CRIT-O-MATIC.Byline: - David Kronke ``Just Legal'' (The WB Channel 5; 9 tonight) Logline: A burnt-out ambulance chaser A colloquial phrase that is used derisively for a person who is hired by an attorney to seek out Negligence cases at the scenes of accidents or in hospitals where injured parties are treated, in exchange for a percentage of the damages that will be recovered in the case. (Don Johnson) spending his days sunning himself on Venice Beach reticently teams up with an 18-year-old legal prodigy (Jay Baruchel). These mismatched, bickering buddies defend sad-sack cases, with the veteran teaching his protege street smarts street smarts Vox populi Worldly wisdom and wariness in human interactions. Cf Social smarts. , the younger man reintroducing his mentor to passion for justice. Pros: Baruchel evokes both wit and passion and an endearing awkwardness with his position. Cons: Johnson more than credibly portrays a wizened wiz·ened adj. Withered; wizen. wizened Adjective shrivelled, wrinkled, or dried up with age Adj. 1. , disinterested, check-cashing professional. In a nutshell: The two have little chemistry together, and the young-guy-teaching-the-old-guy-teaching-the-young-guy concept isn't exactly fresh. Cases are simplistic sim·plism n. The tendency to oversimplify an issue or a problem by ignoring complexities or complications. [French simplisme, from simple, simple, from Old French; see simple , and even if viewers bought the premise, someone as savvy as Baruchel's character would not abide a situation like this long enough for a series to evolve. Here's the first show from producer Jerry Bruckheimer's procedural stable that's clearly an underachiever. Our rating: Two stars ``Surface'' (NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. Channel 4; 8 tonight) Logline: A new, goo-oozing life form appears beneath the oceans and the Gulf of Mexico Noun 1. Gulf of Mexico - an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico Golfo de Mexico Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east . Is this good news or bad? (Hint: If it's good news, they don't have a show.) California oceanographer Laura Daughtery (Lake Bell), Louisiana fisherman Richard Beck (Jay R. Ferguson Jay Rowland Ferguson Jr. (born July 25, 1974 in Dallas, Texas) is an American actor. His notable roles include Taylor Newton in four seasons of the CBS sitcom Evening Shade, and a starring role as Rich Connelly in the 2005 NBC television series Surface ) and a trouble- and adventure-loving boy, Miles (Carter Jenkins), all encounter the beasties in separate incidents. Dr. Aleksander Cirko (Rade Sherbedegia, whose foreign accent serves as shorthand for something ominous) helps the government cover it up. Pros: Twin brothers/creators Josh and Jonas Pate bring an ambitious scope and handsomely high-end production values to their saga, which poses intriguing questions as to what the creatures are, where they come from and why they're suddenly everywhere. Cons: Too bad it's the most familiar-feeling of three similar new shows debuting this fall (CBS' just-debuted ``Threshold'' and ABC's upcoming ``Invasion''). Characterizations - even the efforts at color - are rote. Alas, no episodes beyond tonight's were made available to dispel that notion. In a nutshell: Future episodes need to prove the series' viability. Our rating: Two and one half stars ``Kitchen Confidential'' (Fox Channel 11; 8:30 tonight) Logline: If you've read chef Anthony Bourdain's amusing memoir ``Kitchen Confidential,'' or seen his Travel Channel series ``No Reservations,'' you know he's a smart, funny and brash guy with whom it would be a blast to hang out. Fox - and series co-creator Darren Star (``Sex and the City'') - instead give you the chance to spend time with a fictionalized version named Jack (Bradley Cooper, who played Rachel McAdams' psycho boyfriend this summer in ``Wedding Crashers''). Bonnie Somerville (``NYPD NYPD New York City Police Department (since 1845; New York City, NY, USA) NYPD New York Play Development Blue'') co-stars as Jack's nemesis, who wants to run the restaurant herself; Nicholas Brendon (``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'') plays a wacky cook; John Francis Daley (``Freaks and Geeks'') is the nerdy pastry chef. Pros: Bourdain's book would seem to provide endless material for a sitcom. Try, for example, this queasy QUEASY - An early system on the IBM 701. [Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)]. gem in a chapter on what to beware of when dining out: ``I'm not even going to talk about blood. Let's just say we cut ourselves a lot in the kitchen and leave it at that.'' Cons: Unfortunately, the producers scarcely seem to have cracked his book open. Bourdain charts his career's ascent and devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. plunge (due to too much, well, everything), along with his re-emergence. The show begins at the end, expunging ex·punge tr.v. ex·punged, ex·pung·ing, ex·pung·es 1. To erase or strike out: "I have corrected some factual slips, expunged some repetitions" Kenneth Tynan. a full 168 pages of promising material. And they scarcely seem to have captured the guy or his sardonic sensibility: As the show opens, Jack whines about a dish, ``Presentation is everything!'' Which is pretty much at odds with the real Bourdain's philosophy. In a nutshell: Tonight's episode also just ignores the rules of restaurants in general - Jack starts a brasserie bras·se·rie n. A restaurant serving alcoholic beverages, especially beer, as well as food. [French, from brasser, to malt, brew, from Old French bracier, from Vulgar Latin from scratch in 48 hours; the city's most influential restaurant critic reviews the joint on its opening night. No, and no. The humor is laden with slapstick and, a dismembered finger aside, surprisingly safe by Bourdain's - and Fox's - standards. Our rating: Two and one half stars CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) no caption (``Just Legal';) (2 -- color) no caption (``Surface'') (3 -- color) no caption (``Kitchen Confidential'') |
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