Judging Amy

...keithw1975! This show perfectly portrays the life of every professional woman I know, including myself. Amy and Maxine have to fight for respect in difficult careers and, even when they've earned the respect, they cannot afford to show the slightest hesitation to anyone except those closest to them. It's a lonely life in many ways, but you watch how they cope, sometimes well and sometimes not. And that's the real world!

What's most impressive about this show is that each of the women are portrayed as strong in their own way, even Gillian, who was a bit wimpy in the earlier years. You see her strength in dealing with substance abuse, losing a child, infertility and childbirth, as well as her own changing role in the family. She becomes just as valuable a role model for Lauren as Amy and Maxine. I wish that every girl I've ever known had the same sort of guidance and role modeling.

I'm sorry that it's been canceled.

I don't know what show some of the "critics" have been watching, because many of the complaints can't possibly apply to the "Judging Amy" I've been watching. For one thing, this show is about as nonpolitical as a show about a judge can be. Issues which come up during the cases heard by Amy or handled by Maxine are decided in the interest of the child--that's the whole point of the juvenile justice system. The only reason I can see for lodging the charge that "Judging Amy" is "left-leaning" is that characters who fall outside the "married-white-protestant-middleclass-traditional-family" group (in other words, most everyone) aren't stoned to death on the show. Other than that, there is no left to lean.

As to whether this is a "woman's show:" first of all, I'm a man, and have loved the show from Week One. The two most important characters are women, but "Amy" has never been one of those shows concerned primarily with emotions and issues unique to women (like "Sisters" or "One Day At A Time")--the third most important character has always been a man (first Vincent, then Kyle). And to say that male characters are treated unfairly is patently ridiculous.

I do think that over the years the show has suffered from too much turnover in Amy's love life--she never seems to date anyone for more than 3 or 4 consecutive shows. My favorite of all the "boyfriends" was Stu (Reed Diamond); I found his history with Amy and the way the relationship was developing well worth exploring. I wish they'd bring him back. Also missed is Dan Futterman. Kevin Rahm as Kyle is doing a fine job, and the character is growing on me, but I really liked the affectionate/prickly/challenging relationships between the main triangle of Amy, Maxine, and Vincent. The other characters are often used in lighter subplots, but are compelling and well-rounded people in their own right. I guess it's possible that "Amy" detractors are NYPD Blue fans upset that "Amy" always beats it in the ratings, but that's hardly an excuse for trashing a good show.

As a TV drama addict, I have to admit that the premise for this show did not inspire me.

How wrong I was.

The storylines are challenging and the actors all give fine balanced performances.

My greatest praise, however, is reserved for Tyne Daly. Her performance as Maxine Grey is one of the best I have ever seen on TV.

She deserves an Emmy.

Did you ever notice your major network's morbid fascination with death? Nearly every prime-time drama is a law enforcement drama from the perspective of cops, criminal investigators, or lawyers. And nearly everyone is about investigations into violent crimes. Take CSI, for example, a forensics show piecing together the clues behind violent homicides. Law & Order, no matter which one you watch, is usually about brutal crimes as well. These two I give as examples considering their popularity among network viewers.

But Judging Amy is quite a refreshing break from the world of violent crime, though it is not without it's share into the investigation of some violent crime. However, it is also not done so morbidly. Judging Amy is a show about the legal system as well as a regular drama about the regular, normal lives of the character. In a day and age of violent television, it offer a little bit soap drama (but not sappy drama) and a bit of humor (particularly from Amy's mom, the witty Maxine Gray).

Amy Gray (Amy Brennan) is a judge in family court. As a single mother, she lives with her mother, Maxine, (the wonderful Tyne Daily), and her daughter (Lauren Karle Warren). There's also Amy's charismatic and poignant friend, Donna, her clerk, and Bruce Van Exel (Richard T. Jones) who is Amy's coworker as well as her source of direction on many occasions. So, we see Amy on two fronts: as the family court judge and as single mother and member of a busy family.

Thus, the show caters to an audience just looking for a regular drama as we see the various situations surrounding the Gray family life such as the lessons Amy tries to teach her teenage daughter, or Maxine's or Amy's love life dilemmas, or perhaps what her cousin Kyle is up to, or the difficulties her brother and sister-in-law are going through. There's always something going on. And the characters are all interesting enough to care.

Judging Amy, too, is good as a critique into the legal system. Three members of the family work in public service (her brother works in insurance, so he doesn't count). Maxine is the brazen social worker at DCF and is determined to make the system work to help as many people as she possibly can, even when the bureaucratic processes try to slow her down (remember when they wanted to fire her for speaking against the mayor for the underfunding of the children's home). These are where most of the arguments about flaws in the cumbersome family law policy comes from because Amy, as a judge, can only make such arguments personally, so they occur sometimes rarely. And her cousin Kyle, worked in a shelter and now in a hospital, and is faced, too, with similar frustrations with a neglecting system of public service.

Likewise, even Bruce is interesting as a vehicle for the arguments against the family law system when he is working as a mediator, attempting to fix situations without having to send parents or children into state custody, and hoping they can fix those problems without an abundance of recidivism. All of these characters are there to make the policy arguments that the show intends.

So, Judging Amy presents two spheres, both enjoyable. And the actors do a terrific job. It's really quite a different show, breaking away from the strict examination of the legal system, but not being thrust into a pure soap drama (but again, even if it were, it's less sappy and much more viable than your soap dramas). The strikes a balance. Not only that, because the show involves a single mother and the dominance, too, of her own mother (Maxine), it is a likely quite a popular show among women. Even so, it is not female dominated. Other characters are probably given equal concentration even though Amy and Maxine are pretty much the main characters, both working as counterparts of one another. Amy sometimes seems less sure of herself, less willing to be on the offensive. Maxine is much more bold, more willing to break the rules if it going to help things along. And she always seems to know what she's doing and how to go about it.

It's a pretty good show, different than most of what's out there on network television, and probably worth your time.

judging Amy was one of my favorite shows that has been canceled. I watched it from the beginning, and felt very sad to know the show would not be back this season. Why should anyone be loyal to a show, and have it removed without any regard to the fans who continue to come back, wk after wk, yr after yr. All the networks deserve to tank, if this is how they treat their customers. NBC did the same thing with Third Watch, but tied up the story lines for us. I'd rather see Joan over Jennifer L any day. She at least has some real smarts. Shame on you corporate honchos. I think I'll just stay on the internet, from now on. A Disheartened former viewer.