The Whole Truth 101 Pilot Review

The Whole Truth declares itself to be a revolutionary, original look at both sides of the law. Does it deliver? By all means, no. While there is nothing truly bad about this episode, it sets up no characters, shows nothing new about law, and does nothing original in the way of storytelling. This is a law procedural exactly as you've seen it before. The lead prosecutor and lead defense attorney(Maura Tierney and Rob Morrow) are introduced in the teaser, and nothing much is revealed about either of them, except that they both seem to like coffee in the morning. Both characters are flatly written and poorly performed. Tierney looks sickly as the lead DA. Oh, and Rob Morrow's character wears red tennis shoes with his suit. So... I guess that means he's quirky? What should I do with that tidbit? Should I like him more or less? Does he have bad fashion sense? Back problems? Athlete's foot? The writing of this show mistakes quirks for character.

After this "set-up" of the characters, the show uses acts one and two to separate the prosecution's actions from the defense's actions during the same period of time. This is the writer's big gimmick, and it is stupid for two reasons: First, it doesn't allow for the program to depict anything we haven't seen before in every episode of every law drama that came before it. Second, it just feels unnatural. It allows time to pass and the story to progress, but then, when we look at the other side, we just go back in time and either fill in gaps in the story or rehash what happened in the last act.

The Whole Truth assumes that you have never seen how law works, either on a TV show or in real life, and it then expects you to forget the basic essentials of the story because of a two minute commercial break. I'm not that dumb, and I sure hope you aren't. Pass on this one. If you're looking for realistic law, check out The Good Wife. If you want a fun law show with interesting characters and cases, check out The Defenders. Give this one a wide berth. 1.5 out of 4 stars.