Franklin & Bash

Sometimes, you're not looking for great TV. Sometimes, you're looking for par-tay! And dudes paid "to mess with the zombie culture," while also acing the case, surely fits the bill.

The show works on its own undemanding terms. [6 Jun 2011, p.45]

So, it's not as intrigue-heavy as "White Collar," as satiric as "The Good Guys" or as beautifully located as "Hawaii Five-O"; Franklin & Bash is smart, it's fun and it's summer.

Nobody will confuse this with "L.A. Law" in its prime, but the vibe is similar to that show's more whimsical side--a breezy tone that carries through the handful of episodes previewed.

Viewers who want TV to wash over them as light entertainment may enjoy Franklin & Bash, but viewers who prefer thought-provoking TV programs that engage on a higher level may not be satisfied.

It's quip-heavy, doesn't complicate things with too much plot, keeps the pacing brisk and litters the TV screen with beautiful people.

The show is a string of one-liners occasionally punctuated by women in underwear (one even strips on the stand in court). The lines, if taken by themselves, are pretty funny. But, in the context of what this show is attempting to do, it's not as funny as it could be.

The show is kind of amusing, at least in a summer-TV sort of way.

It's a lawyer show with no aspirations to examine the legal universe. If it has any antecedent, it would be "My Cousin Vinny." So it's wise not to try to parse the nuances too closely here. Better to enjoy a steady stream of pop-culture banter and an attitude reminiscent of sophomore year in college.

TNT bills Franklin & Bash as a dramedy, but it is more accurately a comedic bromance laced with pop-culture jokes and a dash of legal jargon to trick you into thinking you spent an hour on something of substance.

The emphasis on the Animal House-style antics over the actual case of the week isn't the problem; it's that the shenanigans are a little too "bro" for their own good.

Franklin & Bash has some of the ingredients of perfectly adequate summer filler: it's handsomely shot; the writing, line by line, is as good as or better than that of most of the cable competition; and there are appealing actors like Malcolm McDowell, Reed Diamond and Ms. Davis in supporting roles. The problem is that Franklin and Bash themselves are resolutely uninteresting.

The only thing connecting how Franklin and Bash act inside and outside the courtroom is a general willingness to wing it and hope for the best. But they're not as charming as the show thinks they are, and their triumphs don't seem so great.

F&B will rise or fall almost entirely on the basis of how likable you find Gosselaar and Meyer, not to mention the wisecrack-stuffed dialogue.

Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar go the buddy-comedy route in Franklin & Bash, a new lawyer show the network's calling an "offbeat drama"--though it's hard to think of something whose beats are this predictable as off-anything.

Your enjoyment of Franklin & Bash may depend on your tolerance for frat-boy antics and smarmy whimsy.

The problem is that the cases that the lead duo take on aren't offbeat enough, and Gosselaar's appealing qualities aren't enough to make up for Franklin & Bash's other shortcomings.

It tries to coast on banter that's not particularly snappy, and on a snickering dependence on sex-related gags and plots.

As oversexed as it is underachieving, Bash is the kind of original programming that makes you reconsider your antipathy toward reruns.