Movies, Television

Standard Of Review: Fall Legal Entertainment Preview

The next few months offer a cornucopia of law-related television and movies.

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Labor Day has passed, summer vacations are over, and the weather is getting colder. But do not fear, as the fall entertainment season is here. September marks the beginning of the fall television season and is only a month or so away from the beginning of Oscars season. Accordingly, let’s preview some of the legal entertainment scheduled for the coming months.

American Vandal (Netflix, Premieres September 15) – As evidenced by Law & Order: True Crime, described below, true crime television shows are en vogue right now. Unsurprisingly, due to its prevalence, true crime is ripe for mocking. We already saw a true crime mockumentary with NBC’s enjoyable Trial & Error, which is scheduled to return for a second season sometime in 2018. Netflix now has its own true crime mockumentary in American Vandal. American Vandal looks much more overtly comic than the frequently ridiculous Trial & Error, as it tells the story of a high school student expelled for painting numerous penises on school faculty members’ cars. The show looks both hilarious and sophomoric; I am not sure that a single joke from the trailer is appropriate for this website. I am also not certain that American Vandal is sufficiently legal to justify writing about in this column, though the show’s IMDB page does state that there is at least one lawyer character.

Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (NBC, Premieres September 26) – One of my favorite legal television shows of 2016 was FX’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, the first (and so far only) installment in FX’s American Crime Story anthology series. The People v. O.J. Simpson succeeded by taking a very familiar story and showing it in a new light, providing depth to real-life figures such as Johnnie Cochran and Marcia Clark. The follow-up has taken a while to get off the ground; the second season of American Crime Story was initially going to focus on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but that got shelved in favor of the murder of Gianni Versace, scheduled to air sometime in 2018.

In the meantime, NBC has dipped its toe in the legal true crime waters. The murder trial of Lyle and Eric Menendez was not quite as frenzied as the O.J. Simpson trial but it was still one of the biggest stories of the early 1990s. And NBC smartly has paired the series with Law & Order, one of the most viable and long-running television franchises, though the show will be run by René Balcer, not Dick Wolf. And NBC landed a huge name in Edie Falco to play lead defense attorney Leslie Abramson. Falco is one of the best actresses in television history, most known for playing Carmela Soprano on The Sopranos. And with a supporting cast including, among others, Anthony Edwards, Elizabeth Reaser, and Josh Charles, I’m hopeful that The Menendez Murders can come close to the success of The People v. O.J. Simpson.

How To Get Away With Murder (ABC, Premieres September 28) – When we last left the murdering crew of law students, the audience had finally learned who killed Wes. After numerous red herrings, it was revealed that Laurel’s father was the culprit. Showrunner Peter Nowalk revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that the upcoming Season 4 will jump forward in time . . . all the way to the beginning of the main characters’ second semester of 2L year. Seriously, how it is possible that these people are still in law school? Nowalk also stated that there will be another mystery this season, and it will be a “where” instead of a “who.” Is the mystery. . . where did these characters find the time to have so much happen to them in the span of three semesters?

Marshall (To Be Released October 13) – When you are releasing a biopic, call Chadwick Boseman. The forty-year old actor already has played Jackie Robinson and James Brown, and he next takes on Thurgood Marshall, the first black United States Supreme Court justice. Marshall, directed by Reginald Hudlin, portrays an earlier case in Marshall’s career, in which he defends Joseph Spell (played by Sterling K. Brown, from the aforementioned American Crime Story: People v. O.J. Simpson), who has been accused of rape and attempted murder. Judging by the trailer (always a perilous exercise), the film seems a little paint-by-numbers, full of arguments, rousing speeches, fights with racists drunks, and comic relief by Josh Gad, but hopefully the presence of Boseman and Brown can elevate the film.

Roman Israel, Esq. (To Be Released November 3) – Thankfully, the title of this movie explicitly tells the audience that the titular character is an attorney. Because no trailer has been released, I do not know much more about the plot of this film except that Denzel Washington plays an attorney who discovers some disturbing things about his law firm and, according to Wikipedia, “finds himself in an existential crisis that leads to extreme action.” I have no idea what this means. By “extreme action,” is he going to murder numerous people, action-movie style? Or is this going to be a normal legal thriller a la Marshall? I don’t know but the film is helmed by Dan Gilroy, whose last film was the terrific Nightcrawler. And with Washington and Colin Farrell leading the cast, I am cautiously optimistic about this one.

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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 harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.

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