Raising the Bar “Bobbi Ba-Bing” One Loss, One Win, One Reconciliation

Jerry Kellerman (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) loses a case to Marcus McGrath (J. August Richards) but wins back Bobbi in this episode of ”Raising The Bar” (TNT) “Bobbi Ba-Bing.” Jerry defends a man who stabbed another inmate in prison. The problem is complex for Jerry because the man appears to have been wrongly incarcerated, but Judge Ventimiglia (Jon Polito) won’t let Jerry bring that piece of information into evidence. The man, who had been constantly beaten by prison gangs, was told by the gang to stab a rival rang member if the man wanted the beatings to stop. The gang also had threatened his brother. Despite the defendant’s impassioned testimony and Jerry’s good summation, he is found guilty.

But a twinge of jealousy hits Bobbi Gilardi (Natalia Cigliuti) when Jerry gets flirty with a young, attractive woman who is testifying as an expert witness for Jerry. When Bobbi’s jealousy becomes obvious to Jerry, he reminds Bobbi that she is the one who pushed him away. Apparently Bobbi comes to the conclusion that if she wants Jerry she needs to stop alienating him and isolating him. When Jerry returns to the office after losing his case, he finds a messages left on his desk, pointing him to a map telling him where to go. He doesn’t know who left the message but he goes there anyway – it’s a hotel bar. When he sees Bobbi waiting there, he’s pleasantly surprised, and even more so when she hands him a hotel room key card. Needless to say, they make use of that hotel room.

Roz (Gloria Reuben) and members of her staff are conducting interviews for a new staff member. One person, Ashlee (Autumn Reeser) wins out when she gives information to Richard Woolsley (Teddy Sears) during the interview process that would help him to get the charges dismissed against his client, a homeless panhandler who was arrested for loitering. Teddy seems pleased with this new hire, until Ashlee goes overboard and decides to create a class action suit against the DA and the city for wrongfully arresting their client and others like him. Teddy tries to slow her down and tells her it needs Roz’s approval. Roz also wants Ashlee to cool her jets, but tells her – with Teddy riding shotgun - to take the individual case for Teddy’s client to the city’s lawyers to see what she can shake loose. But Ashlee goes overboard after she feels the city’s attorney is blowing them off, and tells the attorney that a class action suit is in the works. This brings the smarmaliscious Nick Balco (Currie Graham) to the public defender’s office to see Roz, a move that seems to cause mouths to drop in the office. Roz uses it as a chance to get Nick to get a better offer for their client when she back off the class action suit, a case she really didn’t want to take on anyway, but Nick didn’t know that.

When Teddy and Ashlee take their homeless client to an apartment that will be paid for by the proceeds of this settlement, the client is grateful. Teddy seems to have shown Ashlee that their cases are not always about catching the big fish every time.

All in all, this was a very satisfying episode. Teddy managed to win his case and satiate his need to do good. Even though Jerry lost his case – in real life you don’t win them all – he still managed to get Bobbi back in the process.

The season finale is next week, and I have to say that I am sorry that it is coming so quickly. I have come to really enjoy this series and hope next season they offer more episodes.


Clip of “Raising the Bar: Bobbi Ba-Bing”


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Raising The Bar: “Making Up is Hard to Do” A Reality Check

Last night’s episode of Raising The Bar, “Making Up is Hard to Do” (TNT) had everyone trying to fix problems, some of them of their own making.

Jerry Kellerman (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), who sometimes seems clouded by his belief that all his clients are good (and innocent) people, makes an error when he doesn’t really listen completely to what his client, who is refusing plea deals, has been saying. When he gets his boss Roz (Gloria Reuben) involved, she is able to extract an admission from Jerry’s client, and she finds that he only said he was not guilty because he didn’t want to disappoint Jerry, who had helped him in the past. Jerry, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be hearing his client because he didn’t want to disappoint him either. The end result was Jerry and his client passed up on a decent plea deal, and when Jerry tries to get that deal again from Marcus McGrath (J. August Richards), Marcus first tells him no, and then succumbs and says he will take the issue up with his boss, the smarmy Nick Balco (Currie Graham).

