New York, Aug 29: TNT has hyped "Raising the Bar" as the latest landmark series from Steven Bochco, an indisputable TV trailblazer whose "NYPD Blue" (bursting on the scene in 1993), "LA Law" (1986) and, most of all, "Hill Street Blues" (1981) forever changed the face of television.
The 1980s just called, and it wants this drama back.
But don`t be misled. "Raising the Bar" is no breakthrough. Arriving as Bochco`s umpteenth lawyer-centric series, it has a certain instant familiarity. Its glossy look and pat formula seem lifted from a couple of decades ago, when such a drama might have felt cutting-edge. (Additional points off for the title`s painful pun. That`s not cool, man!)
The premise calls for a half-dozen good-looking, demographically diverse young New York lawyers to play the legal game from opposing sides — the public defender`s office and the district attorney`s office. What`s more, they used to be classmates in law school. After a workday spent judicially at odds, they can leave their cases behind and come together at a neighborhood saloon, just like the good old days.
Well, some of them can.
Not Jerry Kellerman (Mark-Paul Gosselaar from "NYPD Blue"), a public defender as adorably scruffy as he is passionate. Correction: obsessed and petulant.
"C`mon, Jerry, we go back too many years!" urges one of his comrades when they gather for drinks. "Lighten up! We do our job, you do yours. It`s the system. It`s not personal."
But it`s personal for Jerry, who storms out.
Jerry clashes most brazenly with Judge Trudy Kessler, who takes a clinical if sometimes spiteful approach to jurisprudence. It`s an often thankless role for Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm in the Middle"), who must do the best she can with lines like, "What part of `I don`t care` don`t you understand?"
"Raising the Bar" also stars Gloria Reuben ("ER"), Teddy Sears ("Ugly Betty"), Currie Graham ("NYPD Blue") and Melissa Sagemiller as a smokin` blond lawyer in the DA`s office whose relationship with Jerry is especially conflicted.
The good news about this show: The pair of episodes that air after the pilot don`t feel quite so creatively confined to boilerplate. "Raising the Bar" might settle into a comfortable diversion.
Nonetheless, it`s dismaying that a series from the man who helped forge TV`s future feels like a relic from his past.
Bureau Report