The Jury

The creators of the classic shows Homicide: Life on the Street and Oz have finally fallen back to earth with this overambitious drama that's more 12 Mildly Retarded Simps than 12 Angry Men. The jurors, composed of a new pool of overacting stereotypes each week, bring their prejudices and speculation to the table as they sit in judgment of New York's most boring criminals. Each case is told in flashbacks, lazily cued whenever a juror discusses the specifics. ("Did you see how that eyewitness twitched on the stand?" Cut to: eyewitness twitching on the stand. Genius!) Eventually you begin anticipating and fearing the flashbacks, as they prolong the whole painful process more than a death row appeal. The one upside is the final verdict at the end of each episode, followed by exactly how the crime went down. We'd like to give this an A for adjudication, mainly because it's a tough format to pull off, especially when dumbed down for Fox broadcasting standards. But until they get the writing up to par, this will continue to be out of order.