Created by:
Dick Wolf
Starring:
Jordan Bridges …. Nick Potter
Anson Mount …. Jim Steele
Eric Balfour …. Brian Peluso
Julianne Nicholson …. Christina Finn
Milena Govich …. Jessica Rossi
J. August Richards …. Billy Desmond
Stephanie March …. Alexandra Cabot
Studio: Universal Studios.
Release Date: August 22, 2006.
Number of Discs: 3.
Number of Episodes: 13.
Running Time: 568 minutes.
MSRP: $59.98.
Here’s some earth shattering news for you; Dick Wolf goes off his beaten path of law shows by creating yet another law show, but this time aimed towards teens. Smell the originality. Wolf hasn’t been doing so well when it comes to new procedural shows, his last “Law & Order” spin-off “Trial by Jury” was cancelled after its first season. And one year later “Conviction” would follow the same route, running a mere 13 episodes before being cancelled by NBC due to poor ratings.
Know all those law shows about the innocent being charged as the guilty then their lawyer needs to prove their innocence? Well, this show is about the group of people who do what ever it takes to send them to prison – guilty or not. Because when your a district attorney there’s only one thing that matters: convictions. It doesn’t matter if they’re putting away somebody’s Grandmother or a fourteen year old boy, a win is a win as far as they’re concerned.
Stephanie March reprises her former role from “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” as bureau chief Alexandra Cabot, supervising a group of up and coming assistant district attorneys. Her character is primarily only interested in cases that can be won, especially those that will look good on her record while she was serving as bureau chief. Directly under her in the chain of commands is Jim Steele (which sounds like a Bond villain), the Deputy District Attorney. After the murder of his fellow DDA Mike Randolph, Jim is left to be the voice of reason and give those small morsels of inspiration when they’re needed. Even though he hates just about everyone in the office.
Jim has a past with Cabot, and now that she’s engaged his feelings towards her are beginning to come back. But he’s currently in a hush-hush relationship with co-worker and ADA Jessica Rossi, you can bet that uncomfortable silences ensue once the two women find out about each other. Jessica isn’t such a tough character to crack, she’s the standard female role that always goes after domestic violence cases because they stem back to a rough childhood.
Other ADA’s in the office are Brian Peluso and Billy Desmond. Brian is the office stud, he goes out every night and wakes up with a fresh face next him every morning. Any time you see him in the show there’s a good chance you’ll see a can of Red Bull in his hand. Billy is different, he’s the guy who will only take a case if it’s a sure win or a plea bargain is a possible way out if things look bad. He doesn’t want to lose because he sees an unbeaten streak as a great thing to use when he runs for Governor down the line.
Also in the office are two green ADA’s, Christina Finn and Nick Potter. Christina is a second year ADA who is still struggling to learn the ropes. When her mentor Mike Randolph is killed in the pilot episode she’s left with out a voice of guidance at the worst possible time, her first trial. During the series she slowly builds self confidence and becomes a prominent character. Nick is as cliche as they come, the high class guy who leaves a six figure salary at a private firm in order to work for the people.
“Conviction” is filled with all the archetypical characters one would find in any other law show on TV. Only younger to suit the 18-25 demographic. I’m beginning to wonder if the creators and developers of these shows have mad lib type character bios just sitting in their desk to minimize the amount of work they have to put out. Were it not for being jam packed with cliche characters, the show might have worked. The only thing that would have made it salvageable would to have made the shows compelling; which they didn’t.
The show does have one thing going for it that many others lack; character. Sure I basically just belittled the entire series for being unoriginal for the exact same reason I’m about to praise it for, but the show did what other cop shows rarely do, and that’s show us these peoples lives. They don’t spend the entire hour focusing on one case and the three or four key witnesses, instead, we see what it’s like in the cut throat world of being an ADA. The characters are cocky, rude, obnoxious and would step all over their best friend just to move up in the world, but in this genre of TV shows its a welcome change.
Why is it that Wolf can’t quite find another hit? Probably due to all the other networks catching on to how popular his shows were and then flooded the market with any show they could focus around cops, lawyers, or any other occupation that surrounded murder, rape, and suicide. But what if it’s Wolf’s fault? Falling in to a routine that is no longer fresh – creating shows that have that “been there done that” feel and little else. “Conviction” is a perfect case to prove such a claim.
Video:
(Presented in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
I’m reasonably sure that “Conviction” — much like 90% of all other new shows on television — was filmed in HD. So it comes to no shock that the transfer is almost perfect. One flaw that’s an annoying one is that peoples faces come off blurry, lacking the definition that they should. There as some issues where black levels aren’t as dark as they should be, but other than that the discs are great.
Audio:
(English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround)
Besides the shows intro and occasional music score, the show is very much centered around dialogue. There are a few times where the rear channels are used, but this is still your standard TV on DVD fare.
Extras:
The only extra feature that you’ll find in this collection are seven profiles (15:53) found on disc three for each of the shows characters. They come off as standard EPK material that simply interview all of the cast members about their work and experience on the show. After watching the entire series these do very little in the way of changing your opinion on the show nor do they add any additional information that might be helpful.
| InsidePulse’s Ratings for Conviction: The Complete Series | |
