All The Pretty Lawyers

The great, irascible Tom Shales takes a potshot at Dick "this isn't L&O" Wolf's Conviction.

It's funny. I watched the pilot of this last night and I found myself thinking a lot of things that aren't necessarily about the show. It's that kind of show - diverting, but not absorbing.

The first thing that occurred to me is that Dick Wolf does have an eye for casting. If this catches, could it finally be the show that makes Eric Balfour a star? Then there's Milena Govich, a standout from Rescue Me. Jordan Bridges is surprisingly effective as our young naif on his first day on the job. He looks like Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years all growed up.

I gather the carryover here is Stephanie Karp from L&O:SVU, which I haven't watched since Belzer came on and started playing Munch-lite.

Everyone is very pretty, and lordyloo, they do not know what they're doing, but they do like to have the sex. In fact, watching Conviction, I had an eerie flashback to the first time I saw Grey's Anatomy. It's got that feel to it. Whether it keeps an audience, I think, largely depends on how much people like these characters. (Which sounds obvious, I know -- but it's actually quite a departure for a Dick Wolf show.)

As a half-step away from the L&O straitjacket, it's probably a good thing. The acting's good. I wish they'd pulled the Buffy-trick and put Elias Koteas in the opening credits, so that his particular plot-turn came as more of a surprise.

The writing was workmanlike. Which means it was fine. Which means it could probably catch on -- but is the audience for this show home on Friday night? I would think that this could maybe NBC's answer to Grey's -- if they're even looking for that.

I also thought a bit about This is Wonderland, the canceled CBC show that's now got a bit of a letter-writing campaign behind it. (If only these people had watched it or shown this kind of support before, then maybe...) Funnily enough, the pilot for Conviction had a lot in common with the pilot for Wonderland.

Except --

There was more sex. Somebody died. There were quiet moments among the screaming.

For as much as the CBC's current "we're going to be popular by being popular" circular argument is silly, if you watch the pilots to Conviction and Wonderland -- I think you might just be able to scratch that head and say, "ohhhh....that's what you have to do to be broad-based popular..."

It will be interesting to see if Conviction ultimately works. The inner viewers in me puts it in the "If I was home, I might watch it again" category; as a professional observer, I'll probably tune it in a couple more times.

But offering the pilot as a free download on Itunes? (alas, USA only...) Maybe they can reach that younger audience. Hmmm...that might just be the most interesting thing about the new show.