Jadzia

It's getting terrible reviews, but I'll watch any David E. Kelley show once.

Plus it's on after Boston Public.

Anyone else gonna check it out?

I'll still be taping Everwood on my other Replay TV.
Can Girls Club be as bad as it sounds?

das Monkey

It will probably suck, but I watch all premieres ... just in case.

das

Patman

I'll just watch it for the babes.

Red Dog

Yeah - I'm not expecting much except for eye candy. I think this David Kelley offering will be jumping the shark sooner than any of his previous shows. That should mean around November.

movieking

I don't think that there has been a new show on this year that I have wanted to see less than Girls Club. It looks really bad to me, so I am going to skip it.

Dr. DVD

I might check it out briefly. Series that try to combine Sex and the City with The Practice don't bode well IMO.

Tscott

I'll check it out, but it's doubtful I'll last the whole hour. Ever since I first heard about this show it sounded like a bad idea. After Ally McBeal and The Practice featured tons of well respected female lawyers, now he's coming out with a show about 3 women trying to break into the male dominated world of law? He might as well do a remake of 'That Girl' instead- it's almost the same step back in time concept wise, IMO.

immortal_zeus

Hell yeah I'm gonna watch it!

I was a fan of Ally McBeal. This show has Chlyer Leigh and Kathleen Robertson. That's pretty much enough reason for me.

immortal_zeus

Is David E. Kelley a lawyer or something? What's with all his lawyer shows?

BDB

I will check it out, they filmed the opening scenes, and what I think is the external shot of the office on 2nd street around the corner from where I work.

It's on a fictional 'jupiter street'

BDB

I read at the weekend that he indeed was a lawyer at one point.

Here is tim goodman's take on it from the sf examiner

If anyone is going to like David E. Kelley's latest series, the lowercased young-female-lawyers-in-San Francisco drama "girls club," it's our very own Chamber of Commerce.

Hey, the city looks beautiful. It really does. Finally, a show set in San Francisco that actually gets the exterior shots -- all gorgeous and stunning --

the city so richly deserves. It's like a postcard. Really nice.

Oh, right. The show?

Not good.

Kelley decided that the title needed to be lowercase, but The Chronicle allows only e.e. cummings to get away with that stuff, so let's get that straight right now. Besides, as important as font and case are, maybe more attention to depth would have been better.

"Girls Club" is the show Kelley created to fill the, um, void, left by the departure of "Ally McBeal." It follows Kelley's other series, "Boston Public," by an hour, and his other series, "The Practice," by one day. We've become so accustomed to Kelley's having three series on the air that there's no longer a novelty element, and it's easy to forget how incredible that feat really is.

Before "Girls Club," there was worry that Kelley was being stretched too thin, as the once-ingenious "Ally" fell into a state of annoying disgrace and "The Practice" simply became ridiculous. "Boston Public" has always been unfairly billed as a drama when, in fact, it's an inadvertent comedy.

So, thin? Maybe. But if "Girls Club" proves anything, it's that Kelley is a master at formula. Not the hackneyed kind that dominates television, with formulaic situation comedies or tricked-up drama. No, Kelley has his own brand of formula, his own creative devices that he falls back on relentlessly. They are smart and nifty, sometimes creatively eye-grabbing and, not surprisingly, almost always water-cooler fodder.

But now that we've seen them so often, they seem just as tired as a wacky neighbor or a New York cop's chasing down a perp.

In "Girls Club," we get lawyering done by -- let's face the facts -- three really pretty young women. This is their story: coming of age in San Francisco as young, talented, flat-bellied -- did we say gorgeous? -- law firm associates who often sit around their stupendous North Beach apartment in their underwear showing off their young (but smart!) bodies.

OK, the young thing is an issue. But that's apparently Kelley's point. See, Lynne (Gretchen Mol), Jeannie (Kathleen Robertson) and Sarah (Chyler Leigh) are a "girls club" in an old-boys-club environment. Their tough boss (Giancarlo Esposito, perhaps the best character in the series) heads a firm that seemingly has one powerful woman, and she's called "the praying mantis" by these PYTs.

Being young and ambitious means you get shot down a lot by older, smarter people. That allows you to go back to your pad -- which, if we haven't mentioned it, is fabulous -- and loll around in your boxer shorts before gathering the strength to break the glass ceiling another day.

It's hard to care about these women just yet because they are not fully developed, no pun intended. They seem more eager to rise in the firm than to care about their clients (yes, you can insert your lawyer joke here). In fact, Mol's character is trying a murder case but seems less concerned about the man's fate than about how the partners will look at her.

