8A - Monday, January 24, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com TV Rs iEW Harry's' is a crime NBC's latest lawyer show lacks logic and realism By JACOB AXELRAD Daily Arts Writer Ah, lawyer shows. It appears that, regardless of the countless number of courtroom dramas strewn across the screens of the TV world, our appetite Harry's Law for characters dueling it out Pilot in trial will never wane; or Mondays at1 p.m. at least, pro- NBC ducers will never tire of shoving this tried formula down our throats. One of the latest in the genre stars none other than the great Kathy Bates ("Titanic") as Har- riet "Harry" Korn in NBC's midseason replacement "Har- ry's Law." Created by David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal," "Bos- ton Legal"), a seasoned veteran when it comes to legal dramas, the show denotes the strange acts of fate that befall a recently fired patent lawyer attempting. to turn her life around. Harry is unfulfilled with her so-called "dull" life as a patent lawyer, despite being one of the best in the country. Evidently, her boss senses this sentiment and performs the gracious act of fir- ing her. This is where things get weird - like, absurd-plot-points- weird.Within moments ofher fir- ing, two near-death experiences land Harry in the hospital (she miraculously has no injuries or broken bones), where she begins to rethink her life. A few repeti- tive voiceovers later, she has set up shop as alawyer in a neighbor- hood slum of Cincinnati with her assistant Jenna (Brittany Snow, "Hairspray") running a high- end shoe store from the same location. In short, she beconws a "shoe store lawyer." Harry subsequently decides to lend her legal services to the poverty-stricken individu- als who comprise her new area of residence. With her plucky assistant at her side and a new- found partner in Adam Branch (Nathan Corddry, "United States of Tara"), she's ready to fight the good fight and give a voice to criminals who, we learn, are really just good peo- Supernaturally boring By PROMA KHOSLA selves an apartment that plays mal carcass a la Remus Lupin in "A Daily TV/New Media Editor host to the.ghost Sally (newcomer Very Potter Sequel." Meaghan Rath). She serves no real Aidan's backstory is also the As painful as it is to admit, we purpose in the pilot other than to most compelling; by comparison, live in the Age of the Vampire provide a third supernatural con- it looks like the writers barely - the era of "Twilight," "True dition and a female influence in tried on behalf of the other char- Blood" and a predominantly male cast. The acters. Josh left his family, Sally "The Vam- ** * character starts out annoyingly misses her fianede ... boo hoo.Aid- pire Diaries." bubbly, thrilled to finally be in the an's dark past includes a wedding For the most Bn Human presence of beings who can see reception-turned-massacre facili- part, the col- her. She's so annoying that when tated by a formidable Mark Pel- lege genera- Pilot she actually cries about her condi- legrino, who does an excellent job tion is just old d tion, the effect is too alarming to being the bad guy after trying to enough to have Mnndays'a9 p. elicit audience sympathy. It comes keep evil at bayas Jacob on "Lost." bypassed this - obsession in favor of wizards and superheroes and other cool things. But it is this age range that SyFy targets with "BeingHuman," anAmericanver- sion of the British show about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost tryingto lead normal lives. Vampire Aidan (Sam Witwer,. "The Mist") and werewolf Josh (Sam Huntington, "Superman Returns") come off as an unequal duo of male alpha and bumbling sidekick. Josh's jokes are more annoying than laugh-out-loud funny, but at least his condition allows Aidan a few deadpan one- liners about his friend's irritability and how lycanthropy - the ability to transform into a werewolf - is a "useless condition." "Being Human" unfolds as a bro-show for the first 10 minutes, before Aidan and Josh find them- off as self-pity instead of an actual predicament. Sally and Josh both feel too sorry for themselves to be interesting characters, espe- cially with Sally's mood swings and Josh's perpetually worried expression. If the show is trying to send a message about its fantastical beasts, it's that vampires are sexy and brooding, werewolves are wily and unfortunate and ghosts can't really do anything. After all the hype about three fictitious beasts living together, the vam- pire takes priority. Aidan's voice narrates the opening montage and the episode focuses more on him than on the other two leads. He accidentally kills a girl in the cold open, an incident that defines his actions throughout the epi- sode. This haunting crime almost makes farce of the sight of Jpsh waking up naked next to an ani- Another vampire show with no bite. Even though "dramedy" is an accepted genre these days, "Being Human" doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Some- where between the casually teasing back-and-forth between supernatural creatures and the intense, self-pitying monologues, it's easy to get lost between all the characters and their baggage. Even though we're given plenty of backstory and suspense, there's just too much to keep up with and care about in the pilot. After all, we're only