Franklin and Bash Review: "Pilot" (Series Premiere) (06/01/2011)
You may be asking yourself, “What the f*ck is SportsOlogy
doing in ScreenOlogy?” We couldn’t help ourselves; the greatest show on
television debuted last night, and it demands a review. We’re speaking, of
course, about Franklin and Bash, TNT’s
new lawyer dramedy that puts all other lawyer dramedies to shame. We’ve been
watching the NBA playoffs like it’s our job (it is), and TNT has promoted the
hell out of Franklin and Bash, so we
felt obliged to watch. We’re glad we did. Here’s our take on episode one, "Pilot," of Franklin and Bash.
But before we begin, please check out this promo. If you don’t
want to watch Franklin and Bash after
seeing this, then you have no taste:
Franklin and Bash is the story of the non-traditional lawyer/friend combination of Peter Bash and Jared Franklin, with Breckin Meyer as Jared Franklin and Zach Morris as Peter Bash. The story is loosely based on Hesiod's Works and Days, with Franklin and Bash spending most of their days working. The catch, however, is that the line betweeen work and play is blurry at best. As you can imagine, the shenanigans these guys pull off make for some pretty entertaining viewing.
We're introduced to our intrepid lawyers as they're eating and having a playful conversation about Marisa Tomei. Only they're not just eating, they're waiting for a car accident to occur so they can pick up clients! Work, meet Play. Play, this is Work. You two should get along nicely. Not only do they successfully convince a man who rear-ended another driver that he should not be held accountable for the accident, but they win the case in court and earn a significant settlement for their client.
Franklin and Bash impress Stanton Infeld, the head of major law firm Infeld Daniels, with their antics, so he decides to hire them. As you can imagine, the two gunslinging lawyers don't fit in with the corporate atmosphere, but dammit, they get results! Although they're expected to pick up the feel of the workplace gradually, Franklin and Bash waste no time adding a personal "Franklin and Bash" touch to Infeld Daniels, much to the consternation of their inevitably tight-assed rival in the office.
Placing non-traditional lawyers in a stuffy corporate office is the perfect way to explore contemporary themes in society, and Franklin and Bash does not hesitate to examine some of the tougher issues facing the viewership. We see thoughtful discussions of love, legal theory, and the fuzzy line between work and home life that dominates the modern American experience. Sure, Franklin and Bash may be lawyers, and their methods may be unconventional, but we realize that they in fact adhere to a strict sense of morals. When Franklin glibly remarks, "Our job is not to follow the law. Our job is to make the law," at the beginning of the episode, he calls attention to the nature of "The Law" as a human creation, one that is malleable and perhaps not always as just as we assume justice to be. When corporate practices spiral out of control, Franklin and Bash are the stopgaps to ensure that we remember what humanity--that is to say, the "human experience"--ought to be.
Love also receives its due attention, with Zach Morris deftly capturing a single man's struggle with a past to which he cannot return and a present which gives him corporeal pleasure, but which does not satiate his soul. The writers do not shy away from courtroom soliloquies in which Peter Bash must discuss the nature of love while the opposing lawyer, who is his former flame (she's more than that, of course), listens silently. Again, where must we draw the line between these themes of work, love, and life? The show asks the questions, but it wisely does not always provide solid answers.
Of course, the serious intellectual nature of Franklin and Bash is given more gravitas by the humor which penetrates every scene. When we boil down the show's themes to their essential natures, we can see an almost ironic giggling at the very questions the show wishes to illuminate. A single scene might juxtapose a legal question with Franklin's calling someone "Scrotum Face," and the audience is forced to think about what that might say about the way we attribute meaning to events, words, and objects in our lives. It also calls attention to the nature of entertainment; what makes the viewer watch? How much erudite writing can a show permit before it falls outside the realm of entertainment? Can a simple television show successfully straddle the line between entertainment and didactic programming? Once again, the viewer does not receive any concrete answers.
You can see the theme of "The Line" recurring in every area of the show. As in Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, this idea of the "meridian," as Melville calls it, appears to show the importance of balance in leading a successful life. We have yet to see what kind of success Franklin and Bash will have, but it seems certain that the ride will be both intelligent and entertaining. We're immensely looking forward to it.
SumOlogy: Franklin and Bash is an entertaining ride that appeals to the erudite and casual viewer alike, with shots of Zach Morris's ass side by side with Socratic discussions of legality. Stay tuned for more of TNT's masterpiece. Overall grade an A++
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