• Are You There Chelsea?
• Awake
• Best Friends Forever 
• Bent
• Harry’s Law

Other failed NBC shows from the 2011-2012 schedule include: Free Agents, The Playboy Club, Prime Suspect and The Firm.

On the flip side, however, Parks and Recreation, Up All Night and Whitney were the latest network series to get the green light for another season, joining Community, 30 Rock, Smash and Law & Order SVU as returnees.

The post NBC Axes Awake, Best Friends Forever, Bent, Harry’s Law and Are You There Chelsea? appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Over the last couple weeks, we’ve been asking readers which shows they most want to see renewed across a variety of networks, from ABC to CBS to The CW.

But the question is a challenge for the Peacock, considering it lacks any breakout hit and, really, almost any series could be on the bubble.

Smash has already been picked up for a second season, while it’s a very safe bet that 30 Rock and The Office will get the official word at the network upfronts in May. Other than that? Who really knows.

We’ve tried to narrow it down below, however, to a number of programs that really could go either way. Vote now for the one you definitely want to see on the schedule this fall…

The post NBC: Save Which Show? appeared first on TV Fanatic.

The actor – who was killed off that AMC hit on the penultimate season two episode, and who will start shooting TNT’s L.A. Noir – will appear on a May Sweeps episode of Harry’s Law.

The deal is almost complete, TV Line reports, for Bernthal to guest star on the Kathy Bates drama as a man who takes a courtroom hostage after the suspect accused of raping/murdering his sister is acquitted.

The post Jon Bernthal to Guest Star on Harry’s Law appeared first on TV Fanatic.

A lot of words got thrown around on tonight’s episode: “moral,” “coercion,” and, my personal favorite, “depraved.”

If there’s one thing Hoseanna Roseanna Remick excels at, it’s making other people appear less than human. She couldn’t stop using the final word to describe the admittedly unorthodox relationship that Nicole and Laila Wayland shared with their older husband.

Surprisingly, it was a term the judge was all but used to describe the desperate life and death situation surrounding Jimmy, who faced only six more months on this earth absent a transplant. I was heartbroken for both Jimmy and his potential donor.

Is it depraved to allow the sale and trade of kidneys in a non-black market and regulated setting if it means more people end up alive and well? That’s way beyond the scope of this reviewer’s expertise, but it sure made for some really interesting comparisons and realizations.

I can always appreciate Harry’s Law for its ability to make you really think about the content of the case, which is usually knee deep in legal or even political theory.

The real tear-jerker was that they couldn’t save Jimmy, who so affectionately referred to Harry as “moms.” You don’t really see that many people who have taken to Harry such that they bestow affectionate titles on her, ones that reach past respect and border on familial. It was different and welcomed. I wished we could see more relatives on the show of any member of the cast.

That said, it’s clear I’m still in favor of seeing some more individual character development for the main cast, which we’ve seen at least a few steps towards in the past few weeks.

Overall, it was another solid, if sad, episode of Harry’s Law. In a lot of ways that’s good news because Harry’s Law won’t be back until its new move to Sundays at 9 p.m. on March 11.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Sound off below!

The post Harry’s Law Review: Depravation appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Oliver and Tommy defend twins, Laila and Nicole accused of killing their husband with Hoseanna Roseanna prosecuting. When Nicole admits to the crime, Tommy and Oliver attempt to point the finger at each other’s clients which results in both Laila and Nicole’s conviction in the crime, despite Laila’s innocence.

The post Harry’s Law Season 2 Episode 12 Recap: New Kidney on the Block appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Between Harry and Tommy’s attempt to legally qualify a gorilla as a person, and Cassie and Adam’s fervent defense of a vigilante Wonder Woman avenging the domestically abused, it was hard to see through to the bigger picture of the episode.

I mean… I have yet to determine what that bigger picture was.

It’s clear that consistency in the writers’ room is a luxury that Harry’s Law does not enjoy. From episode to episode it seems that different characters get emphasized and increasingly more random cases become focal points.

As an Ohioan, I can appreciate that David E. Kelley and company felt it necessary to flagrantly point out the states’ rather poor handling of the exotic animal escape that made national headlines last fall, but to then connect that to this heavy storyline about personhood was too much.

I never saw the Planet of the Apes movie franchise, but I can imagine that this storyline was the highlights version of that series lacking some details.

There is also the issue of Harry and Tommy’s sudden attachment to Wentworth. I didn’t understand it, nor was it explained to me. Suddenly Harry and Tommy developed some kind of kinship with the gorilla?!? I expected Harry to give the girl a hard time about it, but that simply wasn’t the case.

Then we go from an escaped gorilla to a severely traumatized former classmate of Adam’s that exacts revenge on abusive husbands and boyfriends under the guise of Wonder Woman, a psychological response to her own horrible abuse by her former husband.

While the psychology lesson embedded in this episode was enlightening, it also felt overused and sincerely forced.

I am sure this episode will get a boost in the ratings simply because it featured the Smallville-faithful fan favorite, Erica Durance. She deserves an award for playing someone who is the complete opposite of the bubble-gum happy Lois Lane. It was pretty powerful and I wished she had gotten more screen time and more background.

