Good But Not Bad: Conviction "Pilot" Series Premiere

Back in July, I wrote about my reaction to seeing the trailer for ABC's new series Conviction. I mention that for the first time that the trailer got my interested in watching this series, as it's been my first ABC drama series since The Practice was very good at the time.

The series premiered last week and after watching the pilot episode, I think it can be a lot better in a scene that it's looking like another sexy soap series.

Hayley Atwell plays Hayes Morrison, a daughter of a former President of the United States and future daughter of a Senator, who gets arrested for cocaine possession and is blackmailed by the current district attorney go head the new Conviction Integrity Unit. There her and the team takes on cases that have been wrongly convicted.

They take on the case of Odell Dwyer, a high school "good-looking black poster boy," who's in prison for murdering his girlfriend back when the two were in high school. The case seemed to be not going well into Odell's favor but within a couple of days til the he might not have a shot, the team looks at all directions and found out that the girlfriend dead in the evening during Odell's football game and that the girlfriend's journal had the word he as in Hector Esparia, a family friend that has been in all the photos.

The writing is pretty good as the case really takes its twist and turns as in it does the job of a good legal drama. The characters are really good. Atwell is amazing at Morrison with a balance of good and bad and wanting to stick it to the man. It's her best work since she played Agent Carter in the films and first season of the series. We do get to learn a little bit of each supporting character and that's something I liked as well.

The one thing that I don't like is how they're playing music at times and making it look so soap like Scandal or Grey's. ABC is really pushing the sex thing in their dramas these days and it's the one thing that I hate and haven't watched any other series on that network. One reason is when Morrison tells Wallace that she wants quit but he denies her and the two look at each other with tension,something that I don't feel it's real. Hell the music doesn't seem right for it either.

Do I like it, yeah. Could it be better? Oh yeah. Will I watch it, yes because Atwell is really good.

I give the pilot 6/10.

You can catch Conviction Monday nights at 10/9c on ABC.