Hill Valley's favorite mom returns to television
While fans are more accustomed to seeing Lea Thompson in comedic roles, such as the long-running NBC series Caroline in the City and features including the Back to the Future Trilogy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Howard the Duck, Casual Sex?, and Dennis the Menace, her turn as a Los Angeles district attorney is a welcomed change.
Dramatic roles are nothing new to Thompson, having starred in serious features & telefilms such as All the Right Moves, Red Dawn, Stolen Babies, The Substitute Wife, The Unspoken Truth, and many others. But there's just something about seeing a likable actor week after week, than just a one-shot deal in a two-hour movie. Simply put — it's great to see Lea Thompson on television again in a weekly series.
In Lifetime's new courtroom drama For the People, Lea Thompson stars here as Camille Paris, the newly reassigned Chief Deputy Assistant District Attorney who's new conservative boss Lora Gibson (Debi Morgan) quickly shakes up her world by changing the operations of the office of the District Attorney. Other key players include A Martinez — Public Defender Michael Olivas and ex-husband of Camille, and Cecilia Suárez — Assistant District Attorney & Head Prosecutor Anita Lopez.
The pilot episode finds Camille packing up her things after the new D.A. comes in to take over her job. As she explains through unnecessary dialogue that we can pretty much gather on our own, the transition will mean liberal-minded Camille (Democrat?) will be ousted from her post because conservative Lora (an admitted Republican) has been recently elected to the position. But she must wrap up a couple of last-minute cases before she leaves the office for good.
As with seemingly nearly every recent pilot episode in a new dramatic television series, the writers of For the People have forced dialogue into the characters' mouths to give a brief history of their backgrounds in an attempt to catch viewers up immediately on their lives. Unfortunately, it frequently comes off as unrealistic conversation — people just don't talk that way in everyday life to folks they see on a daily basis. But as a viewer, I know that some history of the characters is necessary for me to make a connection early on to ensure that I'll be a repeat viewer. That's okay & forgiveable, assuming the trend begins & ends with the pilot.
For the People is also pretty much like every dramatic series on television — there are two or more plotlines going on during any given episode. In my limited courtroom drama viewing experience, I'm used to a storyline set forth for a set of characters to be pretty much exclusive throughout the episode (a la the recently canceled Family Law on CBS). What's confusing here though, at least for the first episode, is that we follow Camille through every scene in all of the on-going plots. I'm not complaining about Lea Thompson's screentime at all — believe me, but I often found myself a bit confused as to which case she was involved with at any given time. I suspect though as the other characters are fleshed-out, there will be less of a need for Camille to be involved in every conversation of every case.
We're briefly introduced to Camille's booze-loving sister Erica, who has recently moved in along with her surprisingly wise-for-his-age early-teen son. Erica may be an alcoholic keeping it under control & taking it one day at a time, but she's not the only one in the family with a drinking problem! We learn from scene number one that Camille is a heavy coffee drinker. And I do mean heavy. In practically every scene, she's guzzling from the quart-sized styrofoam cup practically permanetly attached to her hand. Whether she's at the home of a big drug king-pin the D.A.'s office is trying to get a conviction on quizzing his wife, or at a preliminary hearing of a radical talk radio personality whose on-air opinions caused another radical listener to murder a college classmate who had an "alternative lifestyle" — Camille's got capachino coursing through her veins like there's no second episode.
In the end, to no one's surprise, Lora is intrigued and impressed by Camille's passion for her job after the mother of the dead college student comes seeking revenge. Lora convinces her to stay on her team, in essence offering her a job under her regime. Good thing too, as it seems that the one thing Camille is not good at is packing her things up and parting ways — it takes her the entire pilot episode just to get half-way finished.
In the end, For the People appears to be a solid show that will no doubt improve as the season goes on. Thompson and Morgan are both believalbe and credible in their respective roles, and it will be interesting to see where they go with the relationships established beyond the pilot. I, for one, am intrigued enough to see what's in store down the road 'for the people'.
My rating for the first episode — 2˝ DeLoreans out of 4. 
Don't forget about the live on-line chat with Lea Thompson following Sunday's debut of the pilot episode!
