The series assumes the mantle of the 1993 film of the same name, which in turn was adapted from John Grisham's first blockbuster legal thriller. Lucas has the Tom Cruise role as Mitch McDeere, only it is now 10 years after Mitch went undercover for the FBI to bring down a crooked, mobbed-up law firm in Memphis at great personal peril.
It's puzzling why NBC would pay for the Grisham imprint, because in TV, backstory is something that gets resolved and disposed of before the second commercial break in the pilot. (After this two-hour debut at 9 p.m., The Firm moves into its regular slot later in the week, at 10 p.m. Thursdays.)
After a decade in the Witness Relocation Program, Mitch, his wife (Molly Parker), and daughter (Natasha Calis) have decided to put down roots in our nation's capital - using their real names. He has opened a hole-in-the-wall practice with a saucy, gum-snapping receptionist (Juliette Lewis) and his ex-con brother (Callum Keith Rennie) as his investigator.
Mitch is a pretty soft touch. When a client says, "I can't afford to pay you," he replies, "Don't worry about it." Didn't this guy learn anything at Harvard?
Then he makes the mistake of affiliating himself with one of those big, stuffed-shirt law firms, and before you know it, he's on the phone with his wife, panting, "We're in a code red. It's happening again."
The Firm seems pointed toward a curious tension, not unlike that of the old Fugitive series: 40 minutes of wise Socratic dialogue and 5 minutes of fleeing in terror.
All things considered, Mitch's life looks almost humdrum next to that of Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle), the central figure in Showtime's House of Lies (10 p.m. Sundays).
