Judging Amy SE01 EP06 - "Witch Hunt"

Episode Name: Witch Hunt
Original Airdate: October 19, 1999

An odd case comes before Amy - a mother's Wiccan beliefs are being used by the father's child to argue that she should lose custody. The mother, Anne Featherstone, believes the misconception about Wiccan rituals and beliefs should not justify her son being taken away. The father, along with his attorney, believe the environment in which spells are cast and obscure gods are called upon is no place for a child to grow up. News of this trial slowly begins to spread.

Anne Featherstone, the Wiccan mother

Lauren is told ghost stories by older boys at school, and because of that, doesn't want to go trick or treating. When Amy tries to find out why she doesn't want to go out, Lauren clams up, and only after trying to cut her hair (the ghost in question went after only little girls with long hair) did she tell Maxine the reason. She's convinced by her mother to go as an angel, as they scare ghosts away.

Amy and Lauren discussing Halloween

Maxine's given a case by Susie over a family she's worked with before, though the former case was inconclusive insofar as abuse was concerned. Troubling her though is the fact that neither Susie nor the family in question admit knowledge of a third child at the house, a child Maxine was sure existed. Upon searching for birth records, even going to former neighbors, she concludes that the child was killed. Susie forbids her from making any additional contact with the family, telling her the case is "over," but Maxine ignores her, taking it upon herself to go and search the house for any evidence, eventually locating, in a locked basement, the sickly third child in question, locked up "because he was different."

Maxine receiving case

Susie Nixon forbidding Maxine from further investigation

An old professor of Vincent's contacts him, and lets him know that Artists Literary Talent is interested in signing him, in part because a former peer of his is an agent there, a Hilary Baker. Dismayed, in part because Vincent believes Hilary stole a story idea of his back in college, and in part because the two of them once had alcohol-influenced sex, he considers not taking the deal. Amy tells him, upon hearing this, that he can't let "the devil win," and Vincent decides to try to go above Hilary's head, which ends up working as they decide to draft the paperwork.

Amy attends a PTA meeting for the first time (against the suggestion of Maxine), and finds the moral outrage of most of the parents questionable. She spoke up against the idea to limit what their kids should dress up as for Halloween (the parents believe that violent characters, not to mention scary characters, are inadvisable), but was shot down. Upon hearing that they would be getting rid of the haunted house and replacing it with a "funhouse," she again spoke up, only to be told that cult members are raising children in this town (referring to the Wiccan Featherstone), and their concerns are not overblown. Ethically unable to talk about her court case, she leaves the meeting.

Amy standing up to the foolishness of the PTA

A representative from the Wiccan Anti-Defamation League is called in the case, but to the surprise of Featherstone, refuses to assert that her rights are under attack, reasoning that Wicca is still a misunderstood belief, and they need to pick their battles and those they represent carefully. Following this testimony, Featherstone comes to Amy's office and lets her know that she'll rescind custody of her child - kids are breaking her windows, she's getting death threats, and overall, she just doesn't think she can keep her child safe in these condition.

Featherstone neglects to come to court the next day, and without any other choice, Amy grants custody of the child to the father, though making it clear both that she is far from happy and more so, the mother can come back at any point and contest this decision, as she refuses to terminate parental rights. The boy's mother was ran out of town due to hysteria, Amy states, and she's not going to allow a situation in which he can never again see her.

At the end of night, neither Maxine or Amy are able to sleep. Maxine can't help but think that if she did more on the case years back, she could have prevented the boy being locked up, but Amy tells her she did all she could have done, and that most importantly, Maxine gave the boy a fighting chance. They then decide to make late-night pancakes.

Maxine and Amy discussing difficult days

"Witch Hunt" is a fantastic Halloween-themed episode. Amy deals with a compelling case about an innocent woman attacked because of her unconventional beliefs. Maxine battles with her boss about the potential death of a small child. Even Lauren has a somewhat interesting story in which she's scared out of trick or treating. All around, it was pretty good.

The main case was pretty interesting to watch - clearly, the father had little to nothing on the mother, and referring to her as a Satanist did little to support his claim that his son wasn't in a safe environment. Anne Featherstone was clearly a loving mother, but refused to buckle down to the beliefs of others. In fact, her quote "I know why all this is happening - because I've never chosen to behave like other people. I didn't marry [my son's] father and I have all these strange beliefs which to me don't seem strange," particularly moving. She was chased out of town because she was different, which was the exact same reason why the youngest child in Maxine's case was locked up in the basement (the reasoning as to why the child was different wasn't gone into).

