“Conviction” NBC
While shows like “Law & Order” and “NYPD
Blue” dominated airwaves for two decades, the last five years
have seen an explosion of procedural dramas. NBC, for instance,
shows no fewer than three variations of “Law &
Order.” Now “Law & Order”-creator Dick Wolf
has decided to break his tried-and-true formula with
“Conviction,” a crime drama which will premiere
tomorrow at 10 p.m. on NBC. “Conviction” follows the
lives of young assistant district attorneys in the pressure cooker
of the New York legal system. The show takes place in the
“Law & Order” universe, but doesn’t share the
title nor play out in the same narrative fashion. Rarely do
“Law & Order” and its brethren delve into personal
lives. “Conviction” breaks this rule and also makes it
clear just why none of the other Dick Wolf shows gets personal. The
best way to describe “Conviction” from an aesthetic
standpoint would be “Grey’s Anatomy” meets
“Law & Order.” This isn’t a pleasing mix:
“Conviction” comes off as schmaltzy and overwrought.
Every story beat is followed by adult alternative music blasting in
the background, as if to scream that something emotionally profound
has happened. Worse, none of the characters is terribly
interesting. The show appears to center on Nick Cross (Jordan
Bridges) as he starts out as an assistant district attorney and
tries to fit in. Conflicts in the first episode include an assitant
DA leaving her evidence on the table during lunch and losing key
items and Assistant DA Brian Peluso (“24’s” Eric
Balfour, mostly wasted here) dealing with an ex-girlfriend.
Dedicated “Law & Order” fans will de disappointed,
not just because the show plays out more like a legal soap opera
than a procedural drama, but also because it doesn’t make any
sense. Especially problematic is the decision to bring back
Stephanie March as Bureau Chief Alexandra Cabot. March’s
character left “Law & Order: SVU” after being
threatened in a drug case and entering the Witness Protection
Program. She guest starred on “SVU” this season, but
went back into hiding at the episode’s end.
“Conviction” seems to ignore this because suddenly
Cabot is back and ready to put baddies away. It’s wonderful
to have an actress of March’s caliber return, and Cabot is a
great character, but the decision to toss her into the show without
explanation smacks of lazy writing and spells out that the only
reason she is in “Conviction” is to attract the
built-in “Law & Order” fan base.
“Conviction” does show promise ““ the concept can
be interesting (the subplot of the assistant DA losing her evidence
feels real, because it’s a textbook
“first-day-on-the-job-gone-horribly-wrong” experience),
but for now the only distinction the show can hold is that it is
the first in what will likely be a flood of “Grey’s
Anatomy” knockoffs.
“”mdash; Mark Humphrey