Harry's Law

I like Harry's Law. I ran into in last summer with reruns.

I've never been a fan of Kathy Bates, yet she's a hoot in this show. It's right up my alley, being set in Cincinnati, my home town. And that's why I watch it, for the intros & outros with commercials, where you see the local shots, otherwise known as filler.

The premise is ridiculous. I know my friend James Vogele, an Cincinnati attorney, would agree. An older female lawyer has a breakdown, leaves her established firm, and opens up an off-the-street office. It's supposed to take place in Over the Rhine, a poor and mostly black, belt-shaped area between Downtown and the University of Cincinnati/Clifton. (If you think of a hill, the University is on the crest, Over the Rhine is where the incline starts, and the city is in the lowlands on the Ohio River. From the riverfront to the University is only a few miles.)

The producers should have done some location shots there, even shot some footage. Instead, the pilot looks like the back lot of the studio (which I'm sure it was). The Rhine doesn't look like the show, and the buildings aren't that clean. It's the 'inner city' and doesn't look pristine.

Someone in Hollywood is either from my fair city, or spent a lot of time there. Over the years I've been very amused by the references to Cincy I've heard in a number of shows. Whether it was a comment about White Castle tiny steamed burgers (now called Sliders) or to the one-day-a-season break we experience because of crazy weather (yea snow days, among other things), they've all been very accurate. And now a show that is set there.

This isn't the first show, of course. We loved WKRP in Cincinnati. Those outside our city may have thought it was funny, but if you were a local the appreciation for jokes was far greater. Only we knew just how spot on those jokes were.

Cincinnati is a funny town with gorgeous architecture and lots of history. I'm glad someone is bringing attention to it.