Fall TV Preview: Shark
I hate James Woods. I hate the snide, know-it-all character he always plays. I hate those devil-eyes of his that seem to shiv your ribs while you watch him screech his way through his roles*. All that being said, when you cast him as blood-sucking, high profile, defense attorney, he’s just about perfect.
In comparison to the just-awful Justice, which covers basically the same kind of “law” (that kind being the high profile anything-for-a-win kind), Shark at least seems to have some sort of conscious about things. Woods plays Sebastian Stark (because y’know, calling him Sebastian “Shark” would just be too silly), a confident defense-attorney who switches sides after a troubling outcome on one of his cases. That’s right! A defense attorney turning the tables on the system!
Everything here is by the numbers, luckily the show doesn’t take itself all that seriously (he has a courtroom built in his basement to practice — he claims to have the bench from “To Kill A Mockingbird” and Ito’s gavel) and thus the hour is mostly a fun time. The series even gives Mr. Stark some plot-lines revolving around his home-life and his daughter giving us a bit more than your typical law-procedural.
This isn’t Perry Mason or Matlock or hell, even Ally McBeal, but it isn’t an entirely unpleasant way to spend a hour on a nondescript Thursday evening.
Shark premieres on CBS Thursday, September 21st at 10:00pm et.
*With the exception being his role as the father in The Virgin Suicides, which I found delightfully understated.