Marcus does as he said he would, and takes the issue to Nick, who proceeds to chastise Marcus for caving in to his friend Jerry. Nick tells Marcus to tell Jerry there will be no plea deal. Jerry breaks the bad news to his client, and at the end, Marcus makes the first move to patch things up with Jerry while they sat at the bar at their usual watering hole. Jerry tells Marcus that Marcus doesn’t know his client, but Marcus reminds Jerry that Jerry didn’t know the woman that his client had assaulted and robbed, and that this woman had worked two jobs to put several kids through college. In this case, Jerry showed that sometimes he looks at his clients with rose-colored glasses, and that he needs to take more time to really listen to his clients.

The more involved case in this episode involved a woman that Bobbi Gilardi (Natalia Cigliuti) represented, who was accused of smuggling drugs. The woman claimed it was a simple case of her picking up the wrong luggage off the bus. But prosecutor Michelle Ernhardt (Melissa Sagemiller) has help from the man she’s sleeping with who also happens to be the detective who caught the case, Tim Porter (Josh Randall). She doesn’t know right away that it’s not the kind of help she needs. At first, Michelle is worried when a key piece of evidence – the cocaine the woman was allegedly carrying – can’t be found in the evidence room. Porter tells her not to worry, and magically has the evidence ready on the day of the trial and for his testimony. But when Bobbi challenges the evidence – it seems the evidence form attached was a copy and not the original – Bobbi annoys Judge Farnsworth (John Michael Higgins) by voicing a lengthy objection. Bobbi’s objection is reviewed and overruled in chambers, where Farnsworth tells Bobbi he’s not into conspiracies. Personally, I am enjoying Judge Farnsworth far more than his colleague, Judge Kessler (Jane Kaczmarek).

Things get worse when one of the jurors comes forward and says she overheard Porter talking in the elevator with another person about the defendant’s prior arrest. Michelle seems to have a twinge of concern. When Farnsworth has the juror and the attorneys in chambers, the juror tells them there was another juror in the elevator with her who likely overheard the same comments from the detectives. But that second juror claims he heard nothing, as he was not wearing his hearing aid. Farnsworth only replaces the first juror who came forward and the trial goes on, and the defendant is found guilty. But Bobbi is on to the other juror who said he couldn’t hear the detective’s elevator conversation, and after the trial, she gets in an elevator with him as he is leaving. She asks him where is his hearing aid, and then tricks him into showing he can hear perfectly well without it by standing behind him and saying quietly his zipper is down. He knows he is caught, but when she pushes him to talk to the judge about what he did, he threatens to report her behavior to the judge.

Things seem to crash down on Michelle when she gets a phone call from the property clerk saying the evidence that could not originally be located was finally found. Michelle is stunned as she realizes that Porter faked the evidence. She storms over to his squad and she confronts him about the matter. He admits that he used a pack of books wrapped up to fake the evidence, that no one would have tested it to verify the contents. He said he got the scorpion pattern that was on the original drug evidence bag off the Internet. She also realizes that he really did talk about the case in front of the jurors on purpose to taint the jury, and then she calls their relationship quits, not a moment too soon.

Knowing she made a mistake and worried that should the case go to appeal and these things come out, and concerned that her affair with the detective/ key witness would be exposed, she runs crying to Balco. Balco, after handing Michelle a handful of paper towels to wipe her tears, agrees to help her out of the mess. We later see him – along with Michelle and Bobbi – in Farnsworth’s office where Balco expresses concern about the drug evidence paperwork question and the possibility of a tainted jury, and Farnsworth grants them a retrial. Bobbi asks to get her defendant released pending a new trial, and Farnsworth, asking Balco if he wouldn’t mind a lagniappe – a Cajun word for “baker’s dozen” or “a little extra” - gets Balco’s agreement. Everybody is happy, and afterwards Balco reminds Michelle that he expects her respect. I suspect he wants a little more than that from Michelle.

It’s great to see that Jerry Kellerman got a dose of reality, and hopefully he has learned that he can’t just drag his feet and then expect his friends to bail him out when he makes a mistake. Likewise, it’s good to see that Michelle has dumped Porter, who actually was beating out Balco on my smarm-o-meter. What is surprising to me is that while Balco expected Michelle to give him more credit and respect in the future, I found that I also had a little more respect for him and his way to work the system in this episode. But he still scores high on the smarm-o-meter.

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Raising The Bar “Trust Me” One Trust Broken, Another Gained

Last night’s episode of ”Raising The Bar” (TNT) “Trust Me” involves many forms of trust – trust of the word of a defendant or the police, the trust between colleague, and a big fat trust fund.

