In the last few months, I've written a lot about NBC comedies including "The Good Place," "Superstore," "Saturday Night Live," and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine". The network has a long history of popular, hilarious comedies, many of which air on Thursday nights.
Two years ago, I was excited to see a new comedy advertised starring John Lithgow, designed as a spoof of crime documentaries. Lithgow plays Larry Henderson, the defendant who stands accused of murdering his wife. He says he isn't guilty, but his strange demeanor and comments indicate that he's definitely a little weird...and it sure makes it look like he doesn't care that his wife is dead.
Watch the Season 1 trailer here.
Soon, his lawyer arrives in the small, southern town of East Peck. Josh is a junior lawyer from New York, and his team is anything but competent. His lead investigator, Dwayne (Steven Boyer), is a former police officer, fired for failure to keep track of his weapon properly. He's sweet, but classically dumb, missing even the most obvious of connections. Josh's assistant and head researcher, Anne (Sherri Shepherd) constantly wants to be helpful but has a collection of strange disorders that ironically interfere with the investigation and trial.
But this bizarre collection of people and their quirks end up being vital for solving the case. Their office is shared with a taxidermy business, and Larry's house still has a giant, broken window that his wife fell through because nobody's bothered to fix it yet. It's all really quite a mess.
The prosecutor, Carol Anne Keane (Jayma Mays) is out to win a death penalty case, and Larry is her target. She believes that winning a death penalty case will make a huge difference in her candidacy for District Attorney. That means Josh and Associates are defending more than Larry's innocence-- they're defending his life. The ending to Season 1 concludes Larry Henderson's case with a surprising twist, brought on by the clever writing NBC comedies are famed for.
Season 2 has a completely different defendant: Lavinia Peck-Foster, a local socialite who refuses to call employees by their names. She, like Larry, is a unique character, often acting in such a way that she certainly appears guilty. But she's beloved by East Peck citizens: after all, her family's name is in the town's name! The pressure is on for Josh to get Lavinia out of jail, or the town might take their anger out on him!
The town of East Peck could even be considered a character in itself.
The world-building in this show is quite frankly, impressive, and the show makes this small, weird town feel like a real place.
East Peck got a lot of personality that can resonate with people who grew up in small towns, and has a collection of residents that so perfectly illustrate the general vibe of the town. This town is a caricature of the town you lived in, the people you grew up knowing, and the bizarre news that you'd never expect to see in an otherwise boring, sleepy town. Its history and laws are well detailed, outdated, and backward, and regardless of whether they affect the plot, they're worked into the show in the form of references.
Normally, this is the part of my articles where I sum everything up and praise NBC for hosting such an awesome show -- which I will -- except there's one problem. NBC did not renew "Trial & Error" for the third season! It barely made the cut for a Season 2, but was renewed after a heartfelt Twitter campaign to save the show, giving fans the opportunity to return to East Peck in Summer of 2018.
However, the deadline to offer it a third season at NBC has long passed, and the actors' contracts have since expired. Warner Brothers would love for the show to continue elsewhere but hasn't been successful yet in finding it a new home. It still has a passionate fanbase on Twitter and other social media, but didn't reach the level of ratings popularity NBC needed. It hasn't been enough to attract any new interest.
This show is hilarious, brilliantly written, and has so much more potential.
Having it back for the summer was great, especially given the drought of good TV I face every summer. It's absolutely worth considering for an addition to the schedule for any network or streaming service. And if you haven't watched it yet, give it a chance. It's laugh-out-loud funny, and if you don't believe me, take two minutes to watch this testimony of Larry's lover sharing with the court what they do together.
"Trial & Error" may not be well known, but it certainly does not disappoint.
