Accused

The show's premise seemed promising at first but every episode is predictable, every ep is a slow introduction of story/context followed or sometimes intermixed with more predictable and basic twists that seem right out of txt book 101 for writers and it gives impression there was ZERO effort put into writing.

There is nothing witty or intelligent about it, nothing that will surprise you or keep you on the edge of your seat. It is filled with tv tropes, cliches and on the nose story's directions.

There are no intelligent moral conundrums, there are no witty ethical questions or commentary underlying the stories, there is nothing but a basic story with basic resolve. Onedimensional as onedimensional can be.

.On top of that, the cast regularly consists of somewhat quality semi-famous actors who do their job well but then you have unknown ones, some of which are absolutely abysmally bad and unconvincing/act over the top.

If you're looking for smart unpredictable entertaining writing avoid, if youre looking for something to fall asleep next to, go ahead.

I saw this on Hulu with no expectations I just watched it. I think the direction, writing and acting are spot on. I only watched the pilot, but I'm looking forward to new episodes. This is a tough story to digest and I was overwhelmed with emotions. I read reviews afterwards and think the few negative ones are clowns. I think the press reviews are pathetic. There's not a lot of great new movies and tv shows. Maybe this isn't the best, but it's better than a lot of new stuff airing today. Try it... you'll know in the first 10 minutes if you should finish or not. The commish gave a solid performance!

So far, so good! I like the time shifting style of storytelling when it's done right and Accused has the right mix of backstory foreshadowing and current trial drama. I've liked Michael Chiklis ever since The Shield so it's good to see him back in the first story.

It begins with Scott's Story. A brain surgeon, Chiklis, suspects his son may be planning a violent school attack. It shows some back story of his son's troubled life and how denial can give way to horrible realizations.

Overall, Accused looks like a good new drama with a formula that works. Every story is different and viewers should enjoy the parade of talented actors chosen to tell the variety of tales that all end up in a courtroom.

The first couple of episodes were ok. Overly dramatic, melodramatic I might say, and I thought the "twists" were sort of clever. However the "twists" became predictable quite quickly and are no longer twists. If you know the twist is coming, is it really a twist? The more annoying regularity in the show is the politics. Every show now has a political lecture woven into the plot, and the lecture seems the primary reason the episode was made. I am OK with a "moral to the story", but this is so in your face I feel astonished that they are not asking for money for the cause. I will deleting this from my DVR.

Having not watched an entire season of a network TV show since Fringe left the airwaves in 2013, I was excited for Accused. I figured that if any show could get me back to the traditional TV dial, it would be one created by Howard Gordon (he of 24 & Homeland fame). After a promising first three episodes (7/8 star quality), however, a slate of four below-5 star episodes by my ranking led me to jump ship and not continue watching.

For a very basic overview, Accused is an anthology show that tells a different court/trial-based story every week. It is not at all serialized (no carry-over from week to week) and features new guest stars every outing.

Like I said, the first three episodes definitely held my interest and had me hoping for continued improvement. Nothing groundbreaking, to be sure, but I could tell they were produced by talent that is largely beyond what is usually glimpsed on the major networks.

Unfortunately, the quality quickly devolved instead of gradually improved. It became readily apparent that each episode was simply picking a "social cause of the week" and sketching out a thinly-constructed court case based on that concept. Pablum for the most generic audience possible, in other words. There is very little intriguing exploration of the topic-at-hand.

I also believe that the 42-minute network window does Accused a great disservice and can potentially explain a lot of the weaknesses. By the time the writers establish a theme and flesh out a whole new set of characters, there is very little time remaining for meaningful thematic or character-driven analysis. In a genre-court-where emotional backstory is everything, this is a glaring weakness week-in and week-out.

So, despite really wanting to like/follow this show, I felt it becoming a chore to watch-the surest sign of needing to find other TV pastures.