The Deep End – A First Look

The Cast of The Deep End

Being a huge fan of lawyer series, The Deep End seemed like a shoo-in to capture the void left by the absence of Boston Legal, alas, this show seems to have missed the mark.   When you create a series with a premise that we’ve seen hundreds of times, you need to find a unique niche.  Perhaps if given enough time, this show will find it, but for now, call in the cliche’ police, because we have a number of citations to hand out.

Let’s start with Citation #1: The man who sleeps with every hot woman with a pulse and proud of it.

Citation #2: Every woman with a pulse has no issues sleeping with the guy.   And, of course, all of the woman are gorgeous.

This worked on Boston Legal because it really was an absurd show that was more of a comedy even though it had its serious moments.  The Deep End is not funny.  Not by a long shot.

Citation #3: The head of the firm is a run by a one dimensional man who only sees dollar signs.  I loved Billy Zane on Samantha Who, but here, the writers need to find a bit more substance and less of a lawyer stereotype.  (Perhaps these writers should watch a couple of The Good Wife episodes in a desperate quest to learn some character development here.)

Then we have all of the rest of the Freshman lawyers.  Let’s just say that there is way too much sleeping around here, and not much in case work. Which leads me to the next citation.

Citation #4: The freshman lawyer who knows more than the Partner when working on his first case.  I think that was the icing on the cake in terms of unbelievable character/storylines.

In this clip below, count the citations you can hand out!

Many better law series have failed, this one should as well.

“The Deep End” stars Matt Long as “Dylan Hewitt,” Billy Zane as “Cliff Huddle,” Clancy Brown as “Hart Sterling,” Norbert Leo Butz as “Rowdy Kaiser,” Leah Pipes as “Beth Branford,” Tina Majorino as “Addy Fisher,” Ben Lawson as “Liam Priory,” Nicole Ari Parker as “Susan Oppenheim” and Mehcad Brooks as “Malcolm Bennet.”

The series executive producers are David Hemingson and Jan Nash. The pilot for “The Deep End” was written by David Hemingson and directed by Michael Fresco. The series, which premieres on January 21, 2010 from 8:00-9:00p.m., ET, is from Twentieth Century Fox Television.