Raising the Bar on TNT

This week, Jerry defends a woman picked up for drug possession with a substance she insists is only laundry detergent. The case involves Michelle's new police officer boyfriend whose efforts to give Jerry the runaround lands the woman in the hospital. Bobbi steps in to defend a client who is certain that "his side" of the story will prove he's innocent of theft charges. Oh, and Charlie has dinner with Judge Farnsworth (juicy!).

This week, TNT's Raising the Bar presents its first realistic and captivating case of its second season.

When a father is arrested after an innocent photo he posted of his son in the bathtub finds its way onto a child pornography site, Jerry must fight to prove to the jury that this man had no intent of exploiting his own child. The episode is timely on how it presents the pitfalls of sharing family photos online — and right after the opening credits, this powerful episode takes off and hits the ground running!

This week, Jerry faces further conflict with Judge Farnsworth after the new judge punishes Jerry's client for Jerry's own tardiness. However, Jerry becomes determined to have the last word by making Farnsworth the victim of his own by-the-book procedures. Meanwhile, Roz and Richard team up to defend a young African-American man accused of committing a hate crime against a gay man, which causes some hype in the community.

This week, Jerry and Michelle go before a new judge who is seemingly a public defender's worst nightmare. During the case, Michelle goes gaga over a sexy detective, who lies in order to cover up falsely identifying the accused drug dealer being tried. Meanwhile, Richard defends a set of elderly twins accused of forging a signature on their dead roommate's welfare check, and Marcus closes in on a date with the  borough president's chief of staff — who just so happens to be a juror on a case Marcus lost last week.

Yes, Mark-Paul Gosselaar's shaggy 'do drew a lot of attention during Raising the Bar's first season. But that was entirely by design.

"It defined a characteristic of [public defender] Jerry," the actor explains in this TVGuide.com video Q&A, "that he's not going to conform to a system."

Now that Jerry has that introductory season behind him, the locks got lopped off in the TNT drama's Season 2 opener.

"We had to evolve Jerry," Gosselaar explains. He then admits, "It was a distraction [during Season 1]. The hair was walking in ... read more 1 Comment