Thursday, January 21, 2010

LISTEN TO YOUR FRIEND BILLY ZANE, HE'S A COOL DUDE: ABC's new "It's like Grey's Anatomy, but with lawyers" show The Deep End just finished airing on the East Coast. Now, I haven't watched it yet (indeed, I'm scheduling this post to publish before it even starts airing), but given the demographics of our readership, a thread seems in order for mockery, ridicule, and commentary on the realism or lack thereof--I suspect we won't have lawyers pulling all-nighters reviewing documents to put on a list and then shouting "I already work around the clock!"

ETA: OK, so it wasn't that bad, though the characters aren't particularly interesting or well drawn except for the hot blonde with Tom Amandes Daddy Issues, and there's nothing even approaching reality in the show (new law grad interviewing for a highly prestigious gig at the start of their 3L summer?). But Billy Zane glowers and grunts well, and I'm not entirely sure what Norbert Leo Butz is doing, though it's somewhat interesting.

14 comments:

  1. Adam C.10:13 PM

    I didn't watch it and almost certainly won't, but I do have to take issue with the Grey's Attorney nickname that ALOTT5MA Friend Dan Fienberg gave the show over at HitFix -- clearly, we should be calling it Black's Law Dictionary.

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  2. Is it true that they have 5 characters who are first-year associates, and they bill them as the best in the field from Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia and..................Case Western?  Reeeeeeeeeally?  Case Western?  One of these things is not like the other...

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  3. isaac_spaceman1:43 AM

    Spacewoman wants me to say that she thinks the show is "really, really terrible." 

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  4. spacewoman4:40 AM

    Really just stunningly bad.  I generally don't expect a lot of legal accuracy out of my sexy lawyer shows, but this was the worst thing I've ever seen.  The first year associate gets handed a pro bono case to handle solo on his first day?  And is in court the next day?  And the other side is a fancy rich lady who his firm wants to woo, so the managing partner orders him to lose? And he discovers the brilliant legal theory of exploitation, which doesn't make any sense, and so is in chambers to talk to the judge ex parte within the hour?  And he convinces the judge to make new law by quoting a snarky line from a 1999 opinion back to the judge who wrote it?  Really?  How did he find that case, by searching Westlaw for inspirational quotes?  By reading every opinion the judge ever wrote on the way over on the ... bus?  In LA?  And his fellow first year went on a deposition with a partner and slept with the deponent's niece during the deposition?  What in the what??  One can only imagine that no real lawyers were harmed in the making of this show.

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  5. Maggie9:27 AM

    As a grad of Case Western's law school, I guess I'll have to watch.

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  6. Heather K9:54 AM

    Sooo this isn't Grey's Anatomy with lawyers but a show that aspires to that and falls far, far short is the sense I am getting here and yet I will still probably watch the tivo'ed ep even fairly warned.

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  7. Bob in SA10:32 AM

    It was without a doubt the absolute worst show about lawyers I have ever seen.  I do feel sorry for Billy Zane.  I'm just glad his mother and father didn't decide to name him Richard.

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  8. I feel perfectly good about not having DVR'd this.  I also feel perfectly good about not working at a big law firm anymore, so....

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  9. jcpbmg10:58 AM

    so the big question is how many more of these "grey's anatomy with..." shows can ABC churn out?

    at this point they've already done astronauts, lawyers, doctors and reports (if shonda's "in the box" ever gets picked up)

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  10. Andrew11:56 AM

    The legal system that the Deep End operates in is so, well, off the deep end, that it's funnier than intended. It may be a terrible show, but it could be a brilliant drinking game (unless, of course, you don't want to be pass out before 9 PM):

    Drink every tme:
    -A first year associate goes to court, or pretty much does any work that a first year associate isn't likely to do
    -Someone commits a serious breach of legal ethics
    -A first year associate walks into the office and is more casual about just having spent a night in jail than a castmember on Jersey Shore was after spending a night in jail. 

    You might not make it to the last act...

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  11. George2:42 PM

    The scary thing is that the guy who created this mess worked in a big firm for a few years. According to Above the Law, the show is the product of Biglaw refugee David Hemingson, a ‘90 Columbia law grad who summered at Milbank and worked for a few years at Loeb & Loeb. 

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  12. Anonymous7:33 PM

    You have to express more your opinion to attract more readers, because just a video or plain text without any personal approach is not that valuable. But it is just form my point of view

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  13. Anonymous1:15 PM

    It is useful to try everything in practise anyway and I like that here it's always possible to find something new. :)

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  14. Anonymous5:57 AM

    I really like when people are expressing their opinion and thought. So I like the way you are writing

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