''In Justice'' is an American police procedural television series created by

Michelle King Michelle King (née Stern; born 1958) is an American television writer and producer. She is married to Robert King, who is also her writing partner. The couple created the legal drama series ''The Good Wife'', which earned them a Writers Gui ...

and Robert King. The series began airing on Sunday, January 1, 2006, 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 ...

as a

midseason replacement In American network television scheduling, a mid-season replacement is a television show that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between December and May. Mid-season replacements usually take place after a ...

and assumed its regular night and time on Friday, January 6, 2006, at 9 p.m. EST. It ended after its 13-episode run on March 31, 2006. The series was

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

in Canada on CTV. In the UK ''In Justice'' was shown on

UKTV Gold Gold is a British pay television channel from the UKTV network that was launched in late 1992 as UK Gold before it was rebranded UKTV Gold in 2004. In 2008, it was split into current flagship channel Gold and miscellaneous channel, W (UK TV chan ...

beginning September 17, 2006 and was later repeated on

ABC1 ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel an ...

in 2007. On May 16, 2006, ABC cancelled the series. Series creators Michelle and Robert King went on to develop the series ''

The Good Wife ''The Good Wife'' is an American legal and political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It focuses on Alicia Florrick, the wife of the Cook County State's Attorney, who returns to her career in l ...

''.

Premise

''In Justice'' focuses on freeing wrongly convicted criminals.

Kyle MacLachlan Kyle Merritt MacLachlan (; ' McLachlan, February 22, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dale Cooper in ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991; 2017) and its film prequel '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'' (1992), as well as roles ...

(of ''

Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company, ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cance ...

'') stars as David Swain, a wealthy and successful lawyer who heads a high-profile organization called the National Justice Project (commonly abbreviated as "NJP") in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, along with his lead investigator, ex-police detective Charles Conti (portrayed by

Jason O'Mara Jason O'Mara (born 6 August 1972) is an Irish actor. He has starred in the American television network dramas ''In Justice'', ''Life on Mars'', '' Terra Nova'', ''Vegas'', and ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''. O'Mara won an Irish Film and Television A ...

). Members of the National Justice Project work

pro-bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

to overturn wrongful convictions, liberate the falsely accused and discover the identity of those who are really to blame. Although the NJP is fictional, there are organizations which examine cases involving people who may have been wrongly convicted (e.g. the

Innocence Project Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent futur ...

). Each new episode starts out with "what the jury believed", usually a scene in which the person who was wrongly convicted acts out the crime. Throughout the show, David and Charles unravel many clues to how and why the person they are trying to exonerate was convicted in the first place. Each episode revolves around separate cases and addresses the various reasons for

miscarriage of justice A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal procedure, criminal or civil procedure, civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they actual innocence, did not commit. Mis ...

. The progress in the show relies less on the famous but largely fictitious forensic procedures used in the CSI franchise and other procedural shows. In a few episodes "CSI-fiction" is mentioned as a description of theatre and inaccuracy, and sometimes forgery of forensics technology. The series deals with a few subplots. The most prominent is Conti's remorse from his time as a police officer, when he caused an innocent suspect's suicide by coercing him to confess to the murder of his family, and how it makes him obsessed with clearing the wrongfully convicted. Other subplots deals with Swain's uneasy relationship with judicial colleagues and the district attorney's attempts to discredit him, Sonya's personal motivations for clearing the wrongfully convicted - her brother being one of them, and Brianna's reservations and doubts about some of the cases.

Cast

as Charles Conti *

as David Swain *

Marisol Nichols Marisol Nichols (born November 2, 1973) is an American actress, known for her roles as Nadia Yassir on the Fox series '' 24'' and Hermione Lodge on the CW drama series '' Riverdale''. Early life Nichols was born in the Rogers Park neighbor ...

as Sonya Quintano *

Constance Zimmer Constance Zimmer (born October 11, 1970) is an American actress. She rose to prominence for playing Dana Gordon in the television series '' Entourage'' (2005–2011) and Claire Simms in the television series ''Boston Legal'' (2006–2007). Sh ...

as Brianna *

Daniel Cosgrove Daniel Thomas Cosgrove (born December 16, 1970) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Scott Chandler (All My Children), Scott Chandler on ''All My Children'', Matt Durning on ''Beverly Hills, 90210'', Bill Lewis on ''Guiding Light' ...

as Jon Lemonick *

Tim Guinee Timothy S. Guinee (born November 18, 1962) is an American stage, television, and feature-film actor. Primarily known for his roles as Tomin in the television series ''Stargate SG-1'' (1997–2007) and railroad entrepreneur Collis Huntington AMC ...

as Richard Rocca *

McKinley Freeman McKinley Freeman (born June 9, 1973) is an American actor and producer. He has appeared in films and on television series, including the starring role of Derek Roman in the drama series '' Hit the Floor'', portraying the role of Dominic in the OWN's ...

as Ray Estevez

Episodes

The show's "sneak-peek" episode aired on January 1, 2006, while the original series pilot was aired on January 6, 2006. According to ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', the program won its timeslot in the January 1 sneak airing and finished second in its January 6 timeslot, the latter just slightly behind CBS's '' Close to Home''. The eighth episode, "The Public Burning", came in second to

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's coverage of the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

. The team succeeds in clearing a convicted person in each episode, except in "The Public Burning", where justice fails and a mild mentally challenged man is executed just minutes before truth is revealed (though it is unclear if the team were able to expose the killer, since Conti confronts the murderer in his house).

Reception

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 has an approval rating of 40% based on reviews from 10 critics. The site's consensus states: In Justice brandishes a refreshingly righteous premise, but this derivative procedural's good intentions can't vindicate the indistinctive casting and uninspired cases. 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 ...

the series has a score of 48% based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". David Hinckley of the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' compared the show to ''

Without a Trace ''Without a Trace'' is an American police procedural drama television series created by Hank Steinberg that aired on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009 with the total of seven seasons and 160 episodes. The series focuses the cases of ...

'' and ''

Cold Case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or re ...

.'' He wrote: "The chemistry among the leads isn't fully there, and the trail of clues, at least in the opening two episodes, relies on a lot of serendipity and improbable deductive work. But ''In Justice'' is a watchable show." Phil Gallo of ''

'' called the show "A model of midseason mediocrity". Tom Shales of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' wrote: "It's an imitation of something already being imitated here, there and everywhere." Tim Goodman of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' called the show "a mess" and was critical of ABC for not knowing what they wanted the show to be.

References

External links