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Heartfelt 'Amy' looks pleasantly familiar
Detroit Free Press - September 17, 1999
BY MIKE DUFFY
FREE PRESS TV CRITIC
The quick gavel verdict on "Judging Amy"?
"Providence" without the blithe spirit and laughs.
That's not all bad. "Judging Amy," starring former "NYPD Blue" regular Amy Brenneman as a single
mother and family court judge, is a slightly more serious-minded drama series than "Providence," the NBC
hit show about a female physician who moves back to her comfy Rhode Island home town.
But "Judging Amy" is aiming for the same estrogen-fueled target audience.
Like "Providence," it has heavy female appeal. It also revolves around an attractive younger woman with a
big mane of hair who must cope with a pushy, outspoken mother.
Of course, the meddling mom is dead in "Providence," living on only in her daughter's dreams. With
"Judging Amy," debuting at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS before moving to 10 p.m. Tuesdays, Brenneman gets to be
pestered in everyday life by ex-"Cagney & Lacey" star Tyne Daly.
Amy Gray (Brenneman) and her 6-year-old daughter, Lauren (Karle Warren), have moved home to Hartford, Conn., another
New England "Providence" echo, to live with Amy's blunt, forthright mother, Maxine (Daly).
An attorney and recently divorced, Amy has taken a new job as a family court jurist in her old hometown. She's
nervous but eager to get on with this new chapter in her life. But she knows things could be better.
"I'm living with my mother, I don't have sex, I car pool," jokes Judge Amy with rueful self-deprecation.
The series was inspired by executive producer Brenneman's own experiences with her mother, a superior court judge.
The result? "Judging Amy" arrives as a well-executed, sentiment-enriched drama, the weekly TV equivalent
of a chick flick.
There are some gentle laughs, a few heartfelt moments, occasional tears.
Brenneman and her supporting cast are solid, especially Richard T. Jones as her courtroom assistant. And Daly's
stubborn Maxine, a retired social worker admired by everyone down at the courthouse, deftly mixes tough love
parental advice with guilt-tripping motherly barbs.
Dan Futterman also has some good moments as Brenneman's free-spirited brother Vincent, yet another echo of the
"Providence" formula.
And therein lies the problem. Even as Amy Gray deals with cases of abused children, juvenile delinquents, unhappy
parents and happy adoptions, the formulaic "Judging Amy" never feels like something original.
It's nice enough. But judgmentally speaking, it's nothing special.
Copyright © 1999 Detroit Free Press. All rights reserved.
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