Bad Judge – Pilot

A partying, irresponsible, even somewhat slutty judge and her colleagues are the main focus of the new ‘NBC’ comedy series ‘Bad Judge’. With Kate Walsh (famous for her role in ‘Private Practice’) as the main character judge Rebecca Wright, they’ve cast a strong female lead for this role. But comedy is a tricky genre. Timing, choice of words, acting, they all have to be right in order for a comedy to be a success. Will they fail miserably or have the creators found a success formula that will work?

Judge Wright tries to be a strict judge during the day, but it’s no secret to anyone how she spends her nights. She has shown up for work hung over multiple times, despite the discontent from colleague/boss Hernandez (Miguel Sandoval, ‘Medium’) and clerk Tedward Mulray (Tone Bell, ‘Whitney’). Lawyer Tom Barlow (John Ducey, ‘Oh, Grow Up’) has also noticed her behaviour, but yet likes to have drinks with her sometimes. Shrink Gary Boyd (Ryan Hansen, ‘Veronica Mars’) is an expert witness for the court sometimes, and also one of Rebecca Wright’s many flings. Last but not least, there’s also eight-year-old Robby Shoemaker (Theodore Barnes, ‘Back in the Game’), a boy who asks judge Wright for help from time to time since both of his parents were sent to jail by her.

The creators made sure that the comedy aspect of the series was being prioritized from the beginning. Starting with the first scene, that focusses on Rebecca Wright’s character. A nice idea, but a little too extreme in my opinion. I personally like subtlety in comedies. Some over the top stuff is nice every now and then, but here the jokes are too obvious to be entertaining. Although Kate Walsh is clearly trying to pull off a convincing character, the whole situation is too unlikely to take Rebecca Wright serious. Maybe that’s the intention of the creators, but I personally find that more of a flaw than a positive thing.

The first episode is a typical pilot. A short introduction of judge Wright is followed by all the secondary characters that are in this show. We also get to see a glimpse of what the rest of the series will be about. Robby’s constant cry for attention will possible change Rebecca into a responsible, mature women. Despite her own problems, she has a big heart and tries to help the families of people she convicted outside of her work hours. She is well respected by her co-workers, but still needs to get her personal life in order.

I’m a big fan of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Private Practice’, I even liked that last one a bit better than the series it’s based on. Kate Walsh is an actress I like to watch, but not in this series. I know she can be hilarious in interviews, but it just doesn’t come across in ‘Bad Judge’. The same goes for all the other cast members. It’s not the acting, it’s the story and script that just aren’t funny enough. The clichés are way too transparent and make it hard to see anything else. I feel bad for Kate because I would have loved to be able to say that I think this series will be a success, but I just don’t think that it will.