Benched

I love this show, it is such a shame that it has been canceled. Please, dear Lord of the airing, if you read this, sign (at least) season 2!!

The two main leading roles are fun and the scenario is pretty well written. Somehow it reminds me Ally McBeal but without the annoying Calista Flockart. Eliza Coupe is delicious. She perfectly endorses the part of the daddy's bitchy rich girl.

It's fresh, it's contemporary.

Please, put it back on air, I wanna know what is coming next!

Let me be the public defender of this show and ask the Court a deal for Benched!

I don't know what's wrong with these other reviewers.

This is way better than "Bad Judge", which I really wanted to like.

The lead has great comic timing and the rest of the cast shoes promise.

Just the fact that the stand-up comic Maria Bamford is in the cast makes it worth watching.

I laughed a lot during the first episode, and there are signs that there will be some heart along with the laughs.

Good comedies are hard to come by - give it a chance.

I don't know why IMDb request ten lines of text for a review! It's just not necessary!

Here's one show I hope will last. Benched is a really good half hour comedy show about a woman attorney who leaves her white shoe law firm for the public defender's office. Not that Eliza Coupe did that willingly, she threw a hissy fit when another female lawyer made partner. After that she burned her bridges in corporate law.

So there's no sense of obligation that Coupe has in terms of her job, but a girl has to eat and the scene she made leaving her old firm has not exactly enhanced her resume. The comedy of this show centers around Coupe learning a whole different world than what she's used to.

Eliza Coupe has a nice sense of comedy timing, she reminds me a whole lot of Jennifer Aniston. One wonders if Anniston was offered the series before Coupe. Never mind because Coupe is really good in the lead. I do hope this show finds an audience.

It's a crowded place on TV and I didn't expect this to supplant so many great shows on my viewing schedule when it's not too much a variation of the stock sitcom. However, I was surprised that adds something a little new to the equation.

Eliza Coupe stars as former hotshot lawyer Nina Whitley who is banished from the high-priced world after a public meltdown cost her her job.

She takes a job as a public defender where she often doesn't have enough resources or time to do a halfway decent job with her clients. Because of these constraints and this satiric bent, this half-hour comedy gets to the nuts and bolts of the legal system better than many legal dramas.

Nina's office is full of people who aren't on the same wavelength as her. Her arch-nemesis (and potential love interest) Phil does not take the job as seriously and as he's the ring leader of sorts, Nina is often the fish out of water.

Coupe is the rare actress whose stunningly beautiful yet can convince the audience that her character would have trouble landing a date.

The chemistry among the cast is impeccable and Oscar Nunez and Jay Harrington find themselves in roles that are complete reversals from their last TV roles of Oscar on "The Office" and Ted from "Better off Ted" respectively. The brilliant Maria Bamford is underutilized however but hopefully that will change.

Benched is something special, IMHO. The characters are flawed but are fighting the good fight. The supporting cast is excellent and create a quirky and rich environment. I've had real laughs watching this show and that's the highest praise I can give. Thumbs up, way up!

Let me add that for a show to be great, like this one is, it has to hit on all cylinders. From writing to acting to directing, this show has what it takes. If it doesn't get renewed for another season it's a TV travesty.

If it were up to me I'd give this show two Golden Globes, so Nina could have a matching set.