The Whole Truth

If Mr. Morrow takes his performance down a notch, the character will be much easier to embrace....As in most of her roles, Ms. Tierney elevates the script, playing Kathryn as a hard-charging but sympathetic prosecutor whose personal life takes a backseat to her professional duties.

I'm not yet crazy about the formula, but it's good to see Tierney back in a series and though Truth has a different look and feel than some of Bruckheimer's other series, the polish remains.

It's nice to see Tierney back on TV, but I secretly hope this Shakespeare-quoting crab of a lawyer is just a filler job until another Parenthood-esque gig comes along.

Tierney and Morrow are both seasoned TV stars, but even they can't make The Whole Truth ring true.

Each warrior is given equal time and the evidence is piled up on both sides to maximize the suspense around the weekly suspect's guilt or innocence. But the personality cost is too high for the payoff.

Every point is hammered home with a complete lack of subtlety; during the closing argument in the pilot, bits of previous scenes were replayed at crucial moments, in case the audience forgot what transpired several minutes ago. It's always a good time when a television network assumes that you're a half-wit.

Rigidly formulaic drama is almost always a bad idea, and in this case it's, well, criminal. Neither Maura Tierney as the prosecutor nor Rob Morrow as the defense attorney get enough screen time to develop their characters past the cardboard stage.