For Life

The first season is compelling, excellent storyline that opens your eyes, excellent acting and overall a very engaging show that pulls you in almost from the start. Yes it has its soapy moments in the first season but those are forgiven for the overall original feel to this show. The character development is also extremely good in the first season.

But for whatever reason, instead of ending the show after the second episode of the second season and wrapping it up then, the producers decided they wanted to keep making money off this, and just turned the show into a CSI extension. It's like Watching two completely different shows under the same name.

I hate it when shows do this, it ruins the entire thing. All the character development from the first season has disappeared, and the story has just turned into your average American soap drama.

What a shame.

Nine years ago, night club owner Aaron Wallace (Nicholas Pinnock) was sentenced to life after his friend's secret drug stash is found on his premises. He worked to become a lawyer to help his fellow inmates and to go up against the hard-headed DA Glen Maskins who put him in prison. Maskins will do anything to keep him in prison. Anya Harrison (Mary Stuart Masterson) is running for the DA office and her wife Safiya Masry (Indira Varma) happens to be Aaron's warden who is trying to implement reforms. Former public defender and State Senator Henry Roswell (Timothy Busfield) is helping Aaron with his legal work. His wife Marie Wallace (Joy Bryant) is in a relationship with his best friend. His daughter gets pregnant. Fellow prisoner Jamal Bishop becomes his friend.

This is supposedly based loosely on a real person. The big name producer is 50 Cent. Quite frankly, the audience is better off ignoring all of that. This is simply a good show with good performances starting with Nicholas Pinnock in the lead. He powers the narrative and its emotional heart. It works. It's canceled after two seasons.

A lawyer who is a member of the New York Bar but still in prison - a complex and unique story with dark themes at times that keeps the viewer guessing what will be next. A gritty presentation of some harsh realities but with glimpses of humanity.

There have been many shows and documentaries on how corrupt and broken the criminal justice system is in America. Even if you've never been there (America that is, not prison, though that may apply too), you get the picture and you don't need really a great imagination for that either.

Having said that, the first season of this show is really well told. It may feel like it is stretched a few times to some, but the writing is really good. You are thrown in (no pun intended) - and you have to find your way and get into the mindset of our main character. There is an episode that goes back and shows us a bit of the how (not so much why) he got in prison. That works quite fine too ... it is the circumstances ... we will find out what made the police and the AG act the way they did. Not as an excuse, but more for the viewer to understand. But this doesn't mean this case is an exception ... unfortunately.

It really gets grim and it really hurts watching many times. Especially if you have a neck for justice - and hate injustice! This really gives it to you as crazy as you can imagine. The second season starts off on such a high ... that it almost is impossible to reach that after that. There are also certain things in here that are true, but feel like they are being hammered home. Now I know it is different for those who go through stuff like that, than for those who just watch them unfold ... but in this case truth is much scarier than fiction ... and to depict those things in a show is walking a fine line ... you be the judge how much or to what effect this works.

One last thing I really am not fond of seeing - nothing to do with the show directly, but with reviewers ... please stop rating a whole show after just seeing one or two episodes! Rate those and review those, but not the entirety of the show based on just a portion of it. Thank you very much.

A fresh storyline like nothing seen before which gives you an insight into prison life and the struggles within. An emotional ride into Aaron Wallace's life as a determined lawyer fighting for his freedom against a corrupt government!