human. "Can you hear me now?" ple who've been neglected by society. If the description sounds confusing, that's because it is. It seems that in the despera- tion to create a somewhat-orig- inal legal series, a variety of gimmicks were thrown into a blender. What came out was a disjointed pilot that's more likely to leave viewers gagging than feeling any sort of emotion toward the characters. For starters, there are the end- less speeches - monologue upon monologue about life, morals and fate is strewn about the episode, with almost the same frequently as Jenna's out-of-place shoe ref- erences. Tirades about the state of poverty and race in this coun- try are unoriginal and take away from any kinid of plot that could possibly hope to develop. Harry represents her clients in court not, it seems, with any prior legal knowledge, but with genuine emotion and heart. This would be fine for an audience that has no idea what a courtroom is. One only needs to watch an episode of "Law and Order" to pick up at least a few sentences of legal jar- gon, while "Harry's Law" has vir- tually none. And sadly, Bates herself can't save this sinking ship. While her reputation on stage and in film leaves no question about her casting in the lead role, she walks through the episode in a stiff and stilted manner. Yes, she's supposed to be playing a curmudgeon, but this doesn't excuse a lazy performance, espe- cially from an Oscar winner. The one saving grace comes in the form of Corddry's Branch. After accidentally hitting Harry with his car, (again, the no-inju- ries phenomenon goes unex- plained) he, too, decides to turn his life around - abandoning his job as an up-and-coming attorney at a high-powered firm and joining Harry in defending the downtrodden of Cincinna- ti's streets. Corddry easily steals every one of his scenes with his ener- gy, motor-mouth delivery and sharp comic wit. Despite the fact that he too is forced to give sappy, unrealistic speeches, he injects the episode with a level of enthusiasm and candor that's otherwise frighteningly absent. The pilot opens with Harry saying, "They say the moral of the story comes at the end. But ask me, sometimes it comes at the top, in the middle and you just don't get it until the end." Unfortunately, all that we get at the end of the "Harry's Law" pilot is an unintelligent, unorig- inal legal drama that haphaz- ardly simplifies and steals from its numerous predecessors of court dramas. NPeek-a-boo!" NBCssupeherostiner Altmans country covers shine By ELIOT ALPERN Daily Arts Writer At the age of 63, Gregg All- man has been through enough trials and ordeals to make even a professional blues musi- cian feel inad- equate, filled Gregg with petty Alman problems. As a founding mem- Low Country ber of the '70s Blues Allman Broth- er's Band, he Rounder has dealt with the stereotypical rock star battle with drugs and has struggled through six divorces, including a famous separation from Cher after a four-year stint. His fel- low bandmates Berry Oakley and brother Duane Allman died at age 24 in motorcycle accidents (eerily, just blocks apart). In 2007, Gregg was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, and earlier this year he underwent a liver transplant. Yet, through the illness, deaths and personal problems, he found the time and the perseverance to concentrate his troubles into a true-to-heart blues album. Low Country Blues is a com- pilation of 11 covers (including songs originally composed by Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Skip James), along with one written by Gregg Allman him- self. None of them are fancy or overly showy, as one might expect from a rock god-turned- blues veteran. There is a pure grit and an honest vulnerability to his approach that takes what was once just a good voice and makes it the weapon of a great t I singer. At times, Allman seems a little in over his head (like in R&B ballad "Please Accept My - Love"), but it's nice to see him stray outside of his comfort zone., And when he strikes the right emotional chord, even the least empathetic of listeners can feel the suffering that emanates fromP the southerner's classic blues vocals. From the first staggered strums of guitar on the cover of COURTESY OF ROUNDER Sleepy John Estes's "Floating "Blind Man," the ultimate Bridge," Allman lets you know emotional test for any musi- that Low Country Blues is exactly cian. Though Allman seems to that - the blues courtesy of the hold back for the first minute, Deep South. While the instru- he cuts loose once the music ments generally remain constant picks up and gives the listener throughout the album (drums, the chance to hear a singer at guitar and piano, with the occa- his best. The following song, sional horns and organ), it's All- "Just Another Rider," feels man who conforms his voice to like it would fit properly in the match the atmosphere of the Allman Brother's Band cata- song. "Little by Little" harkens logue, but it also seems to find a niche in Low Country Blues. Co-written by Gregg Allman A 11 a and bandmate Warren Haynes, Gregg it's a clever inclusion of classic p rsnal trials Allman Brothers in Gregg's solo endeavor. come through Allman seems to feel right at home in the heartbreak and in solo album. melancholy of a genre with roots that date back almost to the