Jason Payne (Chris O'Donnell) is a high-powered attorney who cracks under the stress and has a nervous breakdown. When he's released from the institution, his shrink assigns him a "buddy" with the idea that the two will provide support for each other at moments of crisis. That buddy is Russell Shultz (Adam Goldberg), also a lawyer, who suffers from "explosive disorder," which seems to mean that he loses his temper a lot and has a tendency to hit people. Jason gets fired from the law firm of Fancy & Pants, and by the end of the first episode, Payne & Shultz have set up a lovely little beachfront law office together.
Admittedly, the first episode was nothing special, playing like a lesser product of the David E. Kelley quirky-law-show factory. I am a sucker for courtroom drama, though, and would expect there to be more of that in future episodes; this one spent a lot of time introducing the non-legal sides of the characters. I'm also a big fan of Adam Goldberg, and of Richard Kind, who joins the cast next week as their paralegal. And I like the chemistry between O'Donnell and Goldberg; once the writers feel comfortable enough with the characters to let them be more than just two bundles of mental quirks, their relationship might be interesting. So I am inclined to be a bit more charitable to this one, and will give it a few weeks in hopes that it develops into something interesting.
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