Related Sites: · Raising the Bar - Official TNT Website · IMDb: Raising the Bar Grade: C-

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TNT teams up with television super-scribe Steven Bochco to produce this legal procedural drama that carries a little too much of the quirky scent of Boston Legal and Ally McBeal to stand out among an already overcrowded field of courtroom dramas.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar heads up the ensemble cast as Jerry Kellerman, a public defender who believes in truth, justice and the American way, all the way. His problem, however, is that he always winds up in front of Judge Trudy Kessler (Malcolm in the Middle's Jane Kaczmarek), an unforgiving and unyielding parody of both judges and cougars, as she consistently flirts in chambers with her clerk, Charlie (Jonathan Scarfe). Charlie laps up the attention, because he wants to be a judge himself, some day, even though he inherently (for reasons he keeps secret from everyone) abhors Kessler's advances.

Out of Order. Jerry Kellerman (Gosselaar) is taken into custody for yet another outburst.

Over in the District Attorney's office, we find the team headed up by Nick Balco (Currie Graham), a boorish character for whom sexual harrassment is first nature. His office is staffed by folks like the forthright Marcus McGrath (J. August Richards) and the overeager Michelle Ernhardt (Melissa Sagemiller). Marcus often finds himself up against Rich, and Michelle nearly always goes head to head with Jerry -- in the courtroom, the bar room, and the bed room, creating a dynamic that seems to have come right out of a Brad Meltzer novel!

The pilot episode offers very little in the way of surprises, with Jerry defending an innocent man of rape charges. However, when every attempt to present his evidence is blocked, he winds up supporting his client from inside a cell after he tells off Judge Kessler. This is an oft-repeating cycle for Kellerman and Kessler as the series progresses, and it becomes tiresome after less than a little bit. Kaczmarek's character is so blatantly over the top in her tyranny that she becomes unbelievable to the audience.

Non-Routine Procedural. The cast of Raising the Bar.

Bobbi Gilardi (Natalia Cigliuti) joins the public defenders office in the second episode. She's cute, she's got connections, and she definitely captures Jerry's eye, despite the fact that she's married; the future problems this represents are veritably telegraphed a half-season in advance. In fact, that's the overall problem with much of Raising the Bar -- everything is so obvious and in your face, and the solutions that aren't verge on deus ex machina.

I may end up being wrong, but Raising the Bar looks more like it's lowering the bar for television legal procedurals. Gosselaar, Sagemiller, and Richards put in some interesting and sometimes even captivating efforts, but all their fine acting amounts to little more than lipstick on a pig with this one.

Raising the Bar premieres on TNT Monday, September 1, 2008, 10/9c.