REVIEW: REASONABLE DOUBT

The love child of the SCANDAL and BEING MARY JANE scripts. Now streaming on #Hulu. A lesson on storylines. #SpoilerAlert

These days, drama series follow several characters for the B and C storylines and so on. We've become used to ensemble casts even if they orbit around a central protagonist. However, in this series, we rarely follow anyone with their own goals other than Jax. She is a true protagonist surrounded by subcharacters that help or hinder her from reaching her goals. So, why doesn't the pacing slow and monotony ensue? Because Jax herself has multiple storylines. 

In each episode, we follow Jax's worklife where she may be juggling multiple cases - the Brayden case + the case of the week - her family life where she and her husband, who are separated, are trying to figure out their marriage, her past + current relationship with Damon, and her social life scenes with her friends.

It's the tangled web of Jax trying to multitask without being overwhelmed that we follow. If you can't have it all was a person, it'd be Jax.

Critiques:
- I love criminals was weird and felt out of tone and forced for shock value. It never pays off to make much sense. It was just a "cool" line of dialogue. 
- Totally over tension between mothers and daughters. Does no one have a good relationship with their mother?!
- Though I'm dancing to the soundtrack, a lot of the music feels forced for the urban audience vs organic to the tone of the scene. 
- The other possible suspects weren't used to their greatest potential. This helped Jax in her - the police weren't thorough storyline - but it didn't ever take us off Brayden's scent. 
- How did Brayden sign over Kaleesha's F*ck You?
- Happy the actors who play the friends are booked. If they removed all friend scenes other than Shanelle, the series would stand the same. The other two friends don't have much of an impact at all. Must be nice to have a budget for 2 friends that don't ultimately push the story forward. We all dream of this kind of budget. 

Looking forward to season 2.

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author

Shannan E. Johnson is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO + Head Consultant of The Professional Pen, a script consultancy that develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers ready for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams at entertainment companies to streamline their notes process to get to pre-production more efficiently.