era of his own birth. His latest album leads to the notion that back to the early days of rock, he has finally found an effort in with swinging piano and a train- which to pour his troubles. In engine rhythm - both of which Low Country Blues, Allman has Allman matches stride for stride. revived a sound that has limped Yet, in the ensuing "Devil Got along since its glory days, much My Woman," Allman is right in the same way he has revived back with the patented torment his own solo career. Amid all his that suits the similarly tortured troubles, Gregg Allman has cre- instrumentation. ated something for both himself Midway through the album, and his listeners to fall back on Allman tackles Bobby Bland's during tough times. By JAMIE BLOCK Daily Arts Writer "The Cape" is not the super- hero show anyone deserves, nor is it the superhero show anyone needs right now - or ever. NBC has prov- en once again The Cape that it simply can't handle the Pilot supernatural Mondays at 9 p.m. or the surreal NBC a m "The Cape" falls into place after "Journeyman," all the seasons of "Heroes" after the first, "Persons Unknown" and "The Event" as the network's newest terrible series shamelessly pandering to a Com- ic-Con fanbase. The show's Palm City isteeming with hero tropes: villains who talk too much, secret societies of assas- sins, handy sidekicks with impos- sible technology and a band of misfitswithheartsofgold. Thrown into the mix isVince Faraday (Dan- iel Lyons, "ER"), a cop framed as being a supervillian called Chess. After everyone in Palm City con- veniently comes to think Faraday/ Chess was killed, the cop takes on the hero persona of The Cape - his son's favorite comic book hero - in an attempt to exact vengeance on the real Chess (James Frain, "The Tudors") and his corrupt corpora- tion, which threaten to turn Palm City into a police state. There to help is a literal carnival of bank BURGIN From Page 7A Their stories are either too bland or way over-the-top and, just like bland or over-the-top novels, they're not my first choice for entertainment. Furthermore, musicals feature really, really talented robbers led by escapist Max Malini (Keith David, "ER"), and a corrup- tion-exposing, sexy young blogger who simply goes by Orwell (Sum- mer Glau, "Firefly"). With all the crazy shit that goes down in this awkward dystopian setting; it's hard to say which is more absurd: the implausible events or characters' readiness to accept it all as normal. Faraday finds nothing strange in getting knocked out by a trainyard explo- sion and waking up in a distant circus tent. He doesn't think the idea of a bank-robbing carnival is weird either. Masked supervil- lains are simply accepted truths, but a masked superhero is decid- edly notable. And no one thinks to ask how a random girl living alone could amass all this impos- sible technology nobody else has. There's nothing wrong with pre- senting an alternate reality for a superhero story, but it has to be consistent, believable and well explained. Throw on top of that the com- plete lack of pacing. While comic books are the obvious inspiration for "The Cape," that doesn't mean the story has to unfold like a pan- el-by-panel barrage. It's just big event after big event with no room to breathe, as though the story were written by an overeager, comic book-reading child whose concept of narrative structure is throwing together as many explo- sions, fights and one-dimensional caricatures as possible with no people.I can't listen to the "Les Mis" soundtrack without shivering when Javert and Jean Valjean vocally duel. It still sur- prises me that Mandy Patinkin (who was Inigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride") has such amaz- ing pipes as Che in "Evita." It's not just the orchestral portion of the music that draws me to show tunes - it's the vocal expertise that these songs feature. If I transitions beyond "and then." Further supporting the a-child-wrote-this theory is the complete lack of subtext in the dialogue. Every line is either just a statement of what's happening or a gimmicky, dumb joke meant to establish character. But the dialogue never reveals the char- acters' inner feelings because it would seem they have no inner feelings. Everything is just out on the surface, plainly stated. And because there's never any mystery about why these char- acters change their identities, forge their alliances or risk their lives, there's nothing entertaining about watchingthem do it all. Capes are so last season. Whichever comic books the creators of "The Cape" looked to for inspiration did them a great disservice. These days, com- ics have subtext, mystery and intrigue. They bring readers into a potentially dark world with complex problems and no simple right answers. "The Cape" has no subtext or mystery - it's a world more goofy than it is dark - and a boring,simplistic view ofmorality. Not only is it a horrible TV show, but it would make for a horrible, comic book too. want to listen to great guitar, I put on Clapton, Santana or the Dead. If I want to listen to a great mash-up artist, I put on Girl Talk. If I want to listen to great classical vocals, I put on show tunes. And I'm no longer intimidated to admit that. Burgin wants a castle on a cloud. To suggest real estate options, e-mail Irburgin@umich.edu.