Amy gets a chance to go against the type of people who would chase her client out when she attends the PTA meeting. A great scene all around, Amy clearly has no interest in being an overbearing mother, barring what her child can dress up as or voting for a "funhouse" as opposed to a haunted house. These parents are simply not the type of parents Amy wants to be, and in fact are not the types of parents Maxine ever much cared for. Will Amy attend another PTA meeting in the future? If she did, it's already comedy gold, but given the cold reception she got this time around, it does seem rather unlikely.

Maxine's case, though there's not a whole lot to say about it, was an emotional one also. She was standing against the world; Susie Nixon refused to believe Maxine's claims of a third child (and in fact mocked her a few times), and the family wholly rejected the existence of another kid, but going against Nixon's directive, she did find the other child. What I would have liked to see is another blowout between Susie and Maxine, only with Maxine getting the upperhand this time around, but perhaps, if we're lucky, that'll be in an upcoming episode.

Even though Lauren's story wasn't amazing, it was Vincent's portions which really didn't do much for me. That's not to say that they're bad - Hilary Baker seems a character that will pop up once or twice more, and potentially cause Vincent some problems. Overall, though, I wasn't too enthralled with these subplot, especially compared to Amy and Maxine's stories.

"Witch Hunt" is a pretty solid episode. Some good subplots, and two interesting cases. Definitely one of the high points so far.

Rating: Above Average

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Judging Amy SE01 EP05 - "Last Tango in Hartford"

Episode Name: Last Tango in Hartford
Original Airdate: October 12, 1999

While Lauren is going to spend a week with Michael in England, Amy sees it as an opportunity to further her relationship with Tracy Carroll. When a death threat is sent to Amy by an unknown individual, though, and a bodyguard is placed on her, her relationship goals become more complicated to achieve.

Many cases are seen throughout this episode, and the threat could have come from any number of them - a boy who is sentenced to juvie (though the deal he made with his lawyer included no time), a mother whose daughter was raped, Amy having determined a boy who witnessed the crime but didn't report it "not guilty," and a mother whose paranoid thinking caused DCF to take away her daughter.

Maxine runs into an old friend, Simon, and the chemistry they have is obvious - Simon is invited over to Maxine's house later for dinner. Meanwhile, a teenage girl has her child taken away by Maxine when she fails various motherly duties - though Maxine believed her to not be committed enough to take care of the child, the girl's willingness to do all she can to keep the child leads DCF to allow the child to remain in her custody.

Vincent is having some relationship problems himself, though not for long. Chris read a manuscript of his, and, deeply impressed, contacted some of her friends, including a publisher and literature professor, without consulting Vincent. Believing himself to be more of a project for Chris to fix up as opposed to a partner, Vincent leaves her.

Amy's relationship with Tracy took a nosedive itself - not only does Maxine dislike Tracy and his child psychology techniques, Amy was twice unable to actually have sex with him, the main reason being, in her mind, she's not yet ready even though it's been quite some time since the divorce.

Reality returns, however, as in Maxine's garage, the aforementioned paranoid mother aims a gun at Amy - Amy foolishly relieved her bodyguard earlier, not believing the threat to be serious. Luckily, the gun was empty, and the woman wanders away, to be picked up the next morning by the police.

This sparks an intense argument between Amy and Maxine over a variety of things, among them being Maxine's opinionated nature. When Amy brings up Simon, the dinner Maxine had with him nights prior, and states that even years ago, when her father was alive, they all knew that Maxine and Simon had flings. This angers Maxine, who admits that they cared for each other 15 years ago (Simon's marriage was breaking apart and Maxine's husband was depressed), but nothing sexual ever happened between them. The argument remains unsolved as Amy walks away.

Love is not doomed for all, though - Donna, Amy's clerk, asks Amy to perform the marriage rites of her and Oscar Ray Pant, a convicted murderer in prison. Amy agrees, and during their heart-felt vows, Amy can barely keep from breaking down, and admits later to Vincent that she didn't cry as much at her own wedding.

With both Vincent's and Amy's respective relationships over with, they discuss their relationships, and why they both failed.

This was a very solid episode, with two stand-out scenes.

The first one would be the explosive conversation between Amy and Maxine - when Amy accuses Maxine of having cheated on her father years back, you can see the anger in Maxine's eyes. The whole argument was fantastic, but that bit at the end was powerful. Amy's not happy her mother spiritually cheated on her father, and Maxime's steamed that Amy thinks she has any right to judge.

Donna and Oscar's marriage was another one. Donna's an interesting character, slightly bizarre in the way she acts, and the fact that she's marrying a convicted murderer (with the intention of going to law school and proving Oscar's innocence) demonstrates that well. Oscar, despite being a murderer (apparently, he hacked his mother up with a meat cleaver) has beautiful vows to Donna, and when he starts singing to Donna, despite the prisoners in earshot who mock him, that's when Amy (and the audience) really feel their emotional connection.

