Should You Watch: Raising the Bar

Common occurrence these days: New TNT ("We know") drama debuts. I watch it. I am thoroughly unimpressed. The ratings are revealed. The new drama is a big hit. I scratch my head.

Before I tell you who should watch Steven Bochco's new legal show, let me just say this: How in the world can we have gone 60-odd years without a single television program or movie using the title "Raising the Bar"? It's just too awful a pun not to have been used. Somehow, though, Bochco is the first, and I guess in that sense, this series can be called "groundbreaking." But only in that sense.

Oh, the pilot was zippy and had some entertaining moments, but it's central conceit--idealistic young lawyer struggles with an unforgiving judge--was nothing we haven't seen before, and actually Jane Kaczmarek's judge was too villainous to be believable. Plus Mark-Paul Gosselaar's idealistic young lawyer was too, well, Zach, to be believable. And let me tell you, researching and meticulously typing those names is enough work for an entire post, so I'm not gonna bother mentioning the rest of the cast.

I'm not even sure if the show is actually that concerned with that conflict, though. The two big reveals in the pilot were A) someone is sleeping with someone and B) someone else is sleeping with someone else. Oh, I thought to myself, it's one of those legal shows.

You should watch "Raising the Bar" if:

*You assume that somehow, someway, this'll lead to Dennis Franz's return.
*You wear "Bayside High Athletic Department" t-shirts while watching football on Sunday afternoons--and not ironically.
*You're a firm believer in the virtues of nepotism (the pilot was directed by Jesse Bochco, son of Steve).
*You love TV and all, but you keep saying to yourself, "Darn it, there just aren't enough legal shows on these days."
*You just love that title.