Necessary Roughness

Pleasant if fundamentally flawed show. The basic problem with this show is that tries to combine the blue sky appeal of other USA network shows while combining sometimes serious psychotherapy. As a result, the show has serious tonal issues and ends up not being very good at either. However, the show manages to still be moderately enjoyable because of one reason: casting. I feel that in television (not so much in movies unless it's a romantic comedy), casting talented actors and having sympathetic characters can go a long way and can forgive a multitude of sins. Army Wives in particular is a great example of this (and has a more talented cast than this show), but this show really works well at the top because of Callie Thorne's magnetic star quality and excellent counterbalancing from supporting players Mehcad Brooks and Scott Cohen. They help make this show more than the sum of it's parts, if not quite enough to make this a "good" show. Even so, it's not have bad as escapist entertainment.