Who's Watching "The D.A."?

Unabashedly, I am. It's a mid-season television show about the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, and it's one of the more compelling hours of television around.

Watching the first episode, I was expecting a sun-and-surf version of Law and Order, and I was tuning in mainly to see what locations they'd use. But the show turned out to be something (*gasp*) novel. For one thing, the focus isn't at all on the gorey details of the crimes (like all those CSI clones out there), but rather on various district attorneys working together and the conflicting balance of politics and justice in their world. These various characters are developed (and played) quite well, each with their own set of motivations and beliefs, many of whom don't really like working with one another. In fact only one D.A., Mark Camacho (Bruno Campos), even seems to have "social justice" as his top reason for coming to work each day.

Yet by the end of each episode, bad guys are in prison, and the top D.A., David Franks (Steven Weber -- yes, the screw-up brother from "Wings"), is one step closer to his re-election. Everybody wins. At least, so far.

The show looks good, and gets off the lot and around town, which is fun. Even the episode titles are cool: "The People vs. ..." reminds me of the "Friends" pattern of naming each show "The One Where ..."

I don't plan to get into offering reviews regularly, but I do recommend you watch next week's episode, the season finale, because I would love for this show to come back next year. It's one of the few good shows to actually be set in this city, and even though L.A. residents might be a little bit jaded about this town, I think there's a lot here to share with the rest of T.V.-dom.

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