''For the People'' is an American

legal drama A legal drama is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in which a system of justice play ...

television series that aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

from March 13, 2018, to May 16, 2019. On May 11, 2018, ABC renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on March 7, 2019. On May 9, 2019, ABC canceled the series after two seasons.

Premise

Set in the

Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New Y ...

(SDNY) Federal Court, known as "The Mother Court", ''For the People'' follows new lawyers—both

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

s and federal public defenders—as they handle the most high-profile and high-stakes cases and their personal lives intersect.

Cast and characters

Hope Davis Hope Davis is an American actress. She is known for her performances on stage and screen earning various awards and nominations including a Tony Award nomination, as well two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Award nominations. She ...

as Jill Carlan *

Ben Shenkman Benjamin Shenkman (born September 26, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the comedy-drama series ''Royal Pains'' and the acclaimed HBO miniseries ''Angels in America'', which earned him both Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Gl ...

as Roger Gunn *

Jasmin Savoy Brown Jasmin Savoy Brown (born March 21, 1994) is an American actress. She has appeared in the HBO mystery drama series '' The Leftovers'' (2015–2017), the ABC legal drama series '' For the People'' (2018–2019), and the Showtime psychological dram ...

as Allison Adams * Susannah Flood as Kate Littlejohn *

Wesam Keesh Wesam Keesh is an American actor who played Adam "Malachi" Mintock on season two of '' Law & Order: Organized Crime''. He previously appeared in ''Awkward'', '' For the People'', '' Good Girls'', '' NCIS: Los Angeles'', and '' Zoobiquity'' and has ...

as Jay Simmons *

Regé-Jean Page Regé-Jean Page (; born Regererai Page on 27 April 1988) is a British actor. He is known for his breakout role in the first series of the Netflix period drama ''Bridgerton'' (2020). Acting professionally since 2001, Page has also appeared in B ...

as Leonard Knox *

Ben Rappaport Ben Rappaport (born ) is an American actor. He played the role of Todd Dempsy in the NBC sitcom '' Outsourced'', which aired during the 2010–11 television season. The series marked Rappaport's debut acting role on screen. Life and career Rapp ...

as Seth Oliver *

Britt Robertson Brittany Leanna Robertson (born April 18, 1990) is an American actress. She is known for her lead role in '' The First Time'' (2012), and has appeared in the films ''Tomorrowland'' (2015), '' The Space Between Us'' (2017), ''A Dog's Purpose'' ...

as Sandra Bell *

Anna Deavere Smith Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in ''The West Wing'' (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series ''Nur ...

as Tina Krissman *

Vondie Curtis-Hall Vondie Curtis-Hall is an American actor, screenwriter, film director, and television director. As an actor, he is known for his role as Dr. Dennis Hancock on the CBS medical drama '' Chicago Hope'' created by David E. Kelley and as Ben Urich in ...

as Judge Nicholas Byrne *

Charles Michael Davis Charles Michael Davis (born December 1, 1984) is an American actor, model, producer, and director. He is best known for his roles as Marcel Gerard on The CW television drama '' The Originals'' (2013–2018) and Zane Anders on the TV Land original ...

as Ted (season 2)

Production

Britne Oldford Britne Oldford (born July 23, 1992) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for portraying Cadie Campbell on '' Skins'', Alma Walker on '' American Horror Story: Asylum'', Remy Beaumont on '' Ravenswood'', Regan on ''Hunters'', and as Fei Hargr ...

and

Lyndon Smith Lyndon Smith (born June 7, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Natalie in the NBC drama '' Parenthood'' (2013–2015) and Dierdre in the TNT police drama ''Public Morals'' (2015). Life Smith is from Pensacola, Florida ...

were cast in the pilot as Sandra Black and Allison Anderson, respectively. Both roles were later recast with

as Black (renamed Sandra Bell) and

as Anderson (renamed Allison Adams). After re-shooting the pilot and shooting the second episode with the new actresses, production was temporarily shut down in September 2017 in order to rewrite existing scripts for the rest of the season to adjust the show to Robertson and Brown's new dynamic. Filming for the second season began on September 23, 2018.

Episodes

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2019)

Reception

Ratings

Overall

Season 1

Season 2

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 69% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''For the People'' concept may be all too familiar, but the character depth and clever dialogue help set it apart." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, it has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

Official website
*{{IMDb title 2010s American drama television series 2010s American legal television series 2018 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings American legal drama television series American Broadcasting Company original programming English-language television shows Television series by ABC Studios Television series by Shondaland Television shows directed by Steph Green Television shows set in New York City Television series about prosecutors