Doubt
What: New legal drama starring Katherine Heigl.
When: Premieres 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Where: CBS.
What: New legal drama starring Katherine Heigl.
When: Premieres 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Where: CBS.
CBS’s latest legal drama, “Doubt,” is a something of a hung jury.
Katherine Heigl plays Sadie Ellis, a defense attorney for a small but highly regarded New York City law firm headed by liberal icon Isaiah Roth (Elliot Gould). She has been handling a case of a hunky pediatric surgeon named Billy Brennan (Steven Pasquale) who has been accused of murdering his girlfriend 24 years before, when he was a 16-year-old.
In the four-months Sadie took to get Billy out of jail, she has fallen for him, but is he guilty. That’s the soapy steamy aspect of the series from “Grey’s Anatomy” alums Tony Phelan and Joan Rater.
The rest of it is about being quirky and breezy.
The law firm is populated with stories for the series to juggle. Isaiah drops in to be wise or funny.
One of Sadie’s associates is Albert Cobb (“Psych” alum Dulé Hill), who brings a slightly acerbic presence to the role, and has relationship problems. Another is a transgender lawyer (Laverne Cox) trying to make her mark. Cox is the first transgender actor to play a transgender character as a regular on broadcast TV.
While Billy’s case is the ongoing story as Sadie wants to prove his innocent and convince herself he’s isn’t guilty, each week brings another case or two to deal with. The first week has Cameron defending a man who pushed someone off a subway platform and thinks he’s Jackie Chan. In other episodes, the firm defends a judge who is having sex with his wife who has dementia, then later a student who is being sued for harassment by a man she claimed rape her.
All the while, the series slowly reveals Sadie’s backstory, which includes the fact that her mom is in prison and had refused to take a plea deal.
“Doubt” never rises above the usual frothy formula that made “Grey’s” popular for more than a decade. Sometimes its dialogue is way too cute, but that often covers lapses in logic or reality. (The case against Billy seems too flimsy for such an a dogged pursuit by the DA.)
However, the cast is likeable. The show is competent for what it is. (Phelan and Rater know the territory.) And the series manages to address some real issues in evenhanded ways. So while it’s not my cup of tea, I wouldn’t write “Doubt” off.
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