I really wanted to say something about the second episode of “Raising the Bar,” like, ideally before the third episode. Somehow, time just flies. So all I can say now, long after that fact and w/o the benefit of a Tivo second viewing, is that the best two things about the second episode for me were :

1. The Elliot Smith soundtrack at the end.
2. The fact that Jerry appears to be using a Mac (an iMac?) at the end of the show.

Oh, and of course it’s great that Jerry appeared to be broken up w/the prosecutor. I just don’t see how they can paint him as this archetypal true believer and then have him sleeping w/the enemy. But maybe it’s just me. I used to be accused of being too idealistic. It’s been a while, but it used to happen.

Substantive? No. If you want substance, Seth Abramson liked this episode much more than the first; he thinks it’s getting the small details right, and I’d agree w/that. For more fluff, TWOP interviewed Mark-Paul Gosselaar, the guy who plays Jerry. They like the show for the closeted gay subplot but summarize it as “marginally uncrappy.” Hmph. Jerks.

The third episode (which aired last night), was more great PD porn, but even better than last week because it was again (like the first episode) chock full of things to which I could directly relate, such as: Trying to figure out ways to communicate with mentally unstable clients who are paranoid and/or think they don’t need or want any sort of mental health assistance, scrambling for some sort of treatment or other “program” that’s going to convince a judge or prosecutor not to just flush your client, begging for a couple hours of furlough to take your client to a doctor who won’t go to the jail for an evaluation that’s necessary to prevent again the flushing, and on and on. Been there, done that.

The show was even right on with the subplot w/the rich blond PD and the beautiful little assault defendant who just wants to make sure her grandmother is taken care of if she has to take a deal that puts her away for a long time. The guy gets her out on a tiny little charge and she goes right out and gets a much more serious charge; in one day she goes from facing a couple days jail to facing potentially a couple years of prison and in a way, her lawyer “helped” her get from A to B. Of course, public defenders can’t feel responsible for that; our job is to fight for our clients and if they go out and squander whatever inches we gain in that fight, we just have to keep fighting. The show focused on the humanity of the client, her concern for her grandmother and the apparent impossibility of her situation with her social security and a security guard abusing his authority.

But the subtext of both of the two main plot threads (the one w/Jerry and the crazy guy and the other with Richie Rich and the handbag to the eye) was really getting at the heart of what it sometimes means to do our job. Winning is when we protect our clients’ rights, when we ensure that they are not convicted of things they didn’t do and/or that the government is not allowed to abuse its power by using illegal evidence or handing out unjust sentences. But our ability to really “help” our clients often ends at the jailhouse door. If we win and our clients are released from incarceration and the jeopardy of criminal prosecution, what happens next is up to them. We can recommend to them that they get treatment, that they stay away from “that guy,” that they get a job or get their GED, or whatever, but that’s about it. And that’s what the show captured last night as we see Jerry walking away from the open door of his former client’s cell at the end of the show. We struggle and fight furiously every single day for every single client, and then…? What happens next is up to them…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 7:44 am and is filed under Televisual. It has had 235 views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response here, send a trackback from your own site, or rate this post right here: