Close to Home

Jennifer Finnigan is a good actress, but the banal, phony scripts on this show are way beneath her talent.

This is a show in which the characters don't speak dialogue that is true to their characters. The writers put lines into their mouths that they would never say.

The courtroom scenes are absurd. In a day of unbelievable courtroom testimony, this show is at the nadir. Attorneys sit passively and listen (in rapture?) to Annabel (Finnegan) emote.

What is most galling is that this promising show is failed by its trite writers.

Close to Home is Close to Hokum.

After watching the pilot of this TV show, I'm convinced that CBS have a winner on their hands. The lead character, Annabeth Chase, played by the talented Jennifer Finnigan, is portrayed as a realistic working mum. On her first day back at work, she has to deal with a difficult case and also her emotions regarding her baby whom she misses. She's also unyielding in her resolve to bring the perpetrator of a heinous crime to justice and Finnigan plays Annabeth with a wealth of fiery passion that is lacking in most other shows on air at the moment.

Though it feels at times that it might be bordering on melodrama, it never crosses the line. The writing for this pilot was top-notch and though there is always room for improvement, it was a delight and a breath of fresh air. I hope this series will be picked up for a full season by CBS because it would be a waste should it be cancelled.

I keep waiting for this show to turn into something worthwhile. It has a fine cast, fairly decent plot ideas, and deals with popular subject matter -- but continues to have no character development, plot holes large enough to drive a Mac truck through, and dialogue that falls flat. Since somebody went to the trouble to move it into a slightly more promising time slot (sure, Friday nights stink -- but not as badly as opposite Law and Order: SVU when you're going for the same audience!), I sure hope they go to the trouble to find some decent writers. It might also behoove them to get some legal advice. There is generally at least one large legal error in each script -- unforgivable, when dealing with an audience that considers itself fairly sophisticated.

This show is designed for a classic CBS audience, the same audience that watched Murder She Wrote and Cold Case. Unfortunately, it will have to improve greatly to maintain that audience.

I watched an episode of this last night, the only episode I will be watching and from the beginning it didn't flow right. The lead-in to the case was good, but from there it took a swan-dive and did a delightful belly-flop.

I think it extremely unlikely that a prosecutor with a supposedly strong case would throw the entire case away by questioning a suspect after a request for an attorney has been made. Everything from there on became what is referred to as "Fruit from the Poisoned tree". Her whole case was based on this evidence, which when it came to arraignment was thrown out, except for ONE single piece of evidence which they obtained through a "seperate investigation". The last time I looked a single piece of evidence which proves intent, doesn't necessarily go beyond reasonable doubt.

The main character Annabeth, appears to be written as a smartly intuitive prosecutor, who can clearly tell when a suspect wants to confess, but it appeared that once the writers got that far, they didn't know what to do next.

The dialogue in it was wooden, certainly the supervisor in the Prosecutor's office appeared so wooden, he either grew on the spot or was poured from a concrete mould.

It's certainly not the edgy drama with an aggressive lawyer that it was touted as, it's a lightweight trying to punch well-above its weight and it's leading with its chin.

After just seeing the first episode of this new court/law drama "Close to home" I can see it becoming a hit! It reminds me of years ago after watching the first episode of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" the WOW factor was huge with this and that show! The opening scene was VERY impressive, the middle of the show was Great and the ending was perfect! The cinematography is very wonderful and keeps it fresh and the story is well done.

The characters are very likable. Starring Jennifer Finnigan (Commited) as Assistant DA, and John Carroll Lynch (Drew Careys brother on "The Drew Carey show") and Kimberly Elise (John Q). The cast is experienced and they act well in this show.

Close to Home is yet another great show from the CBS network and I will be watching it every chance I get! 5 Stars out of 5!

EDIT & UPDATE: Unfortunately since I wrote this review on October 4th 2005, Close to Home has gone down the toilet. Mainly with a bad time slot that usually competed with other shows people watch. Effect May 15 2007 it seems that CBS has pulled the plug on this show. Too bad, it was pretty good, the episodes I did watch anyway.