PILOT REVIEW: Bluff City Law

BLUFF CITY LAW











Starring: Jimmy Smits, Caitlin McGee, Barry Sloane, Michael Luwoye, MaameYaa Boafo, Stony Blyden with Jayne Atkinson and Scott Shepherd

Created by Michael Aguilar & Dean Georgaris
Teleplay by Dean Georgaris, Story by Michael Aguilar & Dean Georgaris, Directed by Jessica Yu

Did you know Memphis was called Bluff City? I did not. In fact, I realized as I started to watch this pilot that I know almost nothing about Memphis (aside from the one great This is Us episode set there). It's fun to have a drama set in a city like that instead of usual New York, Chicago or LA. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any TV show ever set permanently in Memphis before this one. Unfortunately, the setting for Bluff City Law is the most interesting part of it and they don't even do enough with that fun element. Aside from a few mood-setting shots at the beginning, there's nothing that really sets this show in Memphis and that's really a missed opportunity.

Of course, one of the biggest elements of promotion for this show was Jimmy Smits as veteran lawyer Elijah Strait. Although he is an acclaimed actor, most notably for his turns on LA Law and NYPD Blue, he is not the draw he once was and seems a little tired here. I'll admit that I have not watched Smits in his prime (the most recent time I watched him was for the pilot of the short-lived Outlaw, the very first show I reviewed for this blog back in 2010) but he can't rest on his laurels and turn in a sleepy performance. There is no real strong dynamic, good or bad, between him and his on-screen daughter, Sydney (Caitlin McGee). The promos seemed to play up their time in jail, but that was a pretty small part of the plot and episode.

The rest of the cast turns in pretty forgettable performances too. Jayne Atkinson was delightful at times in House of Cards and could be the strong southern woman she claims to be in the pilot, but she's not. The rest of the characters seem to come from the legal drama assembly line at the procedural broadcast show factory. It almost makes me regret calling the All Rise characters generic because they've got nothing on these guys and gals.

Toward the end of the episode, Jake Reilly (Barry Sloane) tells Sydney about her courtroom speech "that was some inspiring stuff." Sloane delivers it with such a blank expression that it seems disingenuous and it's how I felt about the entire episode. The show was trying to be moralistic, was trying to have something to say, was trying to be bold and it failed on all those accounts and more. I didn't love All Rise, but it at least gave me hope that it could become something. This one seems factory-made with absolutely no heart or character.

WILL I WATCH IT AGAIN?
I doubt it.