The Firm (2012 TV series)

Plot

Ten years after the events of the 1991 novel and 1993 film, the 2012 television series follows Mitchell Y. McDeere and his family. In the original story, McDeere helped bring down the Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke, which was shielding a Chicago mob syndicate, leading to convictions. The TV show keeps the conspiracy focus of its predecessors. After leaving witness protection, McDeere starts a new law firm, but a questionable firm called Kinross & Clark tries to take it over. McDeere's practice is small and scrappy, operating from a cramped former travel agency office, and he struggles to concentrate because he constantly fears he is being watched. He has a ten-year-old daughter named Claire (played by Natasha Calis) and is rebuilding his career in the Washington Metropolitan Area. His brother and his brother's girlfriend work for the fledgling firm. The first season centers on a conspiracy tied to Kinross & Clark's interest in one of McDeere's clients, who is accused of murder. Meanwhile, the son of the deceased mob boss considers revenge against Mitch, who was responsible for his father's imprisonment.

Production

The idea of adapting these characters for television had been explored for several years, with CBS initially expected to be the network. Lukas Reiter conceived a version set ten years after the original story and pitched it to John Grisham. Grisham supervised the first three or four episode scripts before feeling confident in the project's direction. In late April 2011, Sony Pictures Television ordered 22 episodes from Entertainment One Television for broadcast on their AXN channels across 125 markets outside the U.S. and Canada. Soon after, NBC and Shaw Media secured the broadcast rights for the U.S. and Canada respectively. That 22-episode order was the largest for any new show picked up by NBC that season.

The series was filmed in Toronto and produced by Entertainment One in association with Sony Pictures Television and Paramount Pictures. Principal photography for the first season ran from August 4, 2011, to April 30, 2012. David Straiton directed the pilot. Grisham served as an executive producer. Reiter, a former Law & Order producer, wrote the pilot and acted as showrunner; his other legal series credits include The Practice and Boston Legal. Additional executive producers were Entertainment One's John Morayniss, Michael Rosenberg, Noreen Halpern, and Helen Shaver. The writing staff included Alyson Feltes, Peter Noah, David Feige, William Rothko, Vincent Angell, and Jonathan Shapiro.

On June 8, 2011, Josh Lucas was announced as the lead, playing Mitch McDeere. On July 12, Entertainment One revealed that Callum Keith Rennie would portray Ray McDeere and Juliette Lewis would play Tammy. Molly Parker was cast as Abby McDeere on July 29. Natasha Calis was chosen to play Claire McDeere, Mitch and Abby's daughter; Parker had previously played Calis's mother in the 2011 Lifetime film Gone. On August 19 and 22, Tricia Helfer and Shaun Majumder were added in recurring roles as Alex Clarke and Andrew Palmer. As of August 22, 2011, the show was in production. Though mostly shot in Toronto, the production also filmed in other locations, including Washington, D.C. According to Grisham, by November 3, 2011, eight of the 22 episodes had been completed.

Broadcast

The television adaptation of The Firm was initially slated for a Sunday 10:00 pm slot on NBC during the 2011-12 season, with plans for a mid-season debut after The Apprentice. By November 2011, however, the network shifted it to Thursdays at 10:00 pm, where it replaced Prime Suspect and followed Up All Night as a mid-season replacement. The series launched with a two-hour special on Sunday, January 8, 2012, then settled into its regular one-hour format on January 12. That premiere set a record for NBC: the lowest ratings ever in the key advertising demographic for a regular season drama debut. On February 3, 2012, NBC moved the show to Saturdays at 9/8c, handing its original Thursday slot to the new series Awake.

In Canada, the show started on January 8 and aired simultaneously with NBC for its first six episodes. After acquiring Awake, Shaw relocated The Firm to Saturdays at 10:00 pm on Global, beginning with the tenth episode on March 10, 2012. The series also aired repeats on Showcase on Friday nights, Saturday mornings and nights, and the following Tuesday mornings and nights, plus Sunday broadcasts on Mystery TV.

Internationally, the show debuted on February 19, 2012, marking the first time AXN premiered a program on the same day across all its markets. This expanded the series to more than 125 territories and countries, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central Europe, Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Russia, and Spain. Entertainment One handled worldwide distribution, holding the basic and pay television, broadcast television, and digital/DVD rights outside AXN markets.

On March 17, 2012, the show was preempted for a week by the new NBC reality series Fashion Star. On May 4, 2012, NBC announced via the show’s Facebook page that episode 16 would be delayed until May 12 due to the Cinco de Mayo holiday. That episode aired in Canada on May 5, putting NBC a week behind its Canadian counterpart. In May 2012, NBC confirmed it would not renew the series beyond its single season. As of 2021, Scottish Television (STV) was heavily promoting the show on its STV Player service.

Reception

The series received an approval rating of 39% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on twenty three reviews, its consensus reads, A typical, old-fashioned legal crime show, The Firm grows tedious from the first episode. Prior to its initial airing, Entertainment Weekly critic Melissa Maerz gave the show a B rating, stating that For a supposed update, The Firm sometimes feels like a relic from a bygone era. However, she notes that McDeere is an old-school, self-made hero that you can't help rooting for and that The Firm is a straightforward, one-man-against-the-system story of the scrappy, Everyman lawyer fighting against Big Corruption that is naturally compelling. The Hollywood Reporter Tim Goodman describes the show as a solid if unspectacular story about one of the most unlucky lawyers ever depicted on television and uses the phrase Average ... as a Television Series in the review title. Los Angeles Times television critic Mary McNamara presents arguments that the show has low prospects for success: It isn't the flashbacks or muddled storytelling, the liberal white moralizing or ridiculous inconsistencies that threaten to deep-six The Firm, it's the washed-out sepia tone of the legal thriller itself. McNamara does not totally dismiss the possibility that Reiter, the man she says all but invented the legal thriller derivative, may be able to mold this show into what she calls a solid procedural hybrid, but questions the demand for such a show in the face of The Good Wife and Damages. Hale complains that the television show is not self-contained: ...if you haven't seen the film (or read the John Grisham novel on which both are based), the TV show will be especially bewildering. He also complains that the weekly plot ...is notably slight and unbelievable, even for a TV legal drama. While giving 1.5 out of 4 stars, Robert Bianco of the USA Today claims that the show is part weekly procedural, part season-long conspiracy, and wholly unsatisfying and notes that it would not let a chance to present a clichéd moment slip by.