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Grisham's 'The Firm' To Become TV Series

Hmmm... I actually found it pretty watchable... They stayed pretty consistent, character-wise to those portrayed in the movie and I found the story engaging..

Yes, the "trial of the week" plot setting was a little "meh" as far as a starting off point, but I think that was really just a way for us to ease into the much larger, sinister ongoing story arc... The "six weeks (months?) later" tease was pretty good and has me intested in seeing where it's going..
 
It's going straight into the jaws of the cancellation bear. Even by NBC standards, the premiere ratings suck. Don't get too attached.

NBC is going to have to get a LOT more ambitious next fall. No more lawyer shows, cop shows and Mad Men ripoffs. If I were them, I'd be on the phone to CBS to get the rights to a Star Trek series. Seriously. At least it would create buzz, much of it of the "are they insane?" variety, but it's better than the current situation, where they've simply fallen off most viewers' mental maps.
 
Mr. Laser Beam said:
Has any Grisham material translated well to the small screen?
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There haven't exactly been a lot of attempts; the only ones I can think of are The Client and The Firm. The Street Lawyer went to pilot, but never aired.

As for films, The Firm, The Rainmaker, The Pelican Brief and The Client were all very, very good, and The Runaway Jury was decent at worst. The only outright awful adaptation I can think of is The Chamber, and to be fair, the source material was pretty weak and had all the subtlety of a bazooka.

The Firm had a pretty shitty, generic pilot, but I'll still give it another episode or two. I can't believe NBC ordered a full 22 episodes before the thing had even aired, though. Jesus Christ. It'll probably keep airing until they can figure out what the hell is going on with Awake.
 
I thought I read somewhere that the 1.4 demo was the lowest rated drama premiere in the history of NBC.

Pretty said if I read that right. :lol:
 
It's correct. The 1.4 rating for 18 - 49 is the lowest rating for a drama's premiere for NBC.

This thing tanked, and they already have 22 episodes in the pipeline. I guarantee you that NBC execs are desperately looking for loopholes in their contract with Sony so they can end filming and cut their losses.
 
A really slow start, but it got better towards the end and I like the cast, so I'll try to stick with it.

od0_ital said:
And aside from M*A*S*H, can ya think of any other shows that included actors from the film in the tv adaption?
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The entire cast of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, with the exception of John Corbett, reprised their roles when the movie went to series.
 
^^*trivial trivia alert* - I thought it pretty funny that while John Corbett didn't reprise his role in the series, he did a one-off guest shot as his replacement's best friend in one episode.
 
Watched the series premiere, and I agree, it was awful.

Who ever heard of an arraignment happenin' so quick that the accused is still wearin' the bloody shirt from the murder he may or may not have committed? And then the lawyer says the police may take it for evidence?!? The judge praises the lawyer in open court, for the record, and then rules in that lawyers favor...how does the district attorney not call bullshit for that?!? And was it really necessary to have two flashbacks in the teaser? Geez...

On the plus side, it has Six. And I actually like that Juliette Lewis's character gets to smoke on network tv. I'm not a smoker, but the jihad against folks who light up is insane and deserves to be mocked in prime time.
 
^^ As long as they don't overdo it just to keep her "in character" with Holly Hunter's version in the movie.. In the movie she just smoked a lot. She didn't talk about it.. The thing I found annoying about Lewis's character is that she kept talking about wanting to smoke..
 
But that's cable, not basic network... The Networks have gone out of their way to cut out/down the smoking by main characters... Look at Pan AM... Given the fact that it takes place in the 60s when everyone still smoked AND it spends a lot of time on jets where people could still smoke, the fact that NO ONE smokes is kind of conspicuous.

If Pan AM was on AMC/HBO/FX, etc, there would be a lot of smoking.
 
Borgminister said:
Cagney smokes on Burn Notice... constantly.
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marillion said:
But that's cable, not basic network... The Networks have gone out of their way to cut out/down the smoking by main characters... Look at Pan AM... Given the fact that it takes place in the 60s when everyone still smoked AND it spends a lot of time on jets where people could still smoke, the fact that NO ONE smokes is kind of conspicuous.

If Pan AM was on AMC/HBO/FX, etc, there would be a lot of smoking.
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They smoke a lot on Mad Men, too, and again, that's basic cable, not network tv.
 
The Firm's ratings continue to set new records for catastrophe, but this article makes it sound like it's so dirt cheap to make (in Toronto, I guess DC is pricey, huh?) that NBC might keep making it anyway - but cancel it in America (because they need to free up the timeslot for something that might make them less of a laughingstock).

But because Sony made NBC a super cheap deal for all 22 episodes of The Firm, and NBC isn't likely to have good (if any) alternatives for its Thursday time slot, it may stay on the schedule this season for quite some time. What's certain is that by the end of this season it will be canceled and not return to NBC (it's future outside the US isn't something I'm concerned with).
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Plenty of American shows are shot in Canada, but when they get cancelled in America, it's all over. Is The Firm so much cheaper than all the others that have come and gone that Sony could keep it going in other countries?
 
NBC made a full commitment for 22 episodes before the thing aired, so it isn't going away this season. It won't see a second season, though, cost of production or not -- no network will touch it. (It placed ninth in its timeslot last night. Ouch.)
 
Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but the article implied the show might continue to be produced in S2 and not air in America.
 
Can't think of a single example of a cancelled American show that continued production for other markets - however, it's possible it happened and wasn't really publicized.
 
The closest thing I can think of would be The Bridge - CBS only aired three episodes before cancellin' it, but it kept airin' in Canda, and a second season for it was announced, but not produced.
 
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