The Whole Truth is a new courtroom drama presented by ABC. I know what you're thinking, but this isn't like the other courtroom dramas that you've seen before. It's no Law & Order (insert city.) The difference about this show is it's three points of view.
Maura Tierney plays Kathryn Peale, Senior Trial Assistant District Attorney. Rob Morrow plays Jimmy Brogan, Senior partner at James Brogan and Associates, they are the defense attorneys.
During each episode, we are introduced to a scenario in which someone dies and there is a suspect in their murder. Kathryn Peale and the D.A's office are assigned to prosecute and James Brogan and Associates are usually (well so far) the defense.
Throughout the episode we follow the Prosecution, how they get witnesses, evidence and other things to prove guilt. Then we switch to the Defense, and follow them to see how they interview & gather witnesses to prove their client's innocence.
We really get a chance to make up our minds, to see who has the stronger case and if we think the defendant is innocent or guilty. We've seen both sides, heard testimony for and against the defendant and know everything both sides know. Then the case is decided. After the case is decided, we find out if the verdict was right, or wrong.
In the first (pilot) episode, a young girl was found murdered outside of a building on campus. We followed both sides of the case and tried to figure out if her teacher was guilty of the murder in which he was being tried. The man on trial lost his wife during the trial because she was so sick with cancer, she couldn't take the stress of the trial. His daughter testified against him because she found out her dad was using Viagra to cheat on her mom, using prostitutes, as he confessed.
We were shown autopsy photos of Chinese characters that were marked on the victim's body with a tiny instrument. We also learned of a missing crucifix that the victim wore which was never found. At the end of the episode the defendant was found guilty. While his daughter was cleaning out his office, she found a date book or journal type book that had the victim's crucifix inside, covered with her blood.
In the second episode, a man went overboard a ferry boat and his daughter jumped in to try to save him. The next day she was considered the prime suspect and went to James Brogan for help with her defense.
Both prosecution and defense interviewed her soon to be ex husband, who had an alibi for the night in question, her sister, who's a nun, and various strippers from her place of employment. Some testified that the girl hated her dad and wanted him dead, that they fought all the time and she went to her husband to get pills to try and kill her dad. Others testified that she said nothing but nice things about her father and really loved the guy.
In the end, it was her sister, the nun's testimony and reading of a letter he wrote to her that helped the defense win their case. The girl had been abused by her father, yet stood by him to take care of him. He didn't want to be in pain any longer and just wanted it to end. One piece of evidence no one found was the mysterious man on the ferry in the Chicago Cubs hat. Well, once the girl was found not guilty, we followed her back to her home where we find one of the witnesses we had no idea she was connected to, a neighbor whom she had been having an affair with. Turns out, the neighbor guy is the one in the hat who killed her father, but she had no idea.
I think this is a pretty good show, but how many cases can you come up with that the same DA and same Defense try? Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Law and Order or other courtroom dramas, but not often do we see the same defense trying a case the same District Attorney is trying? All in all it is a good show and I recommend watching it if you don't already have a Wednesday 10pm show to watch.
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