This felt especially necessary to make the connection between Annie Bilson and Adam, which barely made its way into the episode.

There is a severe lack of foundation taking place in this season of Harry’s Law. Everything appears out of the blue, from characters to relationships. It gets exhausting to try and keep it all straight.

Harry’s Law is in desperate need of storytelling and depth. It sacrifices character depth for the depth of the case message. While I recognize the prerogative of the writers of this show to turn everything into a social issue, this show cannot and should not be expected to hold its own on this premises alone.

This series is more than capable of building deep and convincing character development while still achieving its social issues agenda in the courtroom.

I just wish they would pursue this course of action before this show becomes another NBC cancellation. It is dripping with potential. I am desperate for the show to own and capitalize on it!

What did you think of this week’s episode? Sound off below!

The post Harry’s Law Review: Where’s the Direction? appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Meanwhile, Cassie and Adam defend one of Adam’s high school classmate, Annie Bilson (Erica Durance), who assumes the persona of Wonder Woman to help woman who are battered and beaten by their husbands. It comes out that Bilson’s urges are a direct reflection of abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband. While Cassie and Adam mounted a powerful defense, in the end it became clear that getting Annie help via a mental institution was a better outlook then the pending jail time.

The post Harry’s Law Season 2 Episode 11 Recap: Gorilla My Dreams appeared first on TV Fanatic.

It seemed Harry’s Law was in the business of delivering legal miracles on “Purple Hearts,” wasn’t it?

While the episode succeeded at pulling the heart strings, I found I was less welcoming of the social commentaries that dominated the hour.

I sincerely appreciated the addition of Josh Braaten to the cast. He’s been making the rounds as a guest star, and just when I’d forgotten about his time on The Mentalist, here he was guest starring on Harry’s Law.

Other than that, his presence wasn’t the focus of the episode, aside from being the defendant’s husband in the mercy killing case. Slightly disappointing, but clearly necessary.

That said, did anyone else see that Nurse O’Malley clearly had something to do with the death from the beginning? I knew that from the first time she appeared on the stand. I appreciated how sideways things had to go for Harry. Her overcoming the obstacles was clearly what made the entire case an exercise in courage, but it was a little predictable.

Another thing I wasn’t pleased with was the blatant dismissal of Harry’s birthday. Way to make a case out of it, really. It couldn’t have been any less subtle. It was an interesting way to introduce the companion storyline, but to make that man a clown (that’s a social commentary if I’ve ever seen one) and then to have him be completely humiliated was a bit much.

It continues to get more difficult for me to forgive this new direction that Harry’s Law has taken. If the change has kept it on the air longer, great. But if there was any possibility we could slip back into the genuineness of season one, I would take that in a second.

Perhaps the one thing that really redeemed this episode for me was Tommy Jefferson. Yes, he single-handedly rescued this entire episode.

Understanding the motivation behind Tommy’s fervor in acquiring the veteran’s purple heart was a very nice touch. I teared up a little bit. Tommy really loved his father and was proud. He stopped being the clown that caused his colleagues injury when he failed to hold the ladder for those last few minutes of the episode. It was quite a redeeming moment.

Couldn’t appreciate the episode as a whole as much as I would have liked, but it was another solid installment. What did you think?

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Perhaps my favorite aspect of this episode was learning about the “Outrageous Government Conduct” defense. Being a bit of a legal geek, I like how the characters attempted to apply it to robbery case in which the defendant was so easily relatable.

What really got me is that the jury still put her away. It’s as if the writers were sending a message that America is angry at its government, but nothing is going to change, which they reflected in the jury verdict. As sad as that was, it was a nice choice.

Poor Tommy, you could tell he was taking it pretty hard. But there’s always the appeal. Hang in there, man.

For Harry and Adam, a conventional case took an unconventional turn when the judge allowed experts to testify to the dangerousness of the sport of football. I wasn’t quite sure what the relevance of the story was except as an interesting case study.

But, again, the writers brought something new to light about the science emerging around the idea of second impact syndrome. One thing’s for sure: even if I’m not too keen on the new characters and new directions Harry’s Law has decided to take, I always learn something new each week.

I also really appreciated the shout-out to the Ohio State vs. Michigan rivalry in college football. Being from the Buckeye state myself, it always brings a smile to my face when they reference some of Ohio’s most important cultural aspects, particularly football.

That said, I was not a fan of the emerging Oliver vs. Adam dynamic with regard to Chunhua. I know all good writing demonstrates constant tension among its characters, but could we please not fight over Chunhua just yet? Let her settle in first.

I was right with Harry when she gave Adam that rather reprimanding stare after he tried to “legislate” Chunhua’s free time. Let it go, Adam.

And so, while a bit of an unexciting this week on Harry’s Law, there were some learned legal lessons and brief but poignant social commentaries. What did you think of this week’s episode? Sound off below!

The post Harry’s Law Review: Outrageous Government Conduct appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Meanwhile, Tommy and Adam make a Christmas miracle come true for a soldier wounded in Iraq by crusading for his receipt of a purple heart by any means necessary.

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