Public defender Bobbi Gilardi (Natalia Cigliuti ) – likely still reeling from the suicide of her husband that she was in the process of divorcing – throws herself into the case of Andre Jackman (Eugene Byrd) who was arrested for dealing drugs. The problem is, Jackman’s case is tied to another man who was arrested with him, and Jackman fears if he turns on his partner, Slice, he will end up dead. But Bobbi seems to have trouble with her client, as it seems his story morphs every time the situation warrants. Jackman seems to be looking for any excuse to get off, and refuses a plea deal because he is afraid if it comes out he had been a confidential informant in the past, he’ll be dead. Jackman also claims that the police set him up because he refused to go back to being a snitch, which he signed on for 10 years prior. Bobbi’s opponent is the competitive and aggressive prosecutor Michelle Earnhardt (Melissa Sagemiller), who is constantly trying to prove herself to her boss, the smarmy Nick Balco (Currie Graham). Michelle takes a group pep talk that Nick gives very seriously, and she is determined to win this case.

While Bobbi works to find facts she can use to support her client’s claims, Michelle works even harder to build her own case. When Bobbi feels she has the advantage when she gets Jackman’s case severed from his partner in crime, Michelle uses that to her advantage, getting Slice to take a deal in order to flip on Jackman. She times the process so she purposely won’t have the time to notify Michelle until right before she calls Slice as a witness. Things go downhill from here, as Michelle pays to have the police officer who signed Jackman’s confidential informant agreement 10 years ago up to testify, and he paints Jackman as someone who is unreliable and less than truthful. Meanwhile, Jerry Kellerman (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) had tried to help Bobbi with her case, by talking with Jackman without her knowledge and getting a tidbit of information, which he relays to Bobbi just as she is going in to the courtroom. Later, after Jackman is found guilty, she rips Jerry for talking with Jackman behind her back and feeding her the information without enough time for her to prepare herself for Jackman’s testimony. Bobbi seems to think that Jerry does not trust her, and she says she can’t trust him if he continues to go behind her back. She also ties in to Jerry for his behavior, indicating that Jerry thinks that only he can save the day all the time. Jerry finally apologizes, but I sense that things between him and Bobbi have definitely cooled off in more ways than one. If her husband hanging himself in her home wasn’t enough to put a crimp in her relationship with Jerry, his meddling certainly is.

The other case in this episode involves public defender Richard Woolsley (Teddy Sears). He is having lunch at the Woolsley club with Rex, who seems to be his financial advisor. It seems that Teddy had recently come into possession of a $3 million trust fund payment from his father, and Rex is annoyed that Richard has the money simply sitting in a checking account. Richard says he will look at Rex’s proposals and make his own decisions, and Rex seems impressed with this response.

When a former client of Richard’s, Camile de la Paz (Ivet Corveaz) complains to him that she is being sued for $1,500 in damages for shoplifting $6 worth of batteries – a charge for which she has already served her time – Richard decides to get involved. Camille tells Richard that having to pay this money will mean she can’t afford her rent, and she will be out on the street. When Ros (Gloria Reuben) won’t give Richard any help from their civil lawyers, Richard realizes that his father’s name and money has some clout. He calls the office of Jefferson Cox (Stephen Markle), the man heading the firm who is suing the woman and asks to meet him at the Woolsley club. But Cox thinks he is there to meet Richard’s father, not Richard, and he gets very pissy when Richard tries to twist his arm to drop the case. Richard gets wise later, though, when he decides to fight fire with fire, and threatens Cox with a lawsuit of his own which would drag the firm’s name into the public eye in a very negative manner. Cox drops the case, but threatens Richard if he tries this again he will find himself in a battle.

The experience, however, helps Richard to decide what to do with his $3 million. He writes a check for all of it and hands it to Ros, telling her to use it to hire more civil attorneys to help people like Camille have a fighting chance against battling these big law firms against these ridiculous lawsuits. Even after she gives him the option to rethink his position, Richard stands firm as he doesn’t need the money right now and will get more in 5 years anyway. Clearly, Richard is not totally comfortable with all this money; maybe it is more about the fact that it is from his father.

