Jonathan Littman Movies

A rare situation comedy from the Jerry Bruckheimer factory, the WB series Modern Men concerned a trio of lifelong pals in search of lasting romance with the opposite sex. Tim (Josh Braaten) had had many girlfriends, but no enduring relationships; Kyle (Max Greenfield) was a one-night stand specialist; and Doug (Eric Lively) was still reeling from an unpleasant marital breakup. Our heroes engage the services of a "life coach" named Dr. Victoria Stangel (Jane Seymour), who offered sage and often harsh advice in manners of the heart. Somehow or other, each episode explored the common theme of "Men are jerks and women are always right." Another of the "jerks" in the series was Tim's thickeared dad, Tug, played by former Cheers regular George Wendt. Originally bearing such titles as Men Behaving Better and The Evolution of Man, Modern Men made its initial network appearance on March 17, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though created by Jim Leonard, the weekly, hour-long CBS crime-and-punishment series Close to Home bore the distinctive stamp of executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose previous procedural dramas included Cold Case and the CSI franchise. Jennifer Finnigan starred as Annabeth Chase, a hotshot prosecutor -- and new mom -- living and working in Indianapolis. Returning from pregnancy leave, Annabeth discovered that her motherhood had cost her a promotion, and that during her absence she'd acquired a new boss, Maureen Scofield (Kimberly Chase), who was now worried that Annabeth would let her hormones rule her head in legal matters. Nonetheless, our heroine was dedicated to the point of obsession with ridding her town of serial murderers and sex criminals, especially those who hid behind the veneer of "folks next door" respectability. Also in the cast were Christian Kane as Annabeth's husband, Jack, and John Carroll Lynch as her colleague Steve Sharpe. Close to Home made its network bow on October 4, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Debuting September 19, 2005, the weekly, hour-long WB courtroom drama Just Legal starred Don Johnson as Grant Cooper, a once-prominent and well-connected attorney who, after bungling a high-profile case and losing his client to death row, quickly went on the skids, ending up in a seedy law office in Venice, CA. Only able to get work as a court-appointed attorney, Cooper had grown sour and dispirited about his life and work. Things brightened considerably when David "Skip" Ross (Jay Baruchel), a 19-year-old legal prodigy, became Cooper's junior partner. Brilliant and idealistic, Skip had been unable to secure a position with any of the top legal firms because of his age, so he came calling upon his idol, Grant Cooper. At first taking Skip on because the lad worked cheap and was willing to do all the "grunt" work, Cooper eventually found that himself revitalized by his partner's youthful enthusiasm and dedication. Together, our mismatched heroes dedicated themselves to taking on "hopeless" cases and defending the losers and outcasts of the world. The office's only other employee was secretary Dulcinea "Dee" Real (Jaime Lee Kirchner), a recent parolee (she still wore her electronic ankle bracelet!) who was working off her legal fees to Cooper. Taking no guff from anyone, Dee had a cute habit of terrifying her nominal bosses when she was feeling out of sorts, but she proved to be an invaluable member of the team. Just Legal was assembled by the same Jerry Bruckheimer team responsible for CSI, Cold Case, and Without a Trace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Introduced in May 2004 as an episode of CSI: Miami, the CBS "procedural" cop drama CSI: NY launches its first full season with 22 hour-long episodes. The opener, "Blink," finds NYC Crime Lab head Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) and his team of brilliant, iconoclastic forensic specialists hunting for a serial killer using clues provided by the perp's only surviving victim -- who has lost virtually all powers of communication. Later investigations involve a hungry rat who has swallowed vital evidence, a skeleton found by a tourist which may or may not be a hoax planted to throw the police off the trail of a real crime, and a grisly robbery-murder in Brooklyn in which the victims were systematically shot and smothered to death. Also, a police terrorist-response drill compromises the CSI's efforts to rescue a kidnap victim; a police horse may have to be put to sleep to retrieve an important clue as to the murder of the horse's rider; Mac's protégé Danny Messer (Carmine Giovinazzo) gets a bit too up-close and personal while hunting down a gang of young punks who kill for sport rather than profit; the team tries to determine if a somnambulist committed murder while asleep; three murders occurring simultaneously in three different boroughs might be connected; and the CSIers are forced to turn a mirror on their "own" when the chief investigator in a police-corruption case is murdered before making his findings public. The season ends with the episode "What You See Is What You See," in which Mac must choose to save the life of a shooting victim or immediately chase after the shooter -- a decision that triggers tortuous memories of the death of Mac's own wife during the 9/11 terrorist attack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The CSI influence was deeply ingrained in this CBS cop drama starring Kathryn Morris as Detective Lilly Rush. The only female member of the Philadelphia homicide squad, the gorgeous, courageous, and brilliant Lilly dedicated her life to reopening long-unsolved criminal cases, tracking down the original witnesses and utilizing the latest investigative technology to nail the well-hidden perps. The series was distinguished by weekly flashback sequences, showing those involved in the case at hand as they were "then" and "now." (This technique was generously lavished on the opening episode, which was clearly inspired by the Michael Skakel murder case). Also in the cast was John Finn as Lilly's boss and mentor, Lt. Tom Stillman. Cold Case debuted September 28, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A spin-off of the immensely popular cop drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, this CBS series provided steady work for two former regulars from ABC NYPD Blue: David Caruso and Kim Delaney. Assigned to head the CSI unit in Miami ( whose jurisdiction included the beach, the Everglades, and much of "Alligator Alley"), ex-homicide detective Horatio Caine (Caruso) preferred to work instinctively, while the unit's brilliant DNA specialist Megan Donner (Delaney) was strictly "by the book." Others in the cast included Emily Procter as Southern-accented ballistics expert Calli Duquesne, Adam Rodriguez as underwater-recovery specialist Eric Delko, Rory Cochrane as streetwise investigator Tim Speedle, and Khandi Alexander as sharp-witting coroner Alexx Woods. Unlike their CSI: Crime Scene Investigation counterparts, who exclusively dealt in detection, the Miami operatives could make arrests. Reportedly, the casting of Kim Delaney obliged the producers to cut down the screen time of the series' other two female regulars, but that was typical in the big bad world of personality-driven television. CSI: Miami was pushed onto the CBS prime-time schedule amidst an enormous publicity blitz on September 23, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation entered its third season still riding high as network television's top-rated drama program. There was, therefore, no need for CBS to change its time slot, nor to make any major cast changes. There were, however, two significant additions to the cast lineup. A romantic interest was created for series regular Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle) in the form of Hank Peddigrew (Christopher Wiehl), a handsome paramedic. Also, the recurring character of Detective Lockwood (Jeffrey D. Sams) was seen on a more frequent basis. Both of these characters, however, would be effectively disposed of by the time season three was over, with the demise of Lockwood leading to a powerful season finale. In addition, the off-and-on domestic travails of the CSI's Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) were intensified when her husband was killed and her daughter seriously injured. The season's most significant story development involved CSI head man Gil Grissom (William L. Petersen). After a few instances in which he noticed that he was experiencing a hearing loss, Grissom was diagnosed with otosclerosis, a hereditary disorder which threatened to culminate in total deafness. As the third season's final episode drew to it conclusion, Grissom was undergoing surgery to correct this problem -- with the result of the operation remaining unresolved until the beginning of season four. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Created by Anthony Zuiker, the CBS cop series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which first aired on October 6, 2000, could be described as "Quincy for the 21st century." Set in Las Vegas, the weekly, 60-minute series focused on the activities of that city's Crime Scene Investigations Bureau. Working the overnight shift, the principal characters deployed state-of-the-art forensic technology to solve unsolvable crimes. Whenever scientific analysis failed, however, the lab's "criminalists" relied upon good, old-fashioned logic -- logical to them, if not to their superiors. So efficient was the CSI team that it was rated the number two such crime lab in America. The series' main protagonist was Gil Grissom (William L. Petersen), once the youngest coroner in the history of the L.A. police department, who after 15 years with the Vegas PD, was put in charge of the crime lab when its former skipper, the mercurial Captain Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle), was transferred back to the homicide division. Grissom's elite ensemble included his second-in-command, onetime exotic dancer Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), who juggled her professional responsibilities with her home duties as a single mother; ex-grave digger Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan), the only member of the team who was born in Vegas and, as such, the most savvy member when it came to the ins and outs of the casino industry that figured so largely in the proceedings; Warrick's friendly rival, the warm and outgoing Nick Stokes (George Eads), late of the Dallas PD; and the brilliant but somewhat distant Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), who was initially brought in from San Francisco to investigate the murder of her predecessor, rookie criminalist Holly Gribbs (a case that had lost Captain Brass his position as head of the lab). Each of these worthies brought a distinct specialty to their work: Willows was a blood-splatter analyst, Brown an audio-visual expert, Stokes a hair-and-fiber specialist, and Sidle a materials-and-element analyst.

The criminalists generally worked in sub-teams to investigate the myriad of baffling cases which came across their desk in each episode (usually two crimes were depicted and solved per week). During the series' first three seasons on the air, there were no significant cast changes, though former recurring characters Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) and Dr. David Robbins (Robert David Hall) were gradually elevated to weekly-regular status. In many ways, however, there was an unbilled "major character" in the form of the series' fluid camerawork, deploying quickie montages, juxtaposed images, and dreamlike scene transitions -- all complemented by a driving but low-key background music score. Cinematographers like Michael Barrett and Frank Byers and editors like Alex Mackie and Alec Smight were as responsible for the "look" of CSI as were the series' producers, directors, and stars. As of 2002, the highly rated series had been nominated for a myriad of Emmy Awards, scoring one win for makeup artists Nicholas Pagliaro, John Goodwin, and Melanie Levitt. 2002 was also the year that the producers cooked up a spin-off series, CSI: Miami. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this courtroom drama set in the near future, the U.S. Supreme Court has recently overturned the Roe vs. Wade decision and thrown the issue of abortion rights back to the individual states. Alabama has subsequently outlawed abortion on demand and has prosecuted Virginia Mapes (Lisa Gay Hamilton) for first degree murder after she opted to terminate her pregnancy. Mapes and her attorney have taken the case to the Supreme Court in hopes of keeping her out of prison, and with the court evenly divided on the issue, newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Joseph Kirkland (Andy Garcia) looks to be the man who will cast the deciding vote in a case that could reinstate a woman's right to choose. Kirkland, however, finds himself surrounded by proponents of both the pro-choice and pro-life agendas, with his fellow justices, his secretary and even his wife trying to influence his vote. Produced for ABC Television, Swing Vote boasts a distinguished supporting cast, including Harry Belafonte, Robert Prosky, Milo O'Shea, Kate Nelligan, Albert Hall, and Bob Balaban. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide