Supreme Courtships show on Fox

I saw the other day that Fox has greenlighted a show called Supreme Courtships, which aims to be a show about U.S. Supreme Court clerks. This show, as I describe it below, will be a disaster, but I will certainly watch at least the first episode to see if my prediction is right or wrong.

According to Variety, "'Supreme Courtships' revolves around the professional and personal world of six Supreme Court clerks." This vague description reeks of a drama, so the first thing I thought of was Grey's Anatomy, but in an office. But not an office like in The Office, this one will take place in a law office, which is much more fun.

First, who wants to watch about a bunch of recent law grads, who are a year or two away from getting a $200 thousand signing bonus, talking about how Thomas likes his coffee or about how the claim construction of a gas pedal patent is obviously similar to one of another company's which didn't have an electronic sensor. Will this be the kind of Gobbledegook that will attempt to endear us each week? Let me guess, one of the story lines will be about abortion. And another will be about the war powers. Why not just scrap this idea and get some "activist" judge to hire his clerks in a contest like Donald Trump? I'm sure it will go over as well as the law firm apprentice-type show that never seemed to hit the television airwaves. Or better yet, let's make a tv show about garbage men (but not like the movie).

Second, the U.S. Supreme Court only hear arguments sporatically as it is, the majority of which the general 18-49 demographic Fox would be targeting with this show would find very uninteresting. Further, most of the show would show their clerks sitting in front of a computer most of the day. Somehow I doubt they have instant messenger installed on their government-owned computer. I wonder if Westlaw or Lexis will sponsor the show. Probably Westlaw.

If you're thinking the Court hears fun cases about former Playboy bunnies, think again. The Anna Nicole Smith case was more about choice of law then anything else. This isn't glued-to-your-seat entertainment people, even if in the off chance it deals with a so-called celebrity. Think about watching someone studying for a test and ask yourself why are you watching someone do this? Now flip the channel.

The humor level among law clerks (and law students to some degree) is very intelligent (aka, nerdy) humor, which I submit would also be lost on most people watching tv. There are enough bad law shows on tv which have value at the margins. I can only hope some exec at Fox comes across this entry and has the good sense to make sure that "Supreme Courtships" is a comedy like Scrubs (and, more likely, Frasier) and not a drama like Grey's Anatomy.

While I think that a comedy has much more tremendous potential for a show like this, I still think it should just be about regular law clerks (or first year associates I suppose) rather than focus on any one court. That may necessitate a name change to the show. Just call it Clerks - you'll confuse people into thinking it's a Kevin Smith movie. In either case, the show will be non-stop jam-packed entertainment. I can only imagine the Nyles-type Supreme Court clerks they have as consultants with this show. Wait, they can't find some recently graduated U.S. Supreme Court clerks that want to help provide some behind-the-scenes insight? Get out of here.

Then again, maybe a show about law clerks will make the position so cool that some chick at a bar would be like, "You're a law clerk? Sweeeet." Only in Fox's world.

Read about it here:
Variety writeup
Tvsquad review

Tags: supreme courtships, fox, law clerks tv show