this review let me just say that I didn't have to even watch this mess to know how awful it would be but I did it anyway. Not because I wanted to, but because I felt that it was only fair that I exhibit some level of integrity with a review considering that the producers exhibited none when they created Outlaw. I've made it clear that I'm skeptical of legal procedurals but this is downright embarrassing. It really doesn't matter what your politics are, the ridiculous preachiness of this entire show is so over-the-top as to make the show utterly unwatchable. This is exactly why audiences stopped watching Boston Legal three seasons in despite the fact that James Spader and William Shatner and the rest of the cast gave outstanding performances (Law & Order suffered from this problem as well).
I'm sorry, but seriously, who is this approach appealing to? All this does is completely alienate conservatives and moderates in the audience and with progressives, you're just preaching to the choir. The biggest point of all is that audiences in general are sick and tired of this crap from television and film. They want to be entertained, not lectured to about social justice... especially not on Friday at 10:00 p.m. If they want political partisanship they'll turn on FOX News or MSNBC during prime-time.
Beyond the preachiness, the show is completely legally inaccurate and ridiculously clichéd. Statements like, "The whole legal system is based on protecting that one innocent person that's been falsely accused," "You lawyers are all the same. This is just a game to you. You make me sick," and "You can't put the system before a man's life," permeate the script in place of actual dialogue and original plots.
To make matters worse the cases aren't even compelling. They are incredibly contrived and stolen from old Law & Order episodes and you pretty much have the result of the case figured out within the first twenty minutes and of course each episode is replete with the surprise evidence and the almost Scooby Doo-like conclusion ("...and I would have gotten away it, too if it weren't for that meddling former Supreme Court Justice!"). There are no surprises here whatsoever.
Speaking of clichés, the ensemble cast couldn't be more ridiculous and - again, I'll use that word - cartoonish. Think of it like this: one day the casts of NCIS, Shark and C.S.I. were all involved in a bizarre cloning experiment like in the 1988 Ivan Reitman film Twins, starring Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. They put all of their DNA together in a blender and it resulted in two casts, one that we'll call the "Julius" cast, the other we'll call the "Vincent" cast. Well, apparently the Vincent cast - the one that was the result of all of the leftover crap - systematically smothered the Julius cast with a pillow and burned their corpses and went to work on this show. The characters are lame and the acting is horrific.
The only reason to even consider watching this show is for Smits, who always puts in a solid performance and actually pulls off the Garza character quite convincingly but he simply cannot carry this bad show that spends far more time on the proverbial soap box then it does attempting to entertain the audience and when I say far more time, I mean it's a 90% to 10% ratio. It's kind of like when you get suckered into go to an Amway meeting for the promise of a free meal but with the Amway presentation you have the choice to get up and walk away after your meal. If you watch this show, you have to wait for the entertainment portion to enter sporadically throughout the hour. NBC must be aware of how bad this show is which would explain why the put it in during the absolute worst time slot in the prime-time schedule. I think it's obvious that they are attempting to bury this show so it didn't stain what is otherwise an amazing Fall prime-time lineup. So for my closing argument: Hollywood, keep your politics to yourself, at least with prime-time television, and just create compelling drama that ALL audiences can enjoy. The Prosecution rests.… Expand
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