"Conviction" pilot—Law and Order 90210, poorly executed
Thursday, March 2nd, 2006(This is my review of the “Conviction” pilot, which I’ve also posted to iTunes.)
Imagine, for a second, that “Law and Order” had around five prosecutors instead of two, that they were all in their mid-20’s, and that the series followed all the prosecutors around all day instead of watching a single case from investigation to trial, and you have “Conviction”. The idea seems intriguing, but is ham-handedly executed. The supposed premise of this spinoff—that of developing the prosecutors as fully-rounded characters—is, as of the pilot, a tragically unrealized ideal. In trying to portray the young prosecutors as overwhelmed by taking their first cases, creator Dick Wolf overshoots and takes the series straight into farce. One prosecutor leaves evidence in the courtroom (evidence which incidentally includes crack cocaine), vomits from sheer stress, and apparently forgets how to correctly question a witness and has to get tips from the baliff.
There are some redeeming performances but overall nothing worthy of note. If you want a legal drama with interesting characters, “Boston Legal” is a much better choice. If you want to watch a realistic, focused, and compelling legal drama, “Law and Order” is still the gold standard. And if you want to watch a compelling character drama, simply look elsewhere.
