The Deep End is, structurally, Scrubs (1.0) for the legal drama crew… the young newby underlings find themselves overworked by the hardened, calloused senior professionals, bond together under the pressure, and care too much for their own good.
Things in its favor: Some cast. I always like to see William Shallert show up; he’s a friendly face with a lot of TV history behind him. And then there’s the gal who played Mac on Veronica Mars.
The bad: That I’ve seen this all before. At least it feels like I have. Yes, the legal world is a viable source of drama, as are the medical war and law enforcement… but given how oversaturated the airwaves have been with each of those categories, you really have to work to make it seem like you have something viably fresh, and this doesn’t achieve it. And the pilot uses silly unlikelihoods for its plot twists: the lawyer who doesn’t know that the opponent in the custody case is the child’s surrogate mother…. or the potential big client who is apparently interested in the law firm because she believes one of the younger lawyers is Jewish, as thought Jewish lawyers are hard to find.
All in all: nothing makes this rise above the generic for me. Will skip in the future.
