After the success of true-crime entertainment such as Serial, The Jinx, and Making a Murderer, it was only a matter of time until someone attempted to spoof the genre. After all, despite their very serious subject matter, fans of those works found a lot to laugh about, such as MailChimp ads, Robert Durst’s burping, and the wardrobe of attorneys Dean Strang and Jerry Buting. Unsurprisingly then, along comes Trial & Error, a new NBC mockumentary comedy depicting a murder defense. Trial & Error is entertaining and frequently funny, though it definitely still has room to grow (this column will contain very mild spoilers through this past Tuesday’s two episodes).
Trial & Error, which premiered March 14, stars Nick D’Agosto as Josh Segal, a young attorney from New York hired to defend Larry Henderson (John Lithgow), an eccentric professor from South Carolina accused of killing his wife. Larry’s brother-in-law Jeremiah Jefferson Davis (Bob Gunton) initially funds Larry’s defense, and Josh’s law firm sends him to handle all pretrial matters, with a partner set to take over for the trial. But when Jeremiah pulls his funding, Josh decides to defend Larry by himself. Without a big firm backing him, Josh has to rely on a ragtag team, including his “investigator” Dwayne Reed (Steven Boyer) and receptionist Anne Flatch (Sherri Shepherd). Josh also has to contend with Larry’s daughter Summer (Krysta Rodriguez), who has little confidence in Josh’s abilities to defend her father.
D’Agosto is best known to me for his dramatic role on Showtime’s Masters of Sex, but he displays his comedic chops in Trial & Error, playing a character who is flabbergasted by the loony antics of the characters around him (think Jim Halpert as a lawyer, especially with D’Agosto’s sideways glances at the camera). He also has chemistry with Rodriguez; the show is obviously setting up a “will they or won’t they?” dynamic between Josh and Summer (or at least a love triangle between Josh, Summer, and the sexually frustrated prosecutor Carol Anne Keane (Jayma Mays)). Josh and Summer frequently banter with amusing wordplay, such as Summer explaining how she went on a Tinder date – not on the app, but to watch a man burn wood.
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However, I found it hard to believe that Josh would have agreed to stay in South Carolina to defend Larry after Jeremiah is no longer paying Josh’s law firm. The show makes little effort to justify why he would annoy his bosses and stay in South Carolina with all these zany characters, nor does the show explain if and how Josh is being paid without Jeremiah’s support.
With respect to the supporting characters, Trial & Error violates the maxim of punching up rather than down. The show mines much of its humor by ridiculing the South Carolina-based characters for being stupid and backwards. Dwayne, while well-intentioned, manages to screw up virtually every task assigned to him, such as accidentally blowing up an exhumed body. He has a contact at the local police department who is both his brother and his cousin. Anne cannot even competently erase a dry-erase board and suffers from numerous disorders, such as face blindness, spontaneously laughing during emotional situations, and passing out when she views beautiful art.
Dumb characters, when deployed correctly, can be beneficial to a sitcom (for example, Woody from Cheers and Andy from Parks & Recreation). But relying too much on these types of characters can be problematic. Woody and Andy work because they are part of a much larger ensemble of competent characters.
Trial & Error has not yet figured out that balance. Because Dwayne and Anne are two of the major supporting characters, the whole show feels like it is commenting on the intelligence level of the people from South Carolina. This is an easy target, and I hope the show makes better use of these two characters.
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John Lithgow is obviously a talented comedic (as well as dramatic) actor, and he brings that skill to Larry. Larry is eccentric, particularly exemplified by his unconditional love of rollercising (though unfortunately it is clearly a stand-in, and not Lithgow, on skates), and at times is just as dumb as Dwayne and Anne. But Lithgow also has moments that show how much he loved his wife, such as going to great lengths to get back a skate wrench that contains a message from her.
NBC has been airing two episodes of Trial & Error each week, which is often a sign that the network has no faith in a show and is burning it off. But Trial & Error’s ratings have been decent, so the show has a chance of a second season pickup. Most comedies struggle out of the gate and subsequently improve once the writers get a better grasp of the characters (last year’s legal comedy, The Grinder, is a perfect example of this), so I definitely plan to check in with the show later in the season. Let’s hope that by then, Strang or Buting has made a cameo.
Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at [email protected]. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.