Outlaw – We really wanted to like this show, because Jimmy Smits is a long time favorite. We still tear up when we remember Bobby’s death on NYPD Blue. Sadly, his legal drama Outlaw was, well, not good. Smits plays a conservatives Supreme Court justice who quits to become a lawyer after his liberal-activist father dies in a car crash. Because that makes sense. We pretty much gave up when he cited his own majority opinion while arguing a case. (See the irony? DO YOU?) Worst of all, it seems like Smits knew that he was stuck in a turd and he moped his way through his role. This is a guy who’s salvaged George Lucas’ dialogue, but he didn’t even try here. He looked so defeated (possibly from the strain of not rolling his eyes at the hammy script) that we almost think he was relieved when the show was cancelled. Outsourced–An American is dispatched to India to manage a customer service call center for a novelties company. We were cringing from the word go. The thinly veiled racism (obnoxious Americans; a snobby Brit; wide-eyed, naive Indian people galore) is but one reason we hate this show. Another is that the comedy itself is so bland that it sucks any life out of the premise. It says something about the position NBC is in as a network that this is still around.