I didn't care much for Tracy or Chris, so truth be told, I'm not too torn up with the breakup of either relationship. Vincent, I know, wants to be an author again, and get back into writing, but taking the easy way to get there, through connections of his significant other, doesn't appeal to him whatsoever. I'm not sure where Vincent's road will take him, but like he said back in the third episode, it will be his own road.

Maxine's custody case in the episode wasn't overly enthralling, but on the personal front, I don't believe that Simon will become a big character. That said, I'd like to see Maxine eventually get back into the dating sphere, and meet more people. Now that she's working again, trying to complete the circle might be up her alley, if Amy can grow to accept it.

Good stuff here, and while not up to "Trial by Jury" level, this is certainly above average.

Rating: Above Average

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Judging Amy SE01 EP04 - "Victim Soul"

Episode Name: Victim Soul

Original Airdate: October 5, 1999

Characters:

1) Amy Gray

2) Lauren Cassidy

3) Vincent Gray

4) Maxine Gray

5) Peter Gray

6) Gillian Gray

7) Bruce Van Exel

8) Judge Greta Anastassio

Introduced: 

1) Chris Osborne

2) Susie Nixon

3) Judge Fowler

The General Attorney sends a case to Amy, which she is in no position to decline, about a ten-year old comatose boy named Thomas Bell under the custody of his grandmother who touts him as a saint, with the ability to heal the sick and wounded. DCF claims that the constant exposure to outside factors are damaging to the health of the child. Reluctantly, Amy goes to see the child, and is informed that some of the wounds on his hands (appearing to be stigmata) were inflicted by an outside source, and not God.

Maxine, now back at work for DCF, goes head-to-head with her supervisor, one Susie Nixon, who is working hard to remove an underfed child from her mother and place her in foster care. Upon examining the case and meeting the child in question, however, Maxine recommends a different route - mandatory counseling for the mother and child, along with followup visitations from DCF. Susie disagrees completely, and ignore's Maxine's report.

Vincent, while in a hardware store with Lauren, meets Chris Osborne, a slightly-older painter and wood-worker, who entices Vincent to come over to her place. When there, she offers Vincent a job - write catalog descriptions of her work, which he takes without issue. She also lets him know, quite openly, that she is interested in dating him.

The media all over the case, Amy is forced into a difficult decision after hearing from both physicians who feel that the child is being harmed, and from a priest who claims that Thomas inspires faith in people, and that alone helps them to heal. The day of the judgment, though, Amy is approached by Attorney General Victor Pascal, telling her that the state is withdrawing the petition. After some veiled threats from both of them, Amy drops the case, allowing Thomas to stay with his grandmother. It later seems as though that is not the final call she wished to make.

Maxine approaches the mother of the case in question, and informs her, rather harshly, that unless she wises up, she is in serious danger of losing her child. Judge Fowler, who has worked with Maxine many times in the past, hears both from Maxine and Susie on their disagreement over the case. He chastises Maxine for abrasively speaking to the mother (who has since sued DCF), but lets it known that because of the lawsuit, the child will be allowed to stay with her mother. Maxine is told after Susie leaves that while Susie may be more a radical when it comes to placing children in foster care, Judge Fowler is not, and insists that Maxine have faith in the system.

The next morning, Vincent meets Chris' daughter, either late high school or early college age, which opens his eyes about Chris' age, which he hadn't either noticed or considered. After an open conversation to Chris about this, he agrees that he wants to date her, but now "might not be the best time." They agree to see each other again that weekend.

Maxine ponders over Vincent's new relationship, and asks Amy to find out what's going on. Beforehand, though, Amy decides to watch Lauren sleep, lightly stroking her hair in thought.

Amy confronting Attorney General Victor Pascal

Victim Soul is a decent episode, but a definite downgrade from Trial by Jury. While the case forced upon Amy is interesting enough, the fact she is not allowed to determine the outcome due to the Attorney General is greatly bothersome (both to us as an audience and Amy as a character). This mixed with the stress of the media following her every move and her daughter telling her that if she removes the child from the home, she'll go to hell, Amy has quite a trying time.

Vincent has a bit more luck, finding a wonderful lady whom he is attracted to deeply. The Graduate reference notwithstanding, it's obvious that he quite enjoys her company, and when he opens up to her about his early success in college and subsequent meltdown and European journey, it's clear to see he's comfortable sharing that information. Even after meeting Lori, Chris' college/high school-aged, Vincent is willing to continue the relationship without too much worry.

