Character twists in preachy ‘People’
As I understand it, from the episodes of “For the People” I’ve seen, the show’s concept is to hit you every five minutes with some windy stem-winder a la “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” and then sketch some minor details about the characters in between.
The speechifyin’, created by Paul William Davies, premieres on ABC on Tuesday, March 13.
Set in the Southern District Court of New York, known in legal circles as the Mother Court, “For the People” focuses on a group of young lawyers assigned either as public defenders or prosecutors.
The defenders report to Jill Marcus (Hope Davis), while the prosecutors report to Roger Gunn (Ben Shenkman). Much of the time, it’s like two warring camps, and the young lawyers are fighting for principle but also for their careers.
Among the young defenders is Sandra Bell (Britt Robertson), who seems like someone who would deliver a 10-minute oratory to a refrigerator if she discovered the mozzarella had gone bad. She’s staying with Allison ( Jasmin Savoy Brown), who is less sure of herself than Sandra but, when the chips are down, proves willing to throw anyone under the bus in the name of justice. Just ask her boyfriend, Seth (Ben Rappaport), whose ambition is to make sure he gets into a toplevel law firm.
Leonard Knox (Regé-Jean Page) is ruthless and full of himself. He’s not above trotting his mother, a U.S. Senator, into Gunn’s office to show how much clout he could have. Gunn’s too smart to fall for the stunt.
Kate Littlejohn (Susannah Flood) is passionate only about the law. She’s efficient, organized, assembles model buildings out of plastic bricks to ease tension and is the most visible reminder that Davies is a veteran of Shondaland, having written for “Scandal.” You don’t even have to squint very hard to think of Liza Weil, who was on “Scandal” for a season before moving to “How to Get Away With Murder.” Littlejohn’s character is unmistakably created for a Weil type.
Jay (Wesam Keesh) is the son of immigrants who has to defend someone whose beliefs are contrary to his family’s. Jay is rather naive and wideeyed, but then does a complete character sea change into a Clarence Darrow legal genius.
Hearing the words, “If you consider only the evidence, locking someone up for how he looks or what you think of his ideas, that is not how America works. Not my America,” would you expect them from an awkward, legal greenhorn? Because that’s what Jay’s character is, until he suddenly isn’t.
Doesn’t track, but throughout the episodes I saw, several character developments don’t track. You can’t just change a character from one kind of person to another without, as a lawyer might put it, laying the proper foundation. There has to be something in the character from the get-go to evolve into whatever major change you want to make two or three episodes in. Otherwise, you don’t believe the characters, despite some decent work from Brown, Keesh, Flood, Page and, to a lesser extent, Robertson, who makes Sandra pretty insufferable.
There are actual cases-of-the-week and the infighting and manipulation by the young lawyers is entertaining to a certain degree. The cast includes some venerable pros, including Anna Deavere Smith as Tina Krissman, and Vondie Curtis-Hall as Judge Byrne, as well as Shenkman and Davis.
The show would be more engaging if it was less preachy — way less preachy. Everyone in the cast has a sermon, it seems, and they jam up every episode. Like an old-fashioned musical where people just break into song regardless of what they’re doing, lawyer after judge after court clerk breaks out in didactic oration. There seems to be a connection between unreliable characters and speechifying. It’s as though Davies invested so much time whipping up neo-Cross of Gold speeches, he forgot to develop characters whose actions are consistent with who they are.
You may very well agree with the social and political points with which you are bludgeoned about the head and neck in every episode, but this is a television drama, and as such it should be making its points, delivering its messages, by dramatizing them in a credible way. Instead, you feel as though you’re in church or, worse, listening to campaign speeches.
“For the People” needs a bit more “by the people,” and a dash of “of the people” and a lot less sermonizing.
And in conclusion ...