Made in Jersey (CBS) - Series Premiere: Synopsis and Review

‘Made in Jersey’ is a new legal drama on CBS, which premiered on September 28th. The show is about Martina Garretti (Janet Montgomery, ‘Entourage’) who is a streetwise lawyer. Garretti was born and raised in New Jersey and moved to New York City to work for a big law firm. Because of her background she stands apart from the other lawyers in the firm, who tend to look down on her.

Garretti is a junior but after only four weeks on the job she speaks up in a meeting. She reckons that the suspected murder weapon isn’t the murder weapon at all. The other lawyers are skeptic, but that same day she gets third chair on a difficult murder case, which means she can be in court during the trial against her client. This is a huge accomplishment for someone in her position.

Garretti believes her client is innocent but evidence is stacked up against the client. It is Garretti’s job to counter all this evidence and she does this with passion. She more or less takes over the job of the police and tries to prove someone else murdered the victim. Garretti succeeds at finding enough evidence to prove the innocence of her client and because of that she gets the honor of defending her client’s case in court. This job is usually reserved for the first chair, so for Garretti this feels like a huge honor.

‘Made in Jersey’ is actually a legal drama and a crime drama in one. Garretti takes on the role of a detective when she tries to find evidence in her case, but at the same time she gets to defend her client in court. The big difference with a crime drama is that we do not know for certain who actually killed the victim, because we didn’t see the murder actually happening, nor did we see the trial of the real killer. The combination of the two genres makes this show fun to watch.

Even though I like crime dramas, I always think it is a bit weird when in legal dramas the lawyer takes on the role of the police. I understand this makes the show more fun to watch, but it also makes it less credible.

In this first episode Garretti had to take on one case. It seems like this show is going to be a case-of-the-week show. This is a strong suit of CBS, but it also needs a good storyline about Garretti and her struggles to fit in with the other lawyers. In this episode we did see a bit of her personal life, but it would be interesting so see a bit more of her past. How did she manage to get hired by such a good law firm and will she be able to climb to the top?

‘Made in Jersey’ airs on Fridays at 9/8c on CBS.