Benched (TV): Mini-Review

The Monkey sez check out the USA Network comedy Benched which plays on Tuesdays at 10:30 pm. Ostensibly it's about a high-flying corporate lawyer who blows her ride and winds up slumming at the Public Defender's office, but it's really a black comedy about the sorry state of the American justice system.

As a recovering lawyer (just as there are no ex-alcoholics, there are no ex-lawyers, only non-practicing ones), I can tell you the show's depiction of incompetent defense attorneys, overworked prosecutors, idiot judges, clueless juries and the steady parade of faceless, nameless defendants who don't have a snowball's chance in hell of being acquitted even when they are innocent is spot on. In fact, it's the only law show that might give you a sense of why so many lawyers want to get out of the business as soon as they get into it.

Starring Eliza (Happy Endings) Coupe, the comedy is low-key and quirky enough to guarantee the show's cancellation in the near future. See it before it's gone.