Shark: James Woods Braves the TV Waters
Take a Walk on the Legal Side with a Veteran Film Actor
I usually refrain from voicing my opinions about a new series until I’ve had the chance to see at least two episodes. But recently, I criticized several television shows, both new and old, for uninspired and uninspiring casting, and spreading more of that same old homogeneity all over the tube. Then along comes CBS’ Shark, set in sunny Los Angeles, to get the casting part right. While the debut legal drama started a bit slow, as soon as I grew accustomed to its distinct rhythm, I immediately appreciated the wide range of actors portraying major characters.
Aside from Oscar-nominated film star James Woods in the leading role of the infamous, brash, egotistical, and stupidly successful (check out the gorgeous abode) criminal defense attorney Sebastian Stark, there’s affable Latino Mayor Manuel Delgado (Carlos Gomez), who keeps it real with a Spanish phrase or two every chance he gets; brisk prosecutor Jessica Devlin (Jeri Ryan), head of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s crime unit and a staunch foe of Stark’s; sly African-American defense attorney and two-time former Stark flame Anita Astin (played by an actress I’m always thrilled to see no matter what she’s in, the incomparable Lynn Whitfield); and a gaggle of young, diverse lawyers from the L.A. District Attorney’s Office charged with supporting Stark’s legal efforts after the mayor persuades him to jump from the defense side of the law to the prosecutorial side.
The show follows the professional and personal ups and downs of Stark, a divorced father of a precocious sixteen-year-old daughter who drops out of life after a wife beater he successfully defended smugly commits an atrocious act of violence soon after his release from custody. Mayor Delgado, aware of Stark’s immense legal talent, conceives the idea of urging Stark to migrate to his prominent crime unit, with the caveat that he must now collaborate with his former rival, District Attorney Devlin, and use a young team of questionably competent prosecutors handpicked by the enemy herself. Stark’s life is further complicated by his newly engaged ex-wife’s decision to uproot herself and their daughter and move clear across the country to New York.
James Woods is a widely respected actor, of course, with a considerable body of work to his name. So to say that he is an acquired taste in this series is simply admitting that the show is not too cookie-cutter or an exact clone of every other legal drama that has made it on air. Although the premiere’s script was alternatively preachy and glaringly contrived in several scenes (most notably when Stark ripped one of his green assistants to shreds on the stand in a mock interrogation right after he told her he could—in real life, the attorney wouldn’t have fallen into such an obvious trap unless she was irredeemably gullible or just plain dumb), there were many bright spots to give hope that the series might improve. Nineteen-year-old Danielle Panabaker as teenager Julie Stark is the perfect child-parent to Woods’ character, while the mature, relatively amicable relationship between the attorney and his ex-wife Claire (Lindsay Frost) is refreshingly free of over-the-top strife. The score of B+ reflects the fact that, in spite of the imperfect pilot, Shark can either go up, if it gets rid of those occasional nagging plot weaknesses, or down, if the offending elements keep showing up to spoil things. I hope it’s the former.
Oh, and before I forget: Did I mention that Spike Lee directed the pilot? Yeah, baby, that Spike Lee!
The Verdict: B+
Shark currently airs Thursdays at 10pm EST on CBS
Shark photo courtesy of CBS
