Common Law Reviews

Summary LAPD detectives Wes Mitchell (Warren Cole) and Travis Marks (Michael Ealy) are sent to couple therapy by their captain to end their constant bickering.

• Comedy

• Crime

Season 1 Premiere: May 11, 2012

One thing you can say for USA: It knows what it's doing. It's got its shtick, and it's sticking to it.

Nobody will watch Common Law to watch crimes being solved. But viewers may be engaged by the characters and their chemistry, and that's what USA is counting on.

The result is distinctly forced, but a standout cast manages to put a breezy top spin on some leaden material.

The show around them [the actors], at this point, looks too flat and schematically plotted to succeed as the type of lightweight summer fun we've come to expect from USA.

The framework [couples counseling] is cute but irrelevant: You don't need an analyst piecing together the relationship when that's the audience's job. [14 May 2012, p.44]

Common Law, like "Fairly Legal" before it, isn't just formulaic--it's lazy.

This isn't escapist TV; it's TV you need to escape.