Episode Name: Pilot
Original Episode Airdate: September 19, 1999
Characters Introduced:
1) Amy Gray
2) Maxine Gray, Amy's mother
3) Vincent Gray, Amy's younger brother
4) Peter Gray, Amy's older brother
5) Gillian Gray, Peter's wife, Amy's stepsister
6) Lauren Cassidy, Amy's daughter
7) Bruce Exel, Amy's court services officer
8) Michael Cassidy, Amy's husband (separated)
At the beginning, to the tune of "Under Pressure", Amy Gray flips a coin on the day of her marriage. The outcome? She chooses to marry Michael Cassidy.
Ten years later, the marriage is all but over. Amy is living at her mother's house with her daughter, Lauren. Amy's younger brother, Vincent, is also often around, and interacts well with Lauren.
More so, Amy has been appointed a superior court judge in Hartford, Connecticut, focusing on cases involving children, a far cry from her roots as a corporate lawyer in New York City. She and Michael have separated, and Amy wants nothing more to do with him, which is unfortunate, as Lauren has some difficulty comprehending this.
On top of that all, Amy's mother is rather overbearing, albeit good-hearted in nature. Constantly, Maxine and Amy bicker, be it over Amy's lack of professionalism or the way she's raising her daughter.
The first day on the job for Amy is rather terrible: her court services officer, Bruce, is cold and distant. Lauren got sick at her first day of school. After dropping her off at home, Amy discovers her mother called her friends on the police force to escort her back to the courthouse.
And lastly, one of her first cases shows her disrespected by both the plaintiff and the defendant. A child was found wandering around alone at 3:00 am, and the mother and boyfriend were both drugged out of their minds. The father is out of the picture according to the Department of Children and Families, or DCF. Coincidentally, Maxine used to work for DCF as a social worker, and now retired, she mainly consults. But instead of looking for other family members to take in the child, DCF is convinced placing her in foster care or a state home is the best thing for the child.
Despite all of this, by the end of the episode, amends are made with both her mother and her daughter. Amy even manages to get Bruce to show his human side, which leads to a long-lasting friendship between the two of them. While Maxine is still worried for the direction her daughter's life has taken, and Lauren still has some adjustment issues at her school, for the time being, the family has found moderate stability.
Judging Amy is a fitting beginning to my reviewing odyssey, as it was this show that first planted the idea in my mind. The show, while highly popular, has never had an official DVD release in the USA, and as such, the only way to see it now is either online streaming sources or occasionally on UP, a Christian television station, albeit in an edited form.
I've seen most episodes of this series, though it has been a while. Overall, this is a very solid opening, introducing most of the important characters of the series. This also introduces the subplot of Gillian and Peter's troubles conceiving of a child, which is continued as the series goes on. Lastly, the idea of Vincent's problems finding a stable job (partially due to his major in comparative literature studies) is rooted clearly here, as he's currently getting by purely due to grooming dogs with his roommate.
It's a solid episode, and while not amazing, leads into a fantastic series, if my memory stands correct. Fittingly, it's the first episode review I'll post.
Line of the episode:
Amy: "What? You don't think I look judicial?"
Maxine: "You look like a deranged minister."
Rating: Above Average
- Michael
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