Should You Hear Arguments For Benched?

What Is This Thing?

When polished corporate lawyer Nina Whitley has to go straight from a phone call in which her ex-fiancé tells her he's marrying someone else to a meeting where she learns she's been passed over for partner, she loses her shit, smashes a bunch of stuff in front of all her colleagues, and ends up getting blackballed so severely that she has to take a job as a public defender. Will she be able to rise to the occasion even though it's such a huge comedown? What if I add that since her ex works in the DA's office, she's going to be arguing cases against him, like, all the time?

When Is It On?

Tuesdays at 10:30 PM on USA.

Why Was It Made Now?

A few weeks ago, Nellie Andreeva of Deadline.com reported that the USA Network is changing its original-programming strategy and pivoting away from comedy, which -- since Sirens has already been renewed for a second season and Benched was already on the schedule -- seemed mostly to be bad news only for Playing House, almost certain to be cancelled. This heartbreaking fact aside: Benched was part of the old strategy.

What's Its Pedigree?

The show was created by Michaela Watkins (last seen playing Jackie on Trophy Wife, but behind the camera on this one, at least so far) and Damon Jones (Comedy Central's Halfway Home); John Enbom, late of Party Down, is on board as Executive Producer and show runner. And the cast is full of favourites from the world of alt- and altish-comedy: Eliza Coupe (Happy Endings), who plays Nina; Cedric Yarbrough (Reno 911!); Jay Harrington (Better Off Ted); Fred Melamed (last summer's feature film In A World...); Oscar Nuñez (The Office); and Maria Bamford (standup comedy, general awesomeness). Even the world of unintentional comedy is represented by Jolene Purdy, late of Under The Dome.

...And?

Like Kate Walsh in the similar "female fuckup in the legal field" sitcom Bad Judge, Coupe attacks the role of Nina without vanity or reserve: when we first see her, it's when she's in the middle of weeping through a call with Trent, her former fiancé, so she goes to the partner announcement with mascara streaking her cheeks. She also brings a real sense of berserker danger to the rampage with which she greets the news that one of her more bosomy colleagues is being made partner ahead of herself; Happy Endings fans will find this Coupe character -- an elegant, Type A shell covering barely controlled anger -- kind of familiar. Who am I kidding? Nina is Jane as a lawyer, including figuring out a way to make her disgrace work for her by the end of the pilot. (The legend that has grown up around her from those who heard tell of the way she quit her last job is a fun runner through the episode too.)

I also feel like this is the best I've ever understood what it's like to be a public defender, which I realize is an absurd thing to say about a sitcom. But the pilot is actually pretty effective and economical in portraying Nina's first day on the job: getting a huge pile of cases dumped on her; having to be ready for a morning of bail hearings without any preparation; that the overwhelming majority of her clients are and will be disadvantaged people of colour. And, of course, that most of Nina's colleagues gave up caring kind of a while ago. The change of circumstances comes with a lot of comic and dramatic possibilities for her character: is she just marking time until she can get back to practicing the kind of law she used to -- the kind that actually comes with some prestige -- or will she find New Meaning from her valiant new position?

Also: Nina's hair is on point and her outfits are tailored like whoa. Even when she's crawling over a gate, she looks like the million bucks she probably used to get paid at her old job.

...But?

Purdy plays Micah, a second-year law student who's both Nina's assistant, effectively, and her Jiminy Cricket, urging her on to be her best courtroom self. I'm not actually sure if she's capable of being funny -- so far, she's mostly a scold -- and I'm really trying not to hold Under The Dome against her, but God, it's so hard.

Harrington is Phil, another lawyer in the office who has problems with both booze and gambling, apparently. He's supposed to look like he's gone to seed, and bless him, Harrington does his best, but comb his hair and put him in a Zegna suit and he's just Ted again. The pilot tries to make it seem like Nina might still be hung up on Trent, or that he's still intrigued by her (even though the official line is that he broke up with her because she was too much of a workaholic to pay him as much attention as he wanted), but Harrington's so attractive -- good-looking by any standard, but especially a TV-dreamboat, if you know what I mean -- that he's obviously intended to be her eventual love interest, and they can't really crap him up enough to disguise it.

As for Bamford's Cheryl, another public defender: I look forward to a time when the writers get to know Maria Bamford well enough to let her be funny and weird in the ways anyone who's seen her standup knows and loves.

Finally, there's some business with Nina's storm-off after the partner announcement where she keeps trying to exit triumphantly but the elevator won't move at the right time or the doors open again or whatever, and I still haven't decided if it goes on too long, or goes on far enough past too long to be hilarious again.

...So?

The pilot wasn't hilarious, but Coupe is never boring to watch, so I'll give it a few more tries.