Should You Meet Bad Judge In Chambers?

What Is This Thing?

On the bench, Judge Rebecca Wright is firm, authoritative, and commanding. But when she's not working, she's drinking heavily and making panicked pre-court trips to the drugstore for emergency pregnancy tests. How can one woman contain these multitudes?!

When Is It On?

Thursdays at 9 PM on NBC.

Why Was It Made Now?

"If audiences love Bad Teacher -- and they surely will, for at least the next decade, if not longer! -- then why not an equally 'bad' professional in the legal field?" - the pitch that sold this show, probably. I mean, honestly, I don't really know. NBC has decided 2014 is the year they go hard on long-haired ginger ladies who need to get their shit together? (See Also: fucking Laura.)

What's Its Pedigree?

Are you sitting down? I'll wait. ...Okay, this show was created by Anne Heche. "Ooh, that's an unfortunate name coincidence for that poor screenwriter!" No: it was created by that Anne Heche, a.k.a. Celestia. And she sold it to Gary Sanchez Productions, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's company. The titular judge is played by Kate Walsh, and though the rest of the cast is a bunch of somewhat recognizable character actors, her main booty call recipient -- Gary, a psychiatrist and frequent "expert witness" -- is played by Ryan Hansen, formerly of Veronica Mars (and its current web spinoff, Play It Again, Dick), Party Down, Burning Love, and, most recently, Bad Teacher. (Next: Bad Ink?)

...And?

After years of suffering nobly as Addison Montgomery-Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy and its spinoff, Private Practice, Walsh seems to have decided that 2014 is the year she gets back to her comedy roots: before this, she played another memorable slattern on FX's Fargo. And as befits someone with past Gary Sanchez experience, she really goes for it when the script calls for her to be gross: for instance, Rebecca doesn't just walk onto the bench holding her pregnancy test because the result hasn't come up yet; when it turns out negative, she celebrates and then hands it to her bailiff to throw away for her. And if she has a chance to bang out someone who looks like Ryan Hansen, of course she's going to. ANYONE WOULD.

...But?

Gary Sanchez is the outfit behind Eastbound & Down and Drunk History, which might lead one to expect -- nay, to hope for -- a certain level of scandalous filth, particularly since the show's title promises that it's about a judge who is bad. But as I noted up top, Rebecca is actually a good judge. In fact, she's so good that what her boss is most mad at her about is that she's being TOO ATTENTIVE to Robby, the son (now in foster care) of a pair of criminals she sentenced to prison.

I understand it's a truism of TV that executives think audiences want to watch characters being good at their jobs, and I'm not saying I'd rather Bad Judge expected me to buy that Rebecca could continue to be employed if she were throwing up on the bench or hooking up with dudes in open court. But having this character selflessly use her spare time to advocate for a child (and PS: NBC already has an About A Boy; not every sitcom needs a precocious preteen and some might say NONE do) feels like an overcorrection. As if that wasn't enough to reassure us that even if Rebecca seems like a mess outside work hours she's actually a functional adult, the episode closes with her giving a speech at some banquet about what law students should expect from their careers, looking as polished as Addison in her sleek hair and smart print cocktail dress...before changing into her Coyote Ugly-esque civvies to take Robby to a bar.

Long story short: maybe if this show had been on cable, Rebecca would get to go full dirtbag, but because it's a network show, all her less savory attributes have to be balanced by evidence of her being an angel, by which I mean boring.

Plus, not nearly enough Ryan Hansen being funny (though there's a fair amount of Ryan Hansen being shirtless, so the pilot doesn't totally fail him).

...So?

The more the show's marketing tries to convince me of how shocking it is, the less shocked I am. And I just don't see this getting renewed, so it's hard for me to justify investing any time in it.