What I am beginning to enjoy about ”Raising The Bar” (TNT) is that the outcome of each case isn’t always obvious. Unlike many of the other crime/drama shows on television where it seems like the “good guys” - law enforcement, crime scene people, etc. – always win, ”Raising The Bar” (TNT) covers both sides of the fence equally well. You never know if the prosecution or the defense will get a win, and this makes the show more suspenseful all the way to the end. And unlike the Law & Order franchise, this law drama allows people a glimpse into the real lives of the main characters in a way that it is believable and comfortable. The characters are developing very clear personalities, to the point that when they step out of their persona it seems very real. For example, the smarmy Nick Balco (I can’t write his name without the including the word smarmy) does something unexpected when he gives some sincere praise to Michelle for winning her case, and the moment seemed genuine. (But he’s still smarmy.)

I didn’t think I would ever say this about this show after watching its premier last season, but I actually now look forward to the show and it is becoming one of my favorite dramas. They truly have “raised the bar” for legal dramas.

Clip from Raising the Bar: Trust Me




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“Raising The Bar” Takes It Up A Notch

All photos from TNT

Last September, I wrote a review of ”Raising The Bar” (TNT) that was less than flattering. Now, several episodes and a new season later, I’d like to set the record straight – I think I now like the show.

When ”Raising The Bar” (TNT) started its first season, I felt the show was too forced and too much like every other legal drama out there. I also felt it was very similar to Dick Wolf’s show “Conviction” which was a Law & Order-like show with young lawyers and their young lawyer lives (in other words, shallow).

After not watching “Raising the Bar” and then picking it up later in the year in reruns, something happened. The show grew on me. The characters grew on me. The stories, which were still slightly repetitive in theme, seemed to become a little more complex, along with the characters. It seemed that a show about the selfless public defenders as they battle the nasty prosecutors may have promise.

Now, with the start of the new season last week, the characters are better established, allowing them a little more latitude in where they can take them. Last week, public defender Jerry Kellerman (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) got a much needed haircut, making him look much more professional. It had a marked affect on his case, giving him instant credibility with the jury. It also seemed to have helped Jerry to grow up a bit, while still keeping his desire and passion to fight for the little guy.

This week’s episode, “Rules of Engagement” involves Jerry and prosecutor Michelle Ernhardt (Melissa Sagemiller) having to go before a new judge, Judge Farnsworth (John Michael Higgins). This new judge has a rulebook of his own, including carrying a gun into the courtroom, which he does not hesitate to point at a defendant wielding a chair at him. The judge isn’t willing to bend many rules but they do manage to get some time before the trial actually begins to firm up the case. But Michelle takes to a detective who seems to be using his good looks and likely a few lies to possibly cover up what was a bad arrest, and to win Michelle over and help win the case. Jerry, on the other hand, plays by the rules, and finds himself painted into a corner because of it.

Defender Richard Patrick Woolsley (Teddy Sears) gets to defend two old men – fraternal twins – who were accused of forging a signature on their dead roommate’s welfare check. The two men seem to joke their way through the process, and eventually one of them seems to play dead in court to gain sympathy and negotiate a better deal.

With the prosecutor’s office, Marcus McGrath (J. August Richards ) gets a hot date with a juror (played by Megalyn Echikunwoke) from a losing case he had in the previous week. She also happens to be the borough president’s chief of staff, a nice business connection for Marcus to have. This seems to make head of the prosecutors and resident jerk Nick Balco (Currie Graham) almost a little envious. Where Balco has an excess amount of smarminess, his counterpart in the public defenders office, Rosalind Whitman (Gloria Reuben) is the polar opposite, being almost too saccharine.

After watching Law & Order and its spawn for so many years, it is actually a little refreshing to see a show which covers the average, everyday criminals, and their defenders and prosecutors. While cases seems to move by with the speed of light on most crime shows - with crimes seemingly solved and trials occurring in no time flat - it’s a little alarming with “Raising The Bar” when it seems that the norm is having people sit in jail for months and months on end just waiting for their trial to commence. It’s also different in the fact that the show seems to portray most of the prosecutors as people who will do anything, including fight dirty, in order to win a case and make themselves look good. But don’t expect the public defenders to win every case, either.

So where last year I though that ”Raising The Bar” actually lowered it, I’ve now come to the conclusion that maybe it has actually has raised it a little. So if you’re looking for something to fill in the summer void of legal shows, this show may be just the answer.

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“Raising the Bar" Lowers the Standards

I had some moderately high hopes for TNT’s new legal drama, “Raising the Bar.” After all, TNT did such a great job with "The Closer." But, my hopes were dashed after watching the premier episode last night on TNT.

