NETWORK: TNT
AIR DATE: September 1, 2008
STARRING: Mark-Paul Gosselaar, J. August Richards, Gloria Reuben, Jonathan Scarfe, Judy Tylor, Teddy Sears, Currie Graham, Natalia Cigiliuti, and Jane Kaczmarek
CREATED BY: Steven Bochco

There is a fine, fine line between a show that feels old-fashioned and one that feels dated and musty. Raising the Bar lives on that line. Fans of Bochco's who long for a relatively standard, ensemble-driven, legal drama will be satisfied but it's very difficult to shake the feeling that we're watching something that Bochco wrote back in the '80s and recently fished out of his trash can. There's absolutely nothing new here, unless you count the fact that one of the most influential voices in the history of television is starting to sound a bit too much like another. Raising the Bar is like Bochco "doing David E. Kelley" complete with the over-the-top judge and out-there cases that are more often Kelley staples than Bochco's. The fact is that, just like Kelley's recent misses, Bochco and the people willing to stand by his creative vision are more talented than your average TV folks. In other words, the pedigree of the creative people involved in front of and behind the camera with Raising the Bar almost make it worth watching on their own and fish the show out of its derivative foundation, even if the show never transcends the predictable nature of its structure and concept.

The folks trying to live up to the bold title of Raising the Bar are a group of young public defenders and district attorneys. The defenders are headed by the brash and driven Jerry Kellerman (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), who happens to be sleeping with his rival on the D.A. side, Michelle Ernhardt (Melissa Sagemiller). The idea of Raising the Bar is that these young, talented recent law school graduates can fight each other on opposite sides of the courtroom and then sit around and drink as friends after the case. Other cast members include a nice mix of recognizable faces like Angel's J. August Richards and ER's Gloria Reuben along with some talented newcomers like Jonathan Scarfe and Teddy Sears. The scenery chewing is done by Malcolm in the Middle's Jane Kaczmarek as an only-on-TV Judge Kessler who consistently tries to make an example out of poor Mr. Kellerman. In the first episode, Jerry defends a man that he knows is innocent of rape, while the Judge tries her hardest to make that impossible.

The ridiculous plot of the first episode - Judge Kessler does some things that should have gotten her kicked off the bench by episode two - feels like its attention-grabbing more than anything else and kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't buy a minute of the actual case and I found it hard to care about the cast. But, mostly because I trust Bochco and thought the ensemble was interesting, I tried the second episode that we were sent for review and found that interesting enough to head on to a third. There's something here that's worthwhile. If the team behind the show can commit to actually developing the ensemble and giving them equal screen time, Raising the Bar could work. Watching two pretty people - Gosselaar and Sagemiller - spar in both the courtroom and the bedroom while they deal with a crazy judge? Seen that show and don't want to see it again. A talented group of young actors working interesting cases with unique angles and Bochco's sense of ensemble? That could be interesting. The jury is still out as to if Raising the Bar lives up to its title, but the fact that I'm still willing to give it a chance after three episodes during the busiest time of the year for a TV critic must mean something. We'll see. Sometimes even that fine line between old-fashioned and just old can be an interesting place.