'The Deep End' Recap: Series Premiere

ABC’s newest show, The Deep End, is advertised as being from the makers of Grey’s Anatomy. Basically, instead of hospital interns, it’s the same show with newly graduated law school students.

We soon find out how the show gets its name when one of the more experienced attorneys says, “I know that I dropped you in the deep end, but until you learn how to swim, I’ll be your mentor.”

The rest of the show embodies the idea that the first year associates are in way over their heads. Just as Grey’s Anatomy started out with the intern making the mistake of sleeping with her boss, this show starts out with Dylan, one of the new hires, showing up 10 days late for his job.

We soon see that the main focus will be on the first year associates: Dylan Hewitt (played by Matt Long), Addy Fisher (played by Tina Majorino), Liam Priory (played by Ben Lawson), and Beth Bancroft (played by Leah Pipes). Almost immediately after getting hired, they are caught up in issues for which they are totally not ready, though the real question here is why they thought this job would be anything but hard.

They are under the rule of a hardcore boss played by Billy Zane (best known for Titanic) who is referred to as “the Prince of Darkness,” his wife, Susan, and Hart Sterling, the boss who has just returned after being gone for three years. Not only are there problems for the first years, but there are problems for the bosses as well.

Cliff (Zane) has been in charge of the law office, but Sterling has come back, shaking things up by invading the areas of which Cliff clearly thinks he should be in charge. In addition, Cliff and his wife are having marital tension which makes for even more discomfort for the newbies.

Dylan’s character is the main focus. He is immediately handed a case to handle which turns out to be much more complicated than expected. He must represent a widow whose mother-in-law is preventing her from getting her husband’s money unless she gives up custody of her son. Dylan, of course, finds a loophole in the demands of the mother-in-law, who just so happens to be a huge client of the firm. However, he’s hit with another shocking obstacle when he finds out that the mother-in-law was actually the carrier of the baby because the mother was having trouble conceiving. When the boss calls him out for not figuring this out earlier and demands that he end the case in favor of the mother-in-law, Dylan realizes that he must do what he knows is right. Finally, he is able to create an agreement which allows the mother to keep her child.

Beth is the classic beauty of the office. And it doesn’t hurt that she comes from a rich family and went to Stanford Law School. But she must actually rely on her own good judgment when a medical condition of a client calls her whole case into question. We get a look into her problems when an encounter with her father leaves her more confused than ever as he tells her that her conscience is the reason she will not make a good lawyer.

Addy is the smart mess. She is the hardest worker, explained at the beginning by the fact that she went to the least prestigious college and is always working harder than any of the others. She is also the one who gets picked on the most by the partners, no surprise there. Throughout the episode, she almost gets fired several times and even goes to jail when she refuses to stop trying to meet a deadline. Her best moment comes toward the end of the episode when she tells off Susan, sticking up for herself while simultaneously gaining Susan’s respect with her knowledge on a particular case.

Liam is the ladies’ man with the photographic memory who went to Cambridge. The biggest part that he plays tends to involve him carrying on inappropriate relationships with both women in the office and women involved in cases.

As well as being a legal show, this is also a show about relationships, and it becomes clear that this is probably where most of the show will end up focusing. Already, we have experienced Beth’s tough family relations. But we are also introduced to the character, Katie, who is the paralegal responsible for the tension between the married bosses. She is having an affair with Cliff but has broken up with him and hooked up with Dylan by the end of the episode. In addition, Liam and Beth also seem to be carrying on a semi-casual fling.

So, all in all, what evolved over the first episode was basically that even though they were expected to do exactly what they were told, the first year associates were in the end praised for their abilities to work on their own and defy the rules. Essentially, it embraces every cliché that to succeed you must rely on yourself and your own judgment.