PILOT REVIEW: The Firm

THE FIRM

Starring: Josh Lucas, Callum Keith Rennie, Molly Parker, Tricia Helfer, Natasha Calis, Shaun Majumder, and Juliette Lewis

Based on the Novel by John Grisham, Created for television by Lukas Reiter
Written by Lukas Reiter, Directed by David Straiton

The Firm is a new drama on NBC based on the best-selling book by John Grisham and hit movie starring Tom Cruise. This updated series takes place 10 years after the events of the book and movie where Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas) is out of witness protection and starting his own firm with his wife (Molly Parker), ex-con brother (Callum Keith Rennie), and his brother's girlfriend (Juliette Lewis). However, he is enticed into joining a new firm by Alex Clark and Andrew Palmer (Tricia Helfer and Shaun Majumder) as a criminal lawyer. Unbeknownst to him, the firm has sinister motives and McDeere is being watched by the people who caused him all his troubles 10 years ago.

THE GOOD: There's some things to like here. When the show is focused on what it should be - a conspiracy thriller - it does a good job. The best parts were those involving the new firm. It left me as a viewer with questions and wanting to tune back in next time to see where the stories go. The performances are nothing spectacular but they are solid. Particularly interesting performances came from Tricia Helfer and Shaun Majumder as the leader and McDeere's recruiter to the firm. Josh Lucas is good as Mitch McDeere but it's hard to follow up Tom Cruise's excellent performance in the film. If it can focus itself, it has the potential to be a thriller like the book and movie.

THE BAD: The pilot was horribly unfocused. The show spent way too long giving some background and setting up the real meat of the conspiracy, which seemed rushed in the final ten minutes. Also, is this going to be a case of the week show? If it is, I am less intrigued. While the case was fine, we have many other shows that do something like that. People tuning into The Firm are no doubt looking for the conspiracy story, not a generic procedural. If it goes down that road, it will turn off the audience quickly because there were some serious parts of this show that dragged. It also doesn't help that the quality of production seemed awfully gray and bland. It needs some more cinematic quality to capture the thrills of the movie. Also I'm not a fan of Juliette Lewis in pretty much anything she's in and she is more annoying than anything else in this show so far.

BOTTOM LINE: The Firm is going to be a tough sell, especially if it can't find its focus. This should be a show that focuses more on the conspiracy and less on the procedural style. The problem with any well known title is that it has a lot to live up to and I doubt The Firm will live up to its title according to fans of the book and movie. Still, it did enough to make me want to check it out again. Maybe others agree, we'll see.