Maxine's conflict with Susie was quite interesting, and perhaps my favorite subplot of the episode. Maxine's belief that there must be very compelling reasons to remove a child from a family flies in the face of Susie's belief that even when other alternatives may exist, it is always best to move the child into foster care. The conflict is unique, and shows no sign of subsiding in future episodes, as Susie remains Maxine's supervisor. Judge Fowler, on the other hand, seems a decent person, and while I am unsure if we see him again, I placed him in the characters introduced just in case.

Lastly, Bruce, upon being chided by Amy, opens up briefly to her. His calm, distant composure has mostly been consistent, and while it's slowly disappearing, I too would like to see more of Bruce as a friend as opposed to a cold court services officer. Slowly, yet surely, I expect him to open up.

The episode was okay - Amy's case was decent, but the segment as a whole was just barely above average. Vincent meeting Chris was good for the character, but I get the feeling that Chris won't be around for too long. The highlight, I feel, is Maxine and her argument with Susie over the direction of their case - both sides make compelling points, and more importantly, you can tell both sides are trying to do what they feel is best for the child, albeit in different ways. Of this conflict, I am highly interested in seeing more. Overall, though, the episode was average.

Rating: Average 

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Judging Amy SE01 EP03 - "Trial by Jury"

Episode Name: Trial by Jury
Original Airdate: September 28, 1999

Characters:

1) Amy Gray
2) Vincent Gray
3) Maxine Gray
4) Lauren Cassidy
5) Peter Gray
6) Gillian Gray
7) Bruce Van Exel

Characters Introduced:

1) Stuart Collins
2) Judge Greta Anastassio


A friend of Amy's, Greta Anastassio, asks Amy if she can take on a jury trial involving a case of a teenage boy killing his girlfriend, in which the parents of the dead girl are seeking monetary compensation from the parents of the boy. Despite Amy never having done a jury trial before, she takes it on, if for no other reason, Greta, who has breast cancer, is unable to do so.

Meanwhile, Maxine has been having car problems as of late, and she finally decides to purchase a new vehicle, which Amy is skeptical of, mainly because the car was the last thing Amy's father bought for Maxine before he died. Vincent finds this moderately annoying, but keeps it to himself. More bothersome, when Maxine finally does give in and start looking for a new car, she asks help from Peter, seemingly to take his advice into more consideration than Vincent's, who was also asked to help.

Lauren has a sleepover planned, which Amy forgot about when she decided to take on the jury trial. Because of this, Amy has her mother agree to watch the the girls coming over, which doesn't work as well as planned, as she disturbs Vincent from his writing and asks him to take the girls out, unconcerned, or just not understanding, that Vincent was in the middle of working.

Amy meets Alex Reames and Stuart Collins, who represent the defendant and plaintiff, respectively. She's surprised to see that Stuart is the same individual she knew back in Harvard, as they shared a class under one Professor Larkin, who they both poke fun at. She asks that showmanship be kept to a minimum, as she wants the jury to base their finds off the facts and not the emotional implications of the trial.

Vincent brings back the children, and is visibility upset at Maxine for not respecting his work, and causing him to lose a whole afternoon of writing. This leads to a tense conversation between the two, with neither backing down, and Maxine telling Vincent that she always felt he had the most potential of her children, but he's squandering it. Vincent tells her that just because his "success isn't happening on her schedule" doesn't mean that he's squandering anything, and he leaves the house angry.

Maxine and Amy then speak about her reluctance to buy a vehicle, which comes not from sentimental reasons as Amy suspected, but due mainly to the fact she's never had to buy one before, as her husband always took care of the big decisions like that. In short, looking for a new car to purchase reminds her of the husband she misses. When Amy asks if she thinks that her dad was happy, Maxine admits that he probably would have preferred a different profession than the one he was in, being insurance (and the business Peter has taken over). Lastly, Amy states that her father would probably be proudest of Vincent, because he "went a different way" than everyone else.

The trial begins, and almost immediately Stuart Collins is reprehended by Amy because of his constant reiteration of the word "murder" to play on the jury's feelings. After both the mother of the dead girl, and the mother of the convicted boy, speak, the decision goes to the jury following the rejection of a $200,000 settlement offer by the defendant (the plaintiff is after $2 million).

Maxine goes over to Vincent's apartment and admits that she doesn't understand how writing is considered work, and has had problems accepting it. She offers Vincent $8,000 so he can quit his dog-grooming job, and focus solely on writing. Vincent declines, stating that he took the career of writing knowing that there would be risk, and asks that Maxine accept that.

