I am – Hercules!!
Here’s a conspiracy theory for you. I think NBC put legal drama “Outlaw” on now to make its upcoming midseason David E. Kelley legal dramedy look that much better.
A blandly absurd enterprise about a Bush-appointed conservative Supreme Court justice named Cyrus Garza who quits his enormously powerful position after a car accident suddenly turns him liberal, “Outlaw” comes to us from writer-producer John Eisendrath, who created NBC’s similarly sloppy, dim and dull sci-fi espionage drama “My Own Worst Enemy.”
It seems Garza thinks he can do more good by stripping himself of the legal might only a justice can wield, then returning to private practice. Which makes absolutely zero sense.
Take away the eye-roller of a premise and you’re left with one of the more woefully generic fish in a televised ocean of legal drama.
The star is Jimmy Smits, who argued cases in Kelley’s “L.A. Law” way back when, but I wouldn’t mind seeing NBC cancel “Outlaw” and replace it with a spin-off starring piping hot Carly Pope’s sexy, mouthy, bisexual private investigator character. She feels like she wandered out of a different show, and might even deserve one. One not overseen by Eisendrath.
Sad to say, “Outlaw” is far from the worst new show of the season.
Strange trivia: this series comes from Conan O’Brien’s production company, and was greenlit to series by NBC after the funnyman was booted from “The Tonight Show.”
Prepare to hear a lot of critics employ the adjective “preposterous”:
USA Today says:
… There's awful, and then there's atrociously, hilariously awful — a line NBC and Jimmy Smits soar across with Outlaw. … Not content to simply be stupid, Outlaw is more than a little insulting. Never mind the witless lack of respect for what the Supreme Court does and the people who do it. Do we really need another show promoting another shadowy, conservative cabal, this one with tentacles in the Senate and the court and an anti-Garza agenda? Art should say whatever it wants, no matter how controversial. Pop, procedural claptrap trash should be more circumspect. …
The New York Times says:
… an impatience with subtlety is one of the problems with the first episode of “Outlaw” — the plot points and the performances are overblown, too obvious and too cute. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… Whistling and kicking dirt like maybe we won't notice, Eisendrath drops Smits in a virtually impossible situation. In a scant hour, the actor must convince us that he is a playboy/gambler/lawyer so corrupt he allowed himself to be put on the Supreme Court for the sole purpose of supporting some vaguely defined "conservative agenda" who, after a come-to-Jesus moment in Vegas, throws himself in full reverse and becomes a crusading defense attorney. That would take a bigger man than Smits to pull off, and though Pope occasionally rises above the feisty leather confines of her character to provide a moment's distraction, we are left viewing the pilot as either cynical manipulation or just plain silly. From "thinking aloud" scenes in which the team tosses around a Nerf football to a most unfortunate series of conversations between Garza and his law clerk, the only thing that makes "Outlaw" unique in a swollen genre is its ability to trip over its own feet so early on.
AOL TV says:
NBC's new Jimmy Smits vehicle is called 'Outlaw.' I guess the title 'Contrived, Irritating Star Vehicle' just wasn't as catchy. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… Unfortunately, the very likable Smits is in "Outlaw," a new legal series on NBC that is so outlandish that if he did leap out of a window and soar above the city, you wouldn't blink an eye. … We learn later about three women he recently slept with. Because, you know, that's just how Supreme Court justices always are - so out there in their personal lives that they end up in tabloids. … Here's hoping next season, Smits gets to play a cop again.
The Washington Post says:
… blows away a viewer's patience with make-believe. The show is so ludicrously dumb that your eyeballs will hurt from rolling so much. … goes horribly wrong almost as soon as it gets started. … I hope, somewhere out there, that fictional attorney Victor Sifuentes (Smits's role on "L.A. Law") is drafting a cease-and-desist letter.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… anyone who pays even the slightest bit of attention to current events will find the show preposterous. … He's also under pressure from a Republican congressman for failing to be conservative enough with the congressman threatening to have him removed from the bench via impeachment, something that could technically be attempted but has not in almost 200 years. … If you're able to get past the ridiculous premise -- and, admittedly, I was not -- "Outlaw" still suffers from other problems, including two-dimensional supporting characters. …
HitFix says:
… far from the worst rookie of the season (NBC's “Outsourced,” CBS' “(Bleep) My Dad Says” and ABC's “My Generation” are all duking it out for that honor), but it may be the silliest. … However you view it - mediocre “House” rip-off, improbable law show or “Like Father, Like Son 2: Judicial Boogaloo” - you have to like Jimmy Smits an awful lot to make “Outlaw” a Friday appointment. I’m as devoted an “NYPD Blue” fan as they come, and even I’m not willing to make that leap.
The Boston Herald says:
… just might be the most preposterous show of the fall. … about as entertaining as a legal brief on the case of Wall v. Paint Drying. …
The Boston Globe says:
… There’s not a hint of logic in the procedural aspect of the show. The development and the resolution of tonight’s case, in which a man on death row is trying to prove he isn’t a cop killer, represent the sloppiest, most factory-like TV writing there is. And there’s not much realism afoot, either. Just the idea of a man with Garza’s love of casinos getting confirmed in the first place is a bit of a laugh riot in this age of cellphone scrutiny and media obsessiveness. Not even Smits at his most charming can sell that kind of lazy writing.
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… The idea that a young Supreme Court justice in the rare position of being a tiebreaker on crucial decisions would resign hastily to avoid exposing his very public gambling habit is preposterous. … Unlike the generic and largely predictable story in the pilot, future episodes have Garza and his team parachuting into one hot spot after another, tackling issues ripped from the headlines. …
Variety says:
… a jaw-droppingly simple-minded legal procedural that's improbable on most every level. Conservatives, for once, will be right to express indignation about the show's ham-fisted politics; others will have their own ideology-free but equally valid reasons to complain. …
10 p.m. Wednesday. NBC.
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