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D-I-V-O-R-C-E TV | page 1, 2
Lynn's personal crises notwithstanding, "Family Law" is
mostly a workplace drama; the cases Lynn and her loyal
associate Danni (perky Julie Warner) took on in the pilot
represented the various ways marriages and families can go
wrong -- ex-spouses squabbling over the ashes of a pet, a
recovering junkie who wants to get her sons back from foster
parents. Written by co-creators Paul Haggis and Anne Kenney,
the pilot episode was unabashedly female-centric (the
central theme, echoing through Lynn's situation and the
junkie-mom story line, was "What makes a mother?"). But
Haggis, who worked on "thirtysomething" and was the guiding
hand for the very dark, twisted CBS crime drama "EZ
Streets," has juiced "Family Law" with surprising edginess,
stinging humor (used sparingly -- this is a traditional
drama, not a comedy-drama thing) and the brisk pacing of a
cop show. "Family Law" is still a women's show, don't get me
wrong, but there are no angels, no ghosts, no fantasy
sequences. It's one of the few shows in recent years where
women's emotions and lives are deemed dramatically
interesting and important enough to stand alone. It's one of the mysteries of network programming why CBS
decided to launch two female-aimed dramas about divorced
mothers who work with issues of family law. Like "Family
Law," "Judging Amy" is set against the backdrop of broken
homes, custody battles and child abuse. And like "Family
Law," "Amy" looks at the bright side of its heroines'
marital break-ups -- divorce isn't swell, but a family can
go through a lot worse.
Family Law
Once and Again
Judging Amy
Joyce Millman Joyce Millman's column appears every other Monday in Salon Arts & Entertainment. Many similarities have been pointed out in the press (mea culpa) between "Judging Amy" and NBC's hit "Providence," about a single Los Angeles plastic surgeon who chucks her practice, moves back home to Rhode Island, becomes a family doctor and communes with the advice-dispensing spirit of her dead mother. In "Judging Amy," Los Angeles corporate lawyer Amy Gray (Amy Brenneman) gets divorced, accepts a judgeship back in her hometown of Hartford, Conn., and moves there with her 6-year-old daughter. They live with Amy's widowed mother, Maxine (a gray-haired, crotchety Tyne Daly), once a pioneering social worker and working mom, now a dogmatic busybody puttering unhappily through retirement. Maxine dispenses advice, but Amy has to hack through layers of crusty mom-speak to glean it. In tone, "Judging Amy" isn't much like the soft-focus, sentimental "Providence" at all. Writer-producers John Tinker, Barbara Hall, Bill D'Elia and their intelligence-radiating star (who also gets a producer credit) have turned out a crisply entertaining drama that's as crammed-full as Amy's docket. The show's concerns include divorce and combining career and single parenthood, of course, but also aging, growing up, the search for personal fulfillment, parents who can't let go and the volatile relationship between mothers and daughters (Brenneman and Daly are well-matched sparring partners). Brenneman's Amy is believably overextended trying to smooth
daughter Lauren's transition to their new life while
simultaneously learning the ropes as a family court judge.
Amy is cranky, she's tired, she has doubts and guilt about
what leaving her marriage is doing to her kid. And she's got
to do it all under the long shadow of Maxine, a living
legend. But Amy is a true working-mom heroine. She takes too
much on, then miraculously finds a way to deliver; to fall
apart would be giving ammunition to those she feels are
sitting in judgment of her -- her mother, her daughter, her
ex, her boss, the stay-at-home mothers at Lauren's school.
The show's central irony is that Amy feels like she's in
over her head as a judge who has to decide cases based on
the best interest of the child when she's not even sure
what's best for her own child. Amy has yet to figure out
what Maxine has learned about decision-making: Look
authoritative and fake it.
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