Comments on: Liveblogging Raising The Bar (updated)

By: Raising the Bar: A Week Later | a public defender

Raising the Bar: A Week Later | a public defender — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:06:52 +0000

[...] my criticism of the show Raising The Bar last week, I think it is only fair if I post a follow-up having watched [...]

By: Gideon

Gideon — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:54:36 +0000

I will be live blogging again tonight, unless you want to

By: Lil Spicy

Lil Spicy — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:38:25 +0000

TNT just posted a sneek peek at tonights episode. I wasn’t turned off by the sneek peek, but I’m certainly not holding my breath with HUGE expectations either.

We shall see how it unfolds tonight.

Oh….the pilot is online now at TNT as well, in case you missed it and want to see it.

By: Edintally

Edintally — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:15:50 +0000

Bah I guess I missed the first show. I’ll try to withhold judgment, but….

the one thing that struck me as “off” in the commercial trailer was “What?! You gonna hit a lawyer?” Hopefully I can catch that show to figure out what it was about but in the commercial it just came off cheesy to me and a bit “wimpish”.

By: womanwearingblack

womanwearingblack — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:15:18 +0000

Hey, I love David F. He rocks. He also comes to our seminar to talk and you can tell he loves his clients and the work.

I was disappointed in the show a bit, but I will watch again to see how it goes. I was hoping it would be a bit lighter on the sex and heavier on the law.

By: Michelle Thomas

Michelle Thomas — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:42:17 +0000

I have no doubt that shg is 100% correct in what he says. That is just how Hollywood operates. If you have a message that iS near and dear to your heart, it sometimes makes more sense to go the independant route 1ST, make a name for yourself that way, develop a loyal following, and then have Hollywood knocking on your door once they see that their assumptions about what can make a profit is sometimes wrong.

If you think about it, years ago, the only black people you saw on TV were on shows like Sanford & Son, Good Times,etc…..it wasn’t until some independant artists went to school for film, studied their craft and started making their own movies (and were making a profit) that Hollywood took notice.

So it very well may take someone like Seth, Gideon, Me, Shg,etc. to come together and do it the way we think it should be done. But trying to sell it to Hollywood upfront, as we think it should be done, may never happen.

I hope I’m wrong in that, but I’ve never been impressed with Hollywoods ability to “be real”.

By: shg

shg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:59:50 +0000

From my very limited exposure to Hollywood types, the love the idea of being “real” by including someone from the trenches, but only as far as “real” agrees with what they think is a good idea. As soon as the two diverge, “real” takes a distant back seat to their brilliance when it comes to knowing what the people want to watch.

So the trench guy keeps trying, and pushing, and trying, and he takes whatever crumbs he can, hoping that the people who know better won’t blame him for things he can’t control.

By: Gideon

Gideon — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:40:59 +0000

I guess that may be true to some extent, but then why bring on someone like David to co-write and collaborate on the show.

Clearly, if they want to make a completely unrealistic legal drama, they can do it. So why the addition of someone from the trenches like David, if not to get his input on how things really work?

So while it may be that things were changed, I doubt he had that little control over making things seem “real”.

By: shg

shg — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:25:32 +0000

If I had to make a guess, David’s efforts to keep it real were trumped by Hollywood’s efforts to make it exciting, dramatic, fabulous. Finding the tipping point between the two must be very hard under the best of circumstances.

So while it’s David’s baby, the ob decided to perform a section despite his insistence on natural birth. There were a number of things in there that proved that somebody at the typewriter knew what they were talking about. And some that smelled.

But I do have one question for David: Who was the model for the judge?

By: Lil Spicy

Lil Spicy — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:01:52 +0000

On the hair….I love it! We have several PD’s in my office that wear theirs like that or very similar and it’s the ultimate “Don’t mistake me for a prosecutor” statement. (In my office it’s a true insult to be mistaken for a prosecutor if your a PD).

That being said, I can see why the general public doesn’t like the long hair and just can’t get over it. It’s like the are obsessed with what a lawyer is suppose to look like in their mind and if you don’t fit that stereotype, there is something wrong with you.

Which is exactly why I would prefer to see a public defender with long hair kick arse in the courtroom on the show. We as PD’s are judged in the same way our clients are…on face value. Long hair simply doesn’t equate to sloppy service or lawyering ability….anymore than race equates to having a criminal mind.

But we shall see how soon after the pilot he ends up cutting his hair to a more “conservative” cut.