I am not one to slight Dick Wolf's projects. I have the utmost respect for him as a producer and writer, and I absolutely love the flagship, "Law & Order." I was also fond of "Trial by Jury," and watch "Criminal Intent," and "Special Victims Unit" on a regular basis. I had high hopes for "Conviction," but was ultimately disappointed. The characters feel shallow and clichéd. We have the playboy, the workaholic, the ambitious ADA who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, and... everyone else.
The best character in the series is Nick Potter, but he is rather overshadowed by the irritating personal lives of his coworkers. Steele is sleeping with Jessica when he's not trying to get inside Alexandra Cabot's pants. Brian loves Christina, but that doesn't stop him from chasing every skirt in sight. There are courtroom cases, but none of them are particularly original (with the exception of the boy bashing his brother's head in, and the female attorney who gives Steele hell) and most consist of bland rape cases.
The best episode was the two-part season finale in which everything came to a head, we saw the characters be heroic (or jerks, based on who you're rooting for), and the show went out in a final blaze of glory. It's not that I disliked it so much as it failed to live up to potential, attempting to tell so many different stories each week that the viewer became lost at some point along the way. The finale showed promise, but by then, it was too late.
From a long-time fan of the original, "Conviction" lacked... well, conviction. One cannot help thinking that Jack McCoy could sit down each and every one of these young prosecutors and teach them a thing or two about the law.
The best character in the series is Nick Potter, but he is rather overshadowed by the irritating personal lives of his coworkers. Steele is sleeping with Jessica when he's not trying to get inside Alexandra Cabot's pants. Brian loves Christina, but that doesn't stop him from chasing every skirt in sight. There are courtroom cases, but none of them are particularly original (with the exception of the boy bashing his brother's head in, and the female attorney who gives Steele hell) and most consist of bland rape cases.
The best episode was the two-part season finale in which everything came to a head, we saw the characters be heroic (or jerks, based on who you're rooting for), and the show went out in a final blaze of glory. It's not that I disliked it so much as it failed to live up to potential, attempting to tell so many different stories each week that the viewer became lost at some point along the way. The finale showed promise, but by then, it was too late.
From a long-time fan of the original, "Conviction" lacked... well, conviction. One cannot help thinking that Jack McCoy could sit down each and every one of these young prosecutors and teach them a thing or two about the law.