Crime drama guilty of seedy soap opera focus

From DO: 4/7/06

The biggest problem with "Conviction" is that it isn't "Law & Order."

Dick Wolf brings a large and loyal fan base, who will be sorely disappointed in the show if they want to play detective, follow cases from beginning to end and hear the famous transitional music. Without the law and order, "Conviction" is just a soap opera about young assistant district attorneys. Call it "Desperate ADAs."

Nick Potter (Jordan Bridges), a rich prep with family connections, leaves behind the cushy corporate law for the life of a public servant. He shares an office with Jessica Rossi (Milena Govich). She is having a no-strings sexual fling with her supervisor, Deputy District Attorney Jim Steele (Anson Mount), but he still has feelings for Bureau Chief Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), who reprises her role from "Law & Order: SVU." Brian Peluso (Eric Balfour) is a hard-drinking gambler with a soft spot for Christina Finn (Julianne Nicholson), the fragile, sensitive mid-Westerner, and Billy Desmond (J. August Richards) is the most competitive assistant district attorney with a perfect record that he is determined to keep.

The show deals primarily with the personal lives of these characters. Who they are prosecuting takes a backseat to who they are sleeping with. Glimpses of the trials are given, but with so many lawyers, there are about four cases an episode. By the time it's clear who is trying which case, the judge has ruled. It's hard to develop sympathy for lawyers who are more concerned with boosting their win records than caring about the victims.

Any fan of "SVU" knows that Cabot entered the witness protection program after a drug dealer tried to have her killed. No explanation for her return has been offered, and the show presents her character as if she never left. She is also overly concerned with pleasing her bosses on the dreaded "eighth floor," instead of what is right, making a formerly favorite character unlikable.

But even if "Conviction" is looked at separately from the "Law & Order" legacy, it fails to stand up as a good show. The characters are preachy and arrogant, and the dialogue is pretty dismal. When Peluso is threatened by his bookie because he can't get a gun charge against his brother dropped, he confronts him the men's room of a seedy bar."Do you see this?" Peluso asks while shoving his ADA badge in his face.

"It says DA. That's what I am, bitch. I can bury you, your brother, your mother, whenever I want. Whenever I get bored. Don't you ever forget that."

Instead of showing the young lawyers at clubs, at parties and in yoga class, they should be spending more time interviewing witnesses, working with detectives and preparing their prosecution. Every tidbit of personal info given on "L&O" seems like a treat because they are given out so sparingly. "Conviction" is a case of too much information.