Which brings us back to the young issue. A murder trial? Alone? Kelley said he was going to root "Girls Club" in the kind of reality missing from his other lawyer shows, but so far he hasn't. The emphasis will also, apparently, be on the relationships of these (young) women to their world, their work and one another, which is all fine, but it'd be nice to care about them first. Other than the fact they all look splendid in spinning class.

Ultimately, however, what damages the series most are Kelley's old tricks. "Girls Club" may eventually be watchable (in fact, the prediction here is that it becomes a hit), but right now it's loaded with those groaning Kelley moments. In the first episode, a gynecologist is being sued because he passed out and collapsed face-first right there.

Yep. Right out of "Ally McBeal," really. And Mol's client? He likes to pleasure himself in his jail cell. A lot. These things start to add up, as they always do in a Kelley series, and what was deliciously envelope-pushing years ago is now merely annoying.

Like when Leigh's character, who has anger-management issues, calls another aggressive (and smarter) associate "a dyke." How to rectify that? A story line that Leigh's boyfriend might be gay. Whatever. It's all tired.

On the plus side, for those keeping track of the political correctness at home, Esposito (who's black) heads the firm, and there are two Asian characters: Christina Chang, as the lawyer who apparently will turn out to be gay, and Eddie Shin, an actor who can be very funny but is played here as the slightly stoop-shouldered genius-nerd associate who likes to follow people around like a wet cat. That should go over big with Asian males.

Oh, and hey, Stanford -- all these women are supposed to be graduates of your law school.

Sometimes, when you're immersed in "Girls Club," you'll fall under that Kelley magic, but ultimately those Kelleyisms get to you. One of the most egregious examples is the jarring language (there's a reference to a "gynecological splashdown," among many other far worse moments).

There was a time when Kelley would be pushing boundaries with stuff like this, but now he just seems to be pushing the same old buttons and a considerable amount of his own luck.

Red Dog

So they drew 2 members of the cast from the defunct That 80s Show. That should tell you something although I will say that Eddie Shin was the only funny thing about that show and Chyler Leigh is total hottie (although she was not hot on That 80s Show).

Dr. DVD

Chyler Leigh's character must be a real genius. According to imdb.com, she's only 20 years old. That's young for a practicing attorney. Means she started law school at 17 and was 13 when she started college.

P.S. My prediction, a bunch of guys will tune in tonight, forgetting the World Series is not on, and see this show. Not wanting to turn off total hotties, and knowing their S.O. would kick their butt if they went to Monday Night Football or wrestling, they watch the show. Not to mention the fact that watching a "girlie show" will hopefully score some major nookie points!

Result: the show gets boffo ratings and becomes an undeserving hit.

Red Dog

She looks older than 20...maybe 22 or 23, but you're right. She was great in Not Another Teen Movie.

Kal-El

Nothing else is on so I might check it out.

Patman

It was so-so, nothing too special (besides the cute lead actresses), but the upcoming subplots are pretty much recycled storylines and the whole upcoming creepy sexual harrassment showdown is getting cliched. I'd be surprised if this show lasted one entire season.

Kal-El

Hehe. I ended up watching The Ring instead. Did I miss anything?

Charlie Goose

How long before they form a singing group on the side?

Honk!

Dr. DVD

I kept waiting for the Energizer Bunny to go across screen.

das Monkey

Pretty average. I like Esposito in everything he does, and it was great to see Felicity Huffman in primetime again, even if it's just a reoccurring role. Even the lead characters were mildly entertaining. But it definitely felt like the same ol' stuff we've already seen 100 times. I give it 3 episodes before the singing starts.

das

Dr. DVD

I hope it's 3 episodes before we never have to see it again. Thank goodness I could turn it to the WWE afterwards for some good ol necrophelia! (If anyone here saw it, you know what I mean.)

Red Dog

This one also has the unintentional comedy factor. I'll keep watching for that reason and the babe factor.

Patman

It's like watching kids get off by saying "dick" and "bitch" and "dyke".

Roto

San Francisco Law Firm 90210? I think the thing David E Kelly is best at is quirky humor. The closest the show came was the gynocologist exam which I just thought was pretty gross. They really did seem to just be trying to go for shock value. I'll probably watch it again because there isn't anything on Monday nights.

I might have to try UPN or WB. I like the CBS lineup ok, but I don't really care if I miss it because Raymond is already syndicated and I know King of Queens will be.

Jadzia

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I actually like all the office politics stuff-- that seemed true to life. Usually in lawyer shows, we see small firms or shows that just focus on the partners, so it was a refreshing change to see a big law firm through the eyes of a few lowly associates. Kind of like the "Lower Decks" episode of TNG.

I also liked the fact that the girls weren't totally boy-crazy. They actually seem to be focused on their careers.

I'll probably watch it some more. I'm not instantly hooked, but not turned off, either.