Summer sleuthing: The Firm season 1, episode 16 rewatch

Watch The Firm season 1, episode 16 featuring 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 16.

The Firm season 1, episode 16: “Chapter Sixteen” (originally aired May 12, 2012)

On paper, “Chapter Sixteen” should have been one of the most exciting The Firm episodes. Unfortunately, it ends up being one of the show’s least interesting.

Much of the episode is focused on marital strife between Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas) and Abby McDeere (Molly Parker) as she testifies for the prosecution in Kevin Stack’s (Martin Donovan) murder trial. The script spends a lot of time on Abby refusing to talk to Mitch, except for when she blames him for the entire plot of the show.

That, frankly, is off-putting because as Mitch points out, he didn’t choose anything that’s happened to him or his family. The Sarah Holt case was randomly assigned to him and he had no clue what it would lead to. Yet Abby thinks he should have “stopped” everything. So she’s okay with him turning a blind eye to injustice as long as it ‘s good for her?

Possibly this is all coming from an emotional place as she’s just been tortured, but it makes Mitch look like a punching bag, and her refusal to talk to him about anything deprives the script of any meaningful scenes. The two of them talking about it would give more depth to the tension and more material for the actors than her near-constant brick wall.

Audiences also get Kevin Stack making an eyebrow-arching escape from prison (again he has an inside man) and kidnapping Mitch before committing suicide in front of him. The Firm does stretch credibility on occasion but this is the most egregious example. It feels like it happens just to have something happen, down to Martin Donovan having to deliver the traditional bad guy monologue about his motivations and mission before Stack shoots himself.

One cool thing about “Chapter Sixteen” is that Shaun Majumder gets to make a return appearance as Andrew appears to Abby in a nightmare, and then to Alex Clark (Tricia Helfer) in a flashback that shows her recruiting him to befriend Mitch. These two scenes reinforce how underwritten he was and how he really could have been a great character if Majumder had gotten to show a little more bite earlier on.

It could have been interesting to see Stack’s trial proceed, and Mitch defeat his nemesis using the weapon he knows best—the law, perhaps with an assist from Alex Clark. That would have put the show back in its strongest element, although The Firm would have had to find a way to not drag the trial out for the rest of the season. This ending, with Stack’s lifeless body on the floor in front of Mitch (albeit after he chose to spare Mitch’s life) feels more dramatic but emotionally hollow.

dark. Next. What happened in The Firm episode 15?

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

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