John Grisham has really written some fine fiction that seems so easily adaptable to the big screen. The film The Client certainly won a lot of acclaim for all connected with it and it's only one of Grisham's works that have been a solid film success. You would think that he would do well on the small screen too.
But this TV adaption of The Client only lasted for a season. JoBeth Williams was a fine substitution for the role of Reggie Love that Susan Sarandon did so well on screen. The other members of the cast are Polly Holiday as her mother, David Barry Gray as her paralegal and John Heard as prosecutor Roy Foltrigg so memorably played on the big screen by Tommy Lee Jones.
On the big screen Sarandon is hired in a manner of speaking by 11 year old Brad Renfro. On the small screen Williams is an attorney whose clientele is children. She is in many episodes a guardian ad litem for the children she represents. Meaning she represents the interest of the kids and not parents or guardians.
It's a specialized field of law in my area practiced in Family Court. To my knowledge this is the only TV show that dealt with those issues exclusively, perhaps Judging Amy can also be considered as well and it lasted a bit longer.
Sad this didn't last longer. And the review is dedicated to attorney Sheila Dickinson who was one dedicated practitioner of family law and a zealous guardian for her clients.