It wasn’t horrible, mind you, it was just OK. It had me asking myself, “do we really need another legal drama?” There was something that reminded me a little bit of Dick Wolf’s failed legal drama "Conviction.” They weren’t the same, but there was just something about the feel of “Raising the Bar” that seemed so familiar but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It could be that the law end of the show left me flat.

I admit that part of my problem is that I have never been a Steven Bonchco fan. I abhorred NYPD Blue and dropped that off my viewing list after the first few episodes. I even tried watching that show again after David Caruso left, and there wasn’t much improvement in my mind, so I don’t think the problem was Caruso.

Because I’m too lazy to recap the episode, here’s a quick snapshot of Ted Cox's summary and observations, from The Daily Herald:

When an assistant district attorney can't stop staring at the chest of one of his underling lawyers, she tells him to put up and drop trou right there in the office or shut up. Of course, he's not her real love interest. According to the TV Critics' Code, I'm not at liberty to reveal just who that would be, but I'll offer a hint: The show stars former "NYPD" studmuffin Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Elsewhere, a prissy defense attorney finds himself working for a jealous convict who cut off another convict's penis. And a law clerk charms the mercurial judge he works for by serving as her boy toy, although in his off hours he's more of a boys' toy.

Remember when it was enough for Bochco to show David Caruso's bare rear end or - worse - Dennis Franz's to be outrageous?

Those more innocent days are gone, however. Bochco is working in cable now, and "Bar" has to be at least as out-there as "Saving Grace," the Holly Hunter police show it is replacing for the time being on TNT. So Bochco borrows a few trashy touches from the Kelley playbook.

Is it mere coincidence that TNT even produced the "Bar" media guide in the form of a legal pad - Kelley's weapon of choice in writing a script?

All that's by way of saying "Bar" will do anything to keep a viewer engaged, but at the same time a viewer knows exactly what it's doing to keep the audience engaged. It's the same old idealistic legal procedural gussied up with a few new truly blue sideshows.

Gosselaar plays Jerry Kellerman, an up-and-coming defense attorney as cocky as he is scruffy. When Melissa Sagemiller's bodacious, blue-eyed ADA Michelle Earnhardt offers his client a sweetheart deal to plead out a rape case (shhh, remember, we're not yet supposed to know they're into each other's briefs), he gets his client to accept it (in a teary scene) even though the client would rather fight for his innocence.

Enter former "Malcolm in the Middle" mom Jane Kaczmarek as the neurotic, egotistic Judge Trudy Kessler, who scotches the plea and forces the lawyers to go to trial. Earnhardt, playing the legal game, fights the good fight even as she all but throws the case, but when the defendant is found guilty of a lesser charge Kessler throws the book at him and gives him more prison time than he would have gotten under the plea. So Kellerman goes ballistic and gets threatened with contempt.

"I'd rather be in jail," he says, "than free and a part of the system that put him there."

"Well, I'm happy to oblige you, counselor," replies Da Judge.

Legal memo to Kellerman: Look, lawyer boy, when your client is innocent, prove it in court, don't whine about the system. It takes a better actor than you - Al Pacino, for instance - to even try to pull off that grandstanding ploy.

Anyway, Kellerman proves to have a loyal ally hidden away in Jonathan Scarfe's Charlie Sagansky, the judge's kissing clerk, and I believe even a clod as clueless as Denny Crane can connect the dots from there.

Some other cast members are along to add spice. Former "ER" doc Gloria Reuben plays Kellerman's boss, and Currie Graham is the ADA with the roving eyes. Teddy Sears of "Ugly Betty" is the style-conscious defense attorney with the prison pickle plucker for a client, and J. August Richards is Marcus McGrath, an idealistic prosecutor who at one point feels compelled to point out, "Even a busted watch is right twice a day."

Bochco helped mold the story, but his new legal-eagle colleague David Feigue wrote the script, so blame him for cliches like that.

"Bar" finds TNT's - and Bochco's - creative juices flagging. It shouldn't keep Holly Hunter's "Grace" from reclaiming its rightful place after "The Closer" when it returns to finish its second season. But I will say this about "Bar:" Even Bochco at his worst is still better than David Kelley at his best.



Well, I think that about says it all. Will I bother to watch “Raising the Bar” again? Probably not. There is going to be too many other shows to watch on Monday nights that “Raising the Bar” will be lowered to the bottom of my list.


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