In Justice
Y
Dec 30, 2005
10-11 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 1
ABC
For all its success in other genres, ABC lags its rivals in the ever-popular procedurals. "In Justice," a robust mutation of "Cold Case" that bursts with quirky characters, could narrow the scripted homicide gap. And when it moves to its regular time period at 9 p.m. Fridays, it could be competitive in a time period that has mostly been up for grabs.
The premise is that ego-driven, politically ambitious, high-profile lawyer David Swain (Kyle MacLachlan), has established a nonprofit organization, the National Justice Project, to take on a small number of criminal cases, say about 22 a season, depending on whether the show gets renewed. Each case involves an innocent person who was railroaded by the judicial system because of flawed or inadequate work by police investigators, prosecutors or defense lawyers, or some combination of all three.
Swain handles the legal motions but the actual investigation of the week's miscarriage of justice is led by Charles Conti (Jason O'Mara), a former police detective who soured on law enforcement after his own work put an innocent man behind bars for a year. Now he's on a mission to make amends. He supervises a team of good-looking, eager and underpaid interns, some idealistic and some who see the job as a stepping stone to a more lucrative career. Overall, the Project functions as a two-parent family, which can be emotionally satisfying on a subconscious level.
Reserving the pilot for Jan. 6, the series begins instead with an episode about a woman convicted of murdering her father 12 years earlier when she was a teenage junkie. Forensic evidence and a neighbor's eyewitness testimony put her behind bars, but the truth, aided by personal contacts and coincidence, will set her free. Tom Szentgyorgyi's script is clever and busy enough to keep fingers on the remote from getting too itchy.
If anything, "In Justice" tries too hard. While it's important to differentiate one character from the next, the first two episodes exaggerate character traits to an extent that what might have been endearing instead almost becomes annoying. Thankfully, O'Mara's determined and understated performance as head investigator Conti keeps things grounded. It also establishes him as a forceful TV star.
Director Paul Holahan employs a variety of storytelling techniques, including grainy black-and-white flashbacks and high-tech computer graphics. This gives the series the look and feel of a well-produced procedural, though it lacks a distinctive visual style. Should the series succeed, exec producer Stu Bloomberg will give ABC the kind of hit that was all too rare when he sat on the other side of the network's executive programming desk.
IN JUSTICE
ABC
Touchstone Television
Credits:
Executive producers: Stu Bloomberg, Robert King, Michelle King, Jeff Melvoin
Co-executive producers: Richard Heus, Tom Szentgyorgyi, Terri Kopp
Supervising producer: Marc Guggenheim
Producer/director: Paul Holahan
Writer: Tom Szentgyorgyi
Director of photography: Bill Roe
Production designer: Michael Novotny
Editor: David Dworetzky
Set designers: Cynthia Lewis, David Brace
Casting: Bonnie Zane, Gayle Pillsbury
Cast:
Charles Conti: Jason O'Mara
David Swain: Kyle Maclachlan
Sonya Qunitano: Marisol Nichols
Jon Lemonick: Daniel Cosgrove
Brianna: Constance Zimmer
Jane McDermott: Marin Hinkle
Henry McDermott: Harry Johnson
Charlotte: Rebecca Pidgeon
Sunday, Jan. 1
ABC
For all its success in other genres, ABC lags its rivals in the ever-popular procedurals. "In Justice," a robust mutation of "Cold Case" that bursts with quirky characters, could narrow the scripted homicide gap. And when it moves to its regular time period at 9 p.m. Fridays, it could be competitive in a time period that has mostly been up for grabs.
The premise is that ego-driven, politically ambitious, high-profile lawyer David Swain (Kyle MacLachlan), has established a nonprofit organization, the National Justice Project, to take on a small number of criminal cases, say about 22 a season, depending on whether the show gets renewed. Each case involves an innocent person who was railroaded by the judicial system because of flawed or inadequate work by police investigators, prosecutors or defense lawyers, or some combination of all three.
Swain handles the legal motions but the actual investigation of the week's miscarriage of justice is led by Charles Conti (Jason O'Mara), a former police detective who soured on law enforcement after his own work put an innocent man behind bars for a year. Now he's on a mission to make amends. He supervises a team of good-looking, eager and underpaid interns, some idealistic and some who see the job as a stepping stone to a more lucrative career. Overall, the Project functions as a two-parent family, which can be emotionally satisfying on a subconscious level.
Reserving the pilot for Jan. 6, the series begins instead with an episode about a woman convicted of murdering her father 12 years earlier when she was a teenage junkie. Forensic evidence and a neighbor's eyewitness testimony put her behind bars, but the truth, aided by personal contacts and coincidence, will set her free. Tom Szentgyorgyi's script is clever and busy enough to keep fingers on the remote from getting too itchy.
If anything, "In Justice" tries too hard. While it's important to differentiate one character from the next, the first two episodes exaggerate character traits to an extent that what might have been endearing instead almost becomes annoying. Thankfully, O'Mara's determined and understated performance as head investigator Conti keeps things grounded. It also establishes him as a forceful TV star.
Director Paul Holahan employs a variety of storytelling techniques, including grainy black-and-white flashbacks and high-tech computer graphics. This gives the series the look and feel of a well-produced procedural, though it lacks a distinctive visual style. Should the series succeed, exec producer Stu Bloomberg will give ABC the kind of hit that was all too rare when he sat on the other side of the network's executive programming desk.
IN JUSTICE
ABC
Touchstone Television
Credits:
Executive producers: Stu Bloomberg, Robert King, Michelle King, Jeff Melvoin
Co-executive producers: Richard Heus, Tom Szentgyorgyi, Terri Kopp
Supervising producer: Marc Guggenheim
Producer/director: Paul Holahan
Writer: Tom Szentgyorgyi
Director of photography: Bill Roe
Production designer: Michael Novotny
Editor: David Dworetzky
Set designers: Cynthia Lewis, David Brace
Casting: Bonnie Zane, Gayle Pillsbury
Cast:
Charles Conti: Jason O'Mara
David Swain: Kyle Maclachlan
Sonya Qunitano: Marisol Nichols
Jon Lemonick: Daniel Cosgrove
Brianna: Constance Zimmer
Jane McDermott: Marin Hinkle
Henry McDermott: Harry Johnson
Charlotte: Rebecca Pidgeon
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