The Whole Truth

I love a good courtroom drama and was looking forward to this show after seeing the ads. The concept, in which only the audience knows the true guilt or innocence of the defendant, is an excellent one. I also have really liked Rob Morrow in other TV shows and films and thought he and Maura Tierney would be terrific. Then I watched the show and I could barely get through the pilot. I found the writing to be extremely contrived and overly slick. I was disappointed in Rob Morrow's acting and the character he plays. The character is smarmy and unlikable and Morrow's acting is way over the top. The banter between Morrow and Tierny's characters is embarrassing. These two sound more like bratty high school rivals than professional lawyers. Real lawyers don't act like this--they strategize and focus on how to win their cases, rather than engage in a childish game of "gotcha," constantly trying to get the better of one another.

This show much like many of its predecessors has been made in the speed through the motions fast and get to the trial phase. The major difference is the time line of how this show seems to go. Unlike most other shows where we have the prosecutions move and the defenses response it give and entire side of first the prosecution and then the entire side of the defense, the only thing it leaves is really the closings to be symbiotic at the very end of the episode.

It's actually done in a very nice fashion, we get to see what evidence each side unfolds on their own and how they intend for it to play out in court, there aren't too many sidewinders just a few mostly at trial which is the way real lawyers would duke it out in court. All and all I like the cast and the plots, 8/10 for a nicely put together legal drama.

I usually just like the medical dramas, but I'm really taking to this show. Okay, I love watching Maura Tierney back on TV (first saw her on ER -- yes, I know, a medical drama).

It's pretty cool seeing both sides of the case develop around the same evidence, and then see how it plays out at the end. I also love the banter between the new main lawyers, but hoping that they don't hook up anytime soon. Although I am curious about their law school history.

This last episode (the kid confessing to killing his parents) was the best one so far! Hoping they keep it on the air since it's a nice mid-week treat.

Maura Tierney or no Maura, I'm enjoying every bit of this show. Please don't cancel this show!!

I realize that aspects of this show need improvement. The banter between the two leads is confusing at best, because it is unclear where their relationship is going i.e. romance? friendship? enemies4eva?.

I absolutely adore every bit of this show, with its interesting premise, its well-thought-out cases, its fearless take on aspects of the world that few shows, even 'legal dramas', dare to take on. Elder abuse? Rape? I'm amazed so many people--if, you know, TV critics actually qualify as "people", and I'm a doubter as of late--have so many problems with this show. There's worse TV on television, people.

As far as I'm concerned, 'Dancing with the Stars'--which many people bizarrely seem to love, which just goes to show the U.S. public has horrible and uneducated taste in everything--ought to be the first to hit the chopping block, if we're talking 'shows to be canceled.'

'The Whole Truth' is at least trying to do something real, and good for all humanity, not just those of us whose lives are so dull we require constant distraction. That's a lot more than most shows can say--and it's more than enough to earn my unending support.

You go, Maura, whose name I'm probably spelling wrong here. I'm sick of people who don't know a thing about the profession featured in a television show critiquing the "reality" of the way said profession is presented. Shut it. Write your own TV show, leave this one alone.

Kathryn Peale (Maura Tierney) is the prosecutor, and Jimmy Brogan (Rob Morrow) is the defense.

It's a pretty standard legal drama procedural. There is a lot of quick banter between the leads. Rob Morror is playing a fast talking guy. They're both very high stress characters. The gimmick is in the last part of the show after the case is done. They show what really happened. They show 'The Whole Truth'. While I appreciate the attempt at something new, I don't think the gimmick works. It feels very arbitrary as if it could work either way. They may as well film two 'The Whole Truth' and flip a coin.