The Guardian

Tonight's opening episode of The Guardian is as well-crafted as any of this fall's series pilots. The hour plays like a tidy little TV movie. And therein lies its potential problem. Where the series can go from here-go, that is, without losing credibility and the dramatic tensions that make it distinctive-is difficult to fathom. [25 Sept 2001, p.B27]

If The Guardian becomes a hit, credit [Baker's] cool smugness. [25 Sept 2001, p.E-3]

What emerges is a drama that is solid, though not spectacular, and a star more charismatic than complicated. [24 Sept 2001]

It's definitely not sunshine and lollipops, but series creator David Hollander manages to push the right emotional buttons. [25 Sept 2001, p.33]

The Guardian is a show with promise, and it may well develop into a high-quality program in the coming weeks. But it's not a warm, fuzzy, easy-to-love show like, say, "Judging Amy." It's rough and tumble, a challenge to watch. [25 Sept 2001, p.C-1]

It's an engaging set-up for what will likely be a hit, since it was obviously designed to complement the social-service minded "Judging Amy." [25 Sept 2001, p.E1]

The Guardian is manipulative, sad and a little strange. But it does put a new face on the old lawyer series, and as its new star, Baker could live up to his advance billing as a breakout. [25 Sept 2001, p.6]

Mr. Baker has charisma to burn. The dialogue and storytelling in The Guardian are sharp without being overly slick. [25 Sept 2001, p.10C]

Granted, Simon Baker's character is an antihero, but he's got to make us like him enough to want to come back next week... We'll be shocked if it lasts the season. [25 Sept 2001, p.D1]

Selfish Nick finds purpose in life by helping troubled children, and that plot could reverberate in a shaken culture. Yet The Guardian is utterly predictable and suffers for it. [25 Sept 2001, p.E1]

If the makers of The Guardian can get their minds out of the men's room, this series has potential. [25 Sept 2001, p.83]

The show has an admirable energy, but there's also an offensive smugness that it will have to do a lot to overcome.

The Guardian is a chilling, state-of-America show, pointedly devoted to the question, "What is a meaningful life?" Simon Baker is galvanizing as the hero, intense and hard to read. This is what he's meant to be, but as to whether The Guardian and this tortured angel of a corporate lawyer will be a hit with viewers, it is impossible to say in these days of war and retribution. [25 Sept 2001, p.R2]

The Guardian isn't nearly as watchable as its star. The Eye web already has a chamber full of noble justice hounds thanks to "Family Law" and "Judging Amy," so this legal drama, though powered by a terrific perf from fresh face Simon Baker, feels a bit late to the ex parte. There's even a small subplot in the pilot about young tech titans involved in a dot-com takeover. How yesterday can you get? [17 Sept 2001, p.30]

The Guardian, despite having some promise, wears prominently on its forehead the scarlet "P" of predictability. You can be fairly certain that not only will Fallin make this difficult situation work, but that he'll be a better man for it. [25 Sept 2001, p.C2]

Despite two great character actors as support--Alan Rosenberg runs the legal clinic and Dabney Coleman is the dad--this manipulative and cloying series neither rings true nor strikes the emotional chords it all too transparently wants to pluck. [25 Sept 2001, p.47]

Baker exudes a stoic charm. As his demanding father, Dabney Coleman is a disquieting presence. [25 Sept 2001, p.48]

Nothing thrilling, which actually seems to work on CBS. [25 Sept 2001, p.1E]

In the end, though, tinkering around the edges won't be enough to ensure The Guardian's future if Baker's performance remains a void at the center of the drama.

The concept is too contrived...Fallin's sentence is 1,500 hours. His show will be lucky to get much past six. [25 Sept 2001, p.C03]

The problem here is that the producers think the point of the show is not the kids or their hard-luck cases but to provide as many close-up shots as possible of what they consider to be Baker's exceptionally handsome mug. It is telegenic, I suppose, but Baker's character makes the turnaround to compassion entirely too quickly. [25 Sept 2001, p.C1]

Cautious and slow. [25 Sept 2001, p.E8]

All of this pressure apparently has left Nick considerably annoyed, since whether solving the murder case or salvaging the corporate deal, one-note peevishness is pretty much all Baker conveys. You could get the impression he had been sentenced to do this show...We, however, are free to watch something else.

If each hour of The Guardian represents one hour of its central character's 1,500-hour community-service sentence, Fallin should be Fallin short by about 1,487 hours. [25 Sept 2001, p.101]

But Nicky Fallin is about as unlikable and uncomfortable a character as television audiences have ever been asked to care for. Maybe he would unfold splendidly over time. But it's doubtful he'll get that time. [25 Sept 2001, p.5B]