‘Bad Judge’ Series Premiere Review

Bad Judge Series Premiere Review
Kate Walsh in ‘Bad Judge’ (Photo by: John Fleenor/NBC)

Note to networks: don’t set up an easy slam of your show by putting the word ‘Bad’ in the title unless you are 100% positive the series doesn’t suck. There could possibly be a fun show buried deep within Bad Judge, but it looks like whatever original idea sparked the development of this series was squashed somewhere along the line and what appears on screen wasn’t what the network originally expected.

A serious miscalculation all the way around, Bad Judge is a complete waste of time and talent. Kate Walsh gives it her all but can’t overcome material that neither pushes the envelope into the realm of a complete farce nor has any grounding in reality.

Bad Judge sets up Kate Walsh as Judge Rebecca Wright, a boozy floozy who has no business behind the bench. She flips off the media, acts totally inappropriately during most of her waking hours, and just doesn’t seem to give a damn about anything to do with work. In the real world, she’d be out of a job in a day. But in this make-believe world in which Bad Judge exists, she gets away with more crimes than anyone who stands in front of her waiting for judgment.

Think Bad Teacher but in a courtroom and without any real funny lines. This half-hour “comedy” will surely have a short run on NBC, which is great news for Walsh because she’ll be free to sign up for a series that actually puts her talent to good use. This definitely is not that series.

Grade: D