Summer sleuthing: The Firm season 1, episode 7 rewatch

Watch NBC’s The Firm season 1, episode 7 starring Josh Lucas.

With TV crime dramas winding down their seasons, what should genre fans watch over the summer? In our Summer Sleuthing series we’re going back to old favorites, starting with one you probably missed the first time: NBC‘s The Firm.

The Firm was largely ignored when it premiered in 2012. It was a follow-up to the John Grisham movie of the same name, with Josh Lucas assuming the role of lawyer Mitch McDeere. But it was not a lawyer show; it was a crime thriller with strong performances and a few plot twists.

Every week we’ll revisit an episode from The Firm‘s first (and only) season. You can rewatch the entire series on Tubi. This week, we open the book on Episode 7.

The Firm season 1, episode 7: “Chapter Seven” (originally aired Feb. 18, 2012)

“Chapter Seven” was the first of The Firm‘s episodes to be burned off in the show’s new Saturday night time slot. It was pretty clear at this point that the series was going to be cancelled—which was a shame because, now that the audience had some decent clues about its ongoing mystery, both halves of this previously unbalanced show were starting to gel together.

The episode opens with another flash-forward, in which The Firm pits a recently arrested Mitch McDeere up against a stereotypical bad cop. This should be a groan-inducing moment, but Josh Lucas plays it well with a controlled indignance instead of just yelling constantly, and Mitch makes all of the logical arguments that he should in that situation. While that scene’s been done to death on TV, at least Mitch’s side of it feels genuine.

The rest of the mythology is generally forgettable here; it consists of Tammy (Juliette Lewis) getting Martin Moxon to agree to a meeting with Mitch—you know, the one that ends with Moxon jumping out a window. But that’s okay, because The Firm spends more time on its case this week, and with good reason.

In the case of the week, Mitch is faced with another unwinnable situation. His mentally challenged client was suckered into a robbery by his brother and his brother’s friend, and the friend killed the store owner. There’s only one plea deal available, so Mitch has to coerce his client to take it first—even though it would then mean testifying against his brother. As somebody whose brother also has a criminal history, Mitch can empathize. Maybe too much.

“No matter what the crime,” he insists, “brothers should never be forced to turn against each other.”

This is where The Firm excels; it sets up honestly interesting crime dilemmas and then the audience gets to see the scrappy, never-say-die Mitch figure them out. It’s not as simple as guilty or innocent, bad guy or good guy. (Which makes the very simple “bad cop” scene in the beginning even more amusing.)

There are thorns all over this plot: the brother angle, the client’s disability, the fact that the victim was a well-known community member so convicting his killer is that much more important, the fact that the state needs its best possible witness so it’s willing to take the criminal because he can enunciate. That’s a lot that separates this from a typical crime show.

And it succeeds because the case plays off The Firm‘s main character. Mitch is uniquely suited for this plot—not only because of his brother but because of who he is as an individual. The way that he connects with his client, almost acting like a mentor, is what makes the difference and that big heart was well established over the previous six episodes. The best storylines on any TV show are ones that are tailored to the characters, that feel like they couldn’t happen on any other series, and “Chapter Seven” is one of them.

Next. What happened in The Firm episode 6?. dark

The Firm is available to stream on Tubi and Amazon Video, and available to own on iTunes and DVD.

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