"Fairly Legal"

Image result for fairly legal reviewUSA continues its rather remarkable winning streak with "Fairly Legal," an energetically delightful dramedy about a San Francisco mediator played by Sarah Shahi, which premieres Thursday. Shahi, last seen on the short-lived but wonderful "Life," is Kate Reed, a former attorney so unpredictable she wears Christian Louboutins but lives on a boat and so frustrated by the law that she becomes a mediator. As such, she uses her considerable capacity for empathetic diplomacy to help people solve their own problems — in early episodes these include corporate mergers and the size of parking spaces — outside the stuffy and legally hamstrung court system.
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The anti-lawyer lawyer show. It's a nifty trick by creator Michael Sardo ("Wings," "Caroline in the City") and a terrific idea — to neatly detach all the human elements that make courtroom dramas so delicious from the increasingly worn-thin "objection, your Honor" scenes. Not that there aren't still a few gavels knocking about — Gerald McRaney appears occasionally as a judge who is Kate's nemesis/father figure. Because as the action opens, Kate's famous attorney father has died and Kate finds herself now working for the new other Reed of the firm "Reed & Reed" — her young, lovely and tough as nails step-mother, Lauren (Virginia Williams.)

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