TV Series Review - Fairly Legal

Fairly Legal is a new tv drama series that premiered on the USA network this past January 20th. It is scheduled to be part of the network’s Thursday line-up and comes on at 10pm. The show stars Sarah Shahi (last seen in Life and The L Word) as Kate Reed, a former attorney who made a career switch to become a mediator because she wanted to help both sides in a lawsuit. She does not believe that in any lawsuit, one side has to lose before the other can win. She also does not believe that justice can only be found in the courtroom.

In the series pilot, we are told that Kate is still a lawyer in her father’s firm located in San Francisco. At the start of the show, her father passes away suddenly and she has to deal with her step-mother who happens to run the law firm now. Kate has a complicated relationship with Justin, her ex-husband, who incidentally is also a lawyer with the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. Other characters in the show include Leonard, Kate’s assistant who often comes to her rescue just in the nick of time.

Since the premiere, Fairly Legal has gotten rave reviews with many praising its effort for showing the other part of the legal system which is often ignored by mainstream media. As in any lawsuit, there are two sides to the story. This is the foundation of every episode where Kate tries to do her job as mediator and get the best outcome for both parties.

As a mediator, Kate is pretty unconventional and has her ways to handling stuff. It may not be orthodox but her understanding of the law and human nature together with a dry sense of humour often gets the job done. The sub-plot to the storyline is her complicated relationships with the step-mother and ex-husband. Although she often disagrees with her father, we are shown that she misses him a lot and often calls his phone just to hear his voice.

Fairly Legal is a typical USA network show and fans of the network’s other series like White Collar and Psych should fall in love with it instantly. I am very impressed with Sarah Shahi’s performance as Kate because she really makes the audience endear themselves to the character. All in all the series has the potential of to be a clever, fun and character driven series and become a stable in the USA network of interesting programs.