Fairly Legal

So, I've watched Fairly Legal  a two times now (with a third episode sitting on my DVR), and I like it okay.  Of course, I've pretty much watched every original show on USA since Silk Stalkings (ha! remember that show?) so it's fair to say I am biased.  But all in all, it's a decent show - which is not to say there aren't a few things that need tweaked:

First: lose the weird random references to the Wizard of Oz.  What is that even about?  I think she could keep the wicked witch of the west ring tone on her cell when her stepmother calls, because that is amusing and actually sort of realistic - but having everyone in her life linked to characters from Oz is just plain bizarre.

Second: Drop the whole she's right outside her office building, making someone wait, lying on the phone about where she is and hopping in a cab thing.  I get it.  She set her own priorities regardless of what else might be happening.  But you know what?  It doesn't come off as cute, it comes off a rude and self centered and obnoxious.  Being terminally late, canceling appointments with no justifications, lying, and just generally treating everyone like they are less important than you are, are not endearing qualities.  Plus, she does it like four times and episode, which is just overkill.  The show is lucky Sarah Shahi is so charming (with such a megawatt smile) or these horrible personality traits would have left it stranded at the gate.  Yes, she can be a free spirit who bucks the system.  Doesn't mean she has to be a jerk.

Three: Either develop the other characters further, or show more of the stepmother character.  The dignity and vulnerability she managed to convey with hardly any expression in the scene when she was faced with a client attempting to get her into bed in exchange for keeping his business is some of the most nuanced acting I've seen on tv in a long time.  They have allowed her to move outside of the cookie cutter ice queen role and show hints of her struggle as she tries to hold on to her dead husband's law firm despite resentment from her stepkids and being judged as a trophy wife my the clients.  More of this type of depth, please.

Which brings me to
Four: do something with the main character and her ex husband's relationship.  I understand that it is supposed to be love/hate, where they are still very attracted to each other but have such different views of the law that they argue all the time.  Except the ex husband is never on the right side of the argument.  He is always a stick in the mud, by the book jack ass without any justification behind it.  In order to make this kind of relationship pleasing to the viewer we have to like BOTH characters.  We have to see the merit in both of their sides when they argue, and so far, that is not being achieved.  Basically, as it is now, I'm just wondering what the hell she still sees in him, other than that he is a convenient source in the DA's office when she needs something done.  Make them both equally right and equally wrong, and equally likable so we can root for the relationship the way it's intended to be.

So there you have it.  I like the show, but it can be SO much better.  Hopefully it will find a surer stride as the season progresses.