Has anyone else seen the promotional ads for this new TV show? The ad starts out by saying that "Thousands of Americans are Wrongfully Convicted Each Year" and then goes downhill from there. The premise of the show is that there's this guy who goes around each week getting all of the people that are wrongfully convicted out of prison. As if CSI didn't already make our job hard enough, now this? What are these TV producers doing to us?

I haven't seen it, but it sounds like it has potential to be reason #247 why I can't stomach network TV anymore.

Of course, such a program may have great potential as a voir dire question for use in exercising peremptory strikes!

Good, we're finally going to get an unbiased, real-life, educational program, proving that innocent people are filling our jails and prisons. Wonder if it'll be hosted by O.J. and little Bobby Blake, with a partially stolen title from one of the old shows, 'This Was Your Wife'?

Where are all the guilty people hiding ??

Maybe they are all MENSA members as they seem to be able to commit all types of horrible crimes and then dupe police, prosecutors and jurors into thinking some other poor shmuck is responsible.

These shows make me so mad when I watch that my husband has put parental controls on all the channels except HGTV !

From ABC's website:

Series Premiere!
Sunday, January 1 at 10/9c

"Brothers and Sisters"

In Justice is a completely new take on the procedural drama. Focusing on cases of justice run amok -- sloppy police work, false testimony and biased juries -- the National Justice Project is a high-profile, non-profit organization made up of hungry young associates who approach their work like a puzzle... a puzzle that's been put together wrong. They fight to overturn wrongful convictions, liberate the falsely accused and discover the identity of those really to blame. They're led in their task by modern-day heroes, David Swain, a blustery but charismatic attorney of questionable ethics but undeniable talent, and his chief investigator, Charles Conti, a former cop.

In the premiere episode, the National Justice Project takes on the case of a 32-year-old former junkie imprisoned for murdering her father while robbing his house.

'In Justice' is more of an injustice
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Anyone who owns a TV knows the world is not a particularly just place.

If there were any justice of the televised variety, Arrested Development would be a hit and NCIS would be fighting for its life, rather than the other way around. And ABC wouldn't be making us miss Grey's Anatomy for a special preview of a low-wattage, no-brainer, probably pre-doomed procedural like In Justice.

Still, justice or no, new year or old, actors have to work, and Justice does provide employment for two good ones in Kyle MacLachlan and Jason O'Mara. It's hardly their fault if the writers don't quite seem to have figured out what to do with them.

The broad outlines, of course, are in place. David Swain (MacLachlan) and Charles Conti (O'Mara) run the National Justice Project, a crusading group that goes about freeing the wrongly convicted. Swain is a rich, playboy lawyer who takes care of the legal details, while ex-cop Conti handles the investigative work. Naturally, they have a set of helpmates, played by Marisol Nichols, Constance Zimmer and Daniel Cosgrove. As is the way with such shows, they're young, pretty and diligent � when not flirting or bickering.

For Sunday's episode, they take on the case of a woman (Two and a Half Men's Marin Hinkle) who was unjustly convicted of killing her father. When the show moves to its regular time slot next Friday (9 p.m. ET/PT), they'll come to the aid of a man who has been serving time for a robbery he didn't commit. Neither story qualifies as thrilling, but neither involves the dismemberment of a female victim, which is a welcome change from most procedural premieres.

In a sense, In Justice is a mystery in reverse. We know who didn't do it. What's left to discover is who did, and how the police got it so wrong. And therein lies the rub: In the two episodes available for preview, the mistakes made by the police, the prosecutors and the defense attorneys are so blatant and stupid, you wonder why anyone would need a Justice League to uncover them. A 4-year-old could crack these cases.

Unfortunately, none of the characters is interesting enough to paper over the holes in the plot. Swain seems to be trying out a new personality in each scene, and Conti has been saddled with one of those sad-sack back stories that sends you out of the room screaming. But why scream? Soon, Grey's will be back where it belongs, and Justice will be exiled to Friday, where it will be easy to ignore.

And that, my friends, is justice, TV style.

The verdict: Court drama is an injustice

The TV critic and the circuit judge agree: ABC's new show is shackled by shortcomings.

CHASE SQUIRES and LINDA BABB
Published December 31, 2005

Upon being congratulated by a television critic last summer for not loading up his fall schedule with the ubiquitous procedural cop and court dramas, ABC's president of prime-time entertainment, Stephen McPherson, was quick to correct.

The network, he said, was eagerly hunting for a new procedural. Something along the lines of what Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI) or Dick Wolf (Law & Order) have been churning out.

The network's new entry, In Justice, is not it. And judging by the way ABC is springing the one-hour drama on viewers and critics with little warning and fanfare, the network knows it.

The plot involves wealthy civil attorney David Swain (played by Kyle MacLachlan from Twin Peaks and Sex and the City) spending $5-million to buy a rundown hotel for his National Justice Project, assembling a team of eager young attorneys and investigators who unravel injustices, free the wrongly incarcerated and punish the guilty.

By airing a "sneak preview" episode Sunday, ABC is trying to ride some Desperate Housewives mojo, as that popular program airs a "new" recap special. But by doing so, ABC gets ahead of itself by airing an episode out of context, before the pilot can set the stage and explain the backdrop. Without some background, viewers will be left adrift.

Just as well. The pilot, airing in the show's regular 9 p.m. slot Friday, does little to clear up the mess, except to hint that Swain may be financing this crusade for justice as a way to make the state's attorney general look bad while Swain himself mulls a run at the office.

Nothing works in this mishmash. The flashbacks are confusing, the wrongly incarcerated inmates aren't sympathetic. And the cute "questionable ethics" the young go-getters use to unearth clues (such as lying, burglarizing and intimidating witnesses) don't sit well.

Even the premise makes no sense. As he vacillates between naive crusader and vain, cynical politician, Swain comes across as morally ungrounded and unstable.

A glance through an online database uncovers no identifiable connection to crime-related dramas for executive producers-creators Michelle and Robert King or their co-executive producers. That lack of experience shows throughout. The team seems to have little understanding of prison life, courtroom procedures or criminology, and they mistake inventing convenient plot twists from thin air with cleverly assembling a puzzle in front of viewers' eyes.

I realize that the popular entertainment industry long ago abandoned any pretense of elevating the culture and I am confident the run of this program will be a short one but must the uninformed and the agenda driven continue to pollute the jury pool? At long last, have they no.....well, you get my drift.

Just remember, good government ain't interesting. so we've got to expect lots ov evil cops and nasty prosecutors in this show...

Not only is "in Justice" premiering Friday evening, January 6, ABC's "20/20" has elected that night to feature an "investigation" into two juveniles that were adjudicated in my county some years ago for aggravated sexual assault on a determinate sentence and subsequently went to TYC and TDC. One confessed, the other had a jury trial. The child victim subsequently "recanted" several years later under very bizarre circumstances. Needless to say, all issues that will be raised on the TV show have been thoroughly dealt with at appellate levels and upheld. It must be a sheer coincidence that this case was selected on the same evening as "in Justice." I can only say that my contacts with ABC News were quite adversarial, the reporter emailing me about whether I can sleep knowing one of the boys is still in prison. Balanced? Accurate? I haven't seen the show, but I doubt it.

My favorite headline for the show yet:

"With 'In Justice,' ABC Is Guilty Of Petty Theft"

but hey, at least the show comes clean about the tendency of the crusaders to use questionable ethics and the ulterior political motives of their leader.

i just keep reminding myself that this is a mid-season replacement. that's bad for dramas and good for comedies. its only hope is that it airs on friday nights which means the network won't pull it as quick. still, you never know when a network is going to become enamored of a show that no one else is (cough, cough, suddenly susan, cough, cough) and keep it on the air just because the network knows what we like better than we do. there's an injustice for you.

P.S.--and how am i supposed to get any sleep now after that UT game?

Well, it seems that NBC isn't about to let ABC steal the friday night lights, NBC is coming out with Book of Daniel, some show about a preecher/pastor, his unusual congregation and over-sexed, drugged family members all set in a 'Desperate Housewives' type suburbia. I'd lay odds that people watch that one.

Anyone seen the adds for this new show "Conviction"?

It starts March 3, 2006 on Friday evenings. Here's a link if you're interested:

Conviction on NBC

Looks like a "Grey's Anatomy" version of "Law & Order." I saw some TV spots for it and they remind me of the tone of the inJustice commercials, except that the lawyers are talking to and trying to help victims of crime and not convicted murderers. But then, they had me at hello.

At the very least, the prosecutors are the heros in this one.

[This message was edited by David Newell on 02-13-06 at .]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but I wouldn't get ahead of yourself, David. Today's heroes become tomorrows goats as soon as ratings fail to meet expectations. Remember, unlike the mainstream media (most of which at least feigns obediance to the truth), TV shows are for entertainment, not accuracy.

Personally, I've only seen 15 minutes of one episode of Grey's Anatomy before I turned it off in disgust (it started off w/ a male patient who can't get rid of his erection, then segues into two characters having sex in the hospital, then switches to characters sitting around talking about sex -- zzzzzzz ...). If this new show is along those same lines, I'm not sure I want it to be successful. Judging by the description on that NBC link, this show will be closer to Ally McBeal than Law & Order, Dick Wolf or no Dick Wolf.

Would you rather viewers tune in to watch inJustice or Conviction? Sounds like a good voir dire question actually.

I gave up on fiction shows years ago...I prefer watching a well-crafted DVD movie or book. The TV comes on only for football and news. Frankly, I get enough drama and reality at work. I don't need some fabricated silliness interspersed with high octave comercials for pickup trucks.

Rick, Well said!

quote:

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I don't need some fabricated silliness interspersed with high octave comercials for pickup trucks.

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Rick, I thought you said that you did, in fact, watch TV news of your own volition.

Mea Culpa.