All Rise (2019) s03e10 – Fire and Rain

There is more “All Rise” coming. While the OWN website says it’s a ten-episode section season, IMDb has all the titles for next season, whether it’s a three and a half or a four. I’m fascinated by the show’s production timelines, going back to the end of first season when Covid-19 lockdown changed the show’s trajectory.

So, whether it’s the end of season three or season three, part one, Fire and Rain is a great episode. It’s probably “All Rise”’s best episode. Technically speaking, it’d be hard to beat, and they’ve never done anything like this one before.

Showrunner Denitria Harris-Lawrence directed last season’s finale too, which at the time was the show’s finale, but it was nothing like this episode. This episode’s an action suspense thriller, with TikTok terrorist Nick Fink threatening to loose his mob on the courthouse. His scumbag sidekick, a perfect Josh Gilmer, is loitering around the courthouse to intimidate witness Olivia Aguilar.

Now, Jessica Camacho is encouraging Aguilar to testify, sort of as a favor to Wilson Bethel, even though U.S. attorney Nitya Vidyasagar is offering a better deal. So Camacho has stuck her neck out. It’d be terrible if something went wrong, like Ronak Gandhi screwing up some paperwork and it causing a disastrous continuance.

Of course, Sean Blakemore is defending Fink, and it’s in Simone Missick’s courtroom. So even though the episode opened with some very sexy marital canoodling for Missick and Christian Keyes—another series first, man-buns—there’s a lot of tension later on. Especially after Blakemore reveals he’s using their chemistry to manipulate her; it’s easily Blakemore’s best episode on the show and arguably his only good performance of the role so far.

Then there are the relationship troubles for Wilson Bethel and Lindsey Gort. She’s not telling him the real reason she doesn’t want to get married, and every time it seems like they’re going to have it out, Bethel needs another scene where Ian Anthony Dale yells at him. Dale’s performance is a little shaky this episode; he’s not believable as a yelly boss anymore, not after his party bro dream version a couple episodes ago.

Lindsay Mendez helps Gandhi try to repair the damage to the case, while J. Alex Brinson mostly offers support for Camacho. As for Camacho, who isn’t one of the cast members primed for an exit even though she’s never gotten an office this season… I really hope she’s back. She’s gotten so good on this show.

There’s a minor but urgent subplot for Samantha Marie Ware too.

Plus, Paul McCrane and Roger Guenveur Smith sucking up to Missick for election support. It’s a full episode with multiple cliffhangers, including a much foreshadowed one.

If they managed to keep this momentum going into the season premiere or whatever the next episode’s called… it’d be awesome for the show. I had no idea they could do an episode this good.

All Rise (2019) s02e16 – Leap of Faith

Once again, “All Rise” seems prepared for change. It’s not going to get change—CBS cancelled the show in between the previous episode airing and this one—but they’re once again primed for it. Everyone’s got something going on for the future, whether it’s Wilson Bethel once again feeling distressed at the D.A.’s office (at the end of last season, pre-Rona, it seemed like he might leave), Simone Missick’s politicking subplot returning, or Reggie Lee straight up leaving the show this episode. Guess he wasn’t going to be back in prospective season three.

But there’s also a lot of character development for Jessica Camacho and J. Alex Brinson (together and separately), which seems very appropriate given it was really their show for a while. Camacho’s got to decide not just between boys Brinson and Shalim Ortiz, but her future as well. Meanwhile, tying into Lee’s departure, Brinson’s probation period in the D.A.’s office is up and he and fellow newbie Audrey Corsa have to decide their futures. I love how they never made the probation thing a plot point—this episode picks up a few weeks after last, with Bethel and Lindsey Gort still on the outs and Lindsay Mendez working towards a plot line away from the courthouse too—but all of a sudden it’s a great deus ex machina for resolving Brinson’s cop who tells story line.

Brinson’s got a somewhat fun arc with Suzanne Cryer—one of the annoying D.A.s, i.e. everyone but Bethel and Lee—this episode. He and Camacho get an okay seemingly farewell scene together, though the show’s leaning hard on the exaggerated time frame since last episode.

There’s a big court case for Missick, involving “the entire tribe,” meaning best friend Bethel prosecuting (guess the “no Bethel in Missick’s courtroom” thing is out with two episodes to go, other best friend Ryan Michelle Bathe and her law partner, Gort, defending one client (the rich one), while Camacho defends the other client (the poor one). Gort’s mad at Bethel for walking out after she tells him she’s married, she’s mad at Bathe for kissing Bethel before the marriage divulge, and then she’s not happy with Missick really because Missick is the one who tattled about the kissing. Todd Williams—as Missick’s husband—is actually around this episode (making you wonder if they really just didn’t have him on the show because there wasn’t room yet added six new characters in the meantime) and he has some fun joking about Missick’s friends and frenemies predicament. Though he and Missick also have some pre-season three drama to get in.

Throw in Marg Helgenberger worried she’s rushing things with girlfriend Amy Acker and Steven Williams finally getting out of the basement to try a case—not to mention the trial case itself is engaging and takes up most of the characters’ times, as they line up new projects (the characters, not the actors)—and it’s a very full episode.

It’s really unfair “All Rise,” which can obviously flex when it needs to flex—this episode’s directed by Denitria Harris-Lawrence, with Lucy Luna and Harris-Lawrence getting the writing credit—not getting a shot at doing it when there’s not Rona and a pregnant lead.

But then of course CBS would cancel them. CBS sucks.

Fingers crossed the finale closes well, but it all of a sudden seems a safe bet.