When the verdict comes back, the jury finds that the defendant was negligible for the death of Mr. and Mrs. Harper's daughter, and award the plaintiff damages of $10 million. Amy almost lets this go, but ultimately throws out the jury's verdict, and enters judgment for the defendants. After the trial, Stuart confronts her, claiming she was against him from the beginning, leading her to provide a verbal smack down, listed below as the quote of the episode.

Notes:

This episode, as the first did, also speaks on a problems Gillian has getting pregnant, and is the first to show a slight resentment felt between herself and her husband, Peter. While it's just touched on her, it comes up later in the season, so I felt I should point it out.

This was a very fine episode on almost all fronts. The centerpiece was the quite emotional trial, well-acted on all sides. In fact, the actor playing Alex Reames is the same who played a Congressman in an episode of The West Wing, which was another series I was planning on reviewing. Seeing that familiar face, though, and placing it was a nice touch.

Amy's insistence on the facts over the emotional aspect of the case was well done, and her reversal of the jury's verdict was a fantastic scene. Also rather important was the conflict between Maxine and Vincent. Vincent is a favorite character of mine, and as I dabbled with writing in the past, I can certainly understand where he is coming from. Maxine just doesn't get it, but at least by the end of the episode, certainly seems more open to understanding it than she was before, which is a step forward.

Lastly, Maxine's hunt for a new vehicle was a fine subplot, brought together by the scene in which she and Amy discuss Amy's father and her husband. It was a short yet sweet conversation, and when Maxine admits to deeply missing her husband, it really pulls at the heartstrings.

Trial by Jury is the first episode of this show which I felt was overall very well done. Definitely a great story here, and enough emotional resonance to keep people wanting more.


Quote of the episode:

Amy [to Stuart Collins] "I happen to remember something Professor Larkin said about you. He said you had a genius for theatrics, and it would take you as far as you wanted to go, until you hit a judge who was smarter than you. Well, guess what just happened."


Rating: Superb


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Judging Amy SE01 EP02 - "Short Calendar"

Episode Name: Short Calendar
Original Airdate: September 21, 1999

Characters:

1) Amy Gray
2) Vincent Gray
3) Lauren Cassidy
4) Maxine Gray
5) Bruce
6) Peter Gray
7) Gillian Gray

Characters Introduced:

1) Tracy Carroll

Life isn't getting much easier for Judge Amy Gray.

With something like 60 cases on one day's docket, and Lauren wanting to avoid school due to a troublesome teacher, not to mention Maxine's obsessive chat room hobby, Amy has a lot on her hands.

As much as Amy is having a difficult time at it, though, this episode focuses almost as much on Maxine and her dreams of traveling abroad, from Vietnam to Cambodia (despite Peter's misgivings). Since her retirement, Maxine's been spending much of her time gardening and chatting to troubled individuals on the internet. While she occasionally consults with her old job at DCF, more often than not, she's just biding her time.

Amy, meanwhile, has been dating more; she's currently planning lunch with one Tracy Carroll, who happens to be a psychiatrist. With the various cases on her docket, though, the lunch became a dinner plan for the upcoming Friday.

After a tense discussion with Peter and Gillian, not to mention Vincent, Maxine shelves her dreams of traveling, and decides to go back into the career she had an instrumental part in creating, working for the welfare of children.

While Maxine is making those decisions, Amy has a somewhat heated conversation with both the principal and teacher from Lauren's school. According to the teacher Lauren simply speaks too much, which Amy vehemently disagrees with. The conversation then shifts to Amy's ability to pitch in and volunteer at the school, which she agrees to do in the capacity of being a crossing guard.

One last interesting note, we learned that Vincent refused, back in elementary school, to say "Under God" as part of the Pledge of Allegiance, citing his belief in the separation between church and state. I bring this up because it's the first overtly political point mentioned, and from this and future episodes, juxtaposes Peter's conservative beliefs with Vincent's more liberal sensibilities, which I will expand on later.

Overall, while this is a decent episode, it presents nothing overly special, save for the subplot regarding Maxine, which leads her to rejoining DCF. Vincent and Amy have a somewhat revealing conversation at the beginning of the episode, further showing that Amy is far more comfortable sharing her feelings and life events with her younger brother as opposed to Peter.

Lauren continues to have problems adjusting to both her new school and being a child of a single, working mother, but is slowly maturing to understand her place in the family.

Quote of the episode:

Maxine [to Lauren]: "Your opinions are not as fascinating as you think there are."


Rating: Average


- Michael

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Judging Amy SE01 EP01 - "Pilot"

This is the first episode of the first series I am working toward to reviewing, being the classic drama Judging Amy, which lasted from 1999 to 2005.


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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