Previewing Raising the Bar

Checking out the cast photo for the latest TNT show Raising the Bar there is one thing that sticks out more than anything else, not one, but two Saved by the Bell alums smiling back at you. Yep that is Zack Morris and Lindsay Wagner, who never actually passed through the halls of Bayside High at the same time, sharing screen time on Raising the Bar. Granted it is neither of Mr. Belding’s favorite students that gets mention in ads for the shows but creator Steven Bochco who also created LA Law, NYPD Blue. Although conspicuously missing in those ads was his involvement with Commander In Chief and Cop Rock.

Zack and Lindsay play public defenders in New York City who routinely go against district attorneys whom happened to be their classmates in law school. Their boss happens to be Gloria Reuben (ER). On the other side of the courtroom include Melissa Sagemiller (Sorority Boys) and J. August Richards (Angel) yet they still get together at the watering hole when the final gavel is hit. Of course every court needs a judge and the young lawyers routinely run into Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle) who is a little off kilter.

There is something to say that in the first two episodes each main court cases included a African American and a Hispanic. Then the first Caucasian defendant just happens to have a mental illness and his actual crime was a non violent robbery. Of course one of those African Americans on trial is one Wallace Fennel who beat up the boyfriend of the spiky hair chick Landry Clarke dropped when he hooked up with Tyra. And of course it is nice to see Wallace in something other than a Hot Pocket commercial.

The cases are your run of the mill procedurals you have seen in every other lawyer show before except when Kaczmarek pulls some absurd rulings in her case. Where the show tries to set itself apart is the after hours aspect that was also tried on the short lived Conviction (that Richards also starred in) and the pilot ends in some plot twist with two character who may or may not be shacking up together and one character who may or may not be gay and may or may not hook up with another nineties afterthought in the second episode. And I may or may not be overdoing it on saying may or may not.

If there is a reason to stick with Raising the Bar is to see if any other Bayside graduates show up like Lisa Turtle as a welfare mother or Mr. Belding as someone who gets caught up in a Chris Hansen sting after trying to solicit one of the Chinese gymnast. Personally I cannot wait. Although Zack needs to cut his hair because follicles have not been this distracting since Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code. Raising the Bar premieres this Monday, September 1, Labor Day, at 10:00 on TNT.