I wanted to like it. I love Smitts, its just too cardboard cut out. Writing is cliché. Smits character may as well be wearing a big "S" on his chest and a red cape. He shows no vulnerable side, no deeper issues to make him human and likable. And the supporting actors are not great, maybe its the writing. Plus, as usual, conservatives are evil, the only pure hearts beat in liberal's chests...I am so sick of that overcooked, generalized, message. And how does he go, in a matter of hours, from believing this guy had eleven years to fight his verdict in court and that the system, that he has served his whole life, works- to throwing away his seat on the supreme court to defend the guy? what is Smits' character basing his change of heart on? Maybe I fell asleep for a second and missed something. And surprise, the guy is innocent, it would have been more interesting if the guy was actually guilty or if he was innocent and Smits and he Godzilla size ego didn't take the deal from the prosecutor and the guy almost or does die, teaching Smitz a lesson in humility at the cost of a human life.Then he spends the rest of the season trying to reconcile his life's work with the reality of our well meaning but often flawed legal system. I am not hard to please but this one didn't make the cut.
