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Night two of my adventure into this season's new shows.
Bull is about a psychologist Dr. Jason Bull, who runs a jury analysis business. Basically the firm tracks down everything they can find about every person in the jury pool, suggests who should be picked from the pool and then Dr. Bull makes suggestions to the lawyers about how they should proceed with the case given the sitting jury.
I am of two minds about the show. As a TV show I found the first episode quite an interesting story. It's a procedural with all that genre's strengths and weakness. The flow of the show worked well, the writing was snappy and the resolution was satisfying. But, the show is not without warts. Bull could also stand for BS. The talent Dr. Bull has for reading people is the sort of thing many high school seniors, who haven't taken any psychology yet, think they will get from majoring in psychology in college. Bull can figure anybody out from a few data points or a long glance into their eyes. In the show Bull is backed up by tech mumbo-jumbo and a seemingly infinite working budget. The show ignores the fact that both sides in a trial can reject potential jurors, and assumes that one could easily hire absolutely any type of person to simulate the real jurors on short notice to take part in a series of practice/mock juries to test out trial strategies. At the beginning of the episode the audience is warned that normally only the wealthy are going to be able to afford Bull's services. Dr. Bull's firm seems to have not only infinite financial resources, but infinite personnel resources. It's a little hard to swallow, unless you decide to ignore it. I would say the biggest flaw of the show is the character of Dr. Bull. He's a constantly grinning smart aleck and he admits he hates lawyers, which would make most people question his line of work. They make a big deal of him making an instant analysis of a person and then telling that person how to address him according to that person's personality.
Frankly if you don't take it too seriously, I think it was a good episode of a good show. Bull is probably not the kind of thing I want to keep watching, but a show a lot of people might get into, and with good reason.
Score B+
Bull is about a psychologist Dr. Jason Bull, who runs a jury analysis business. Basically the firm tracks down everything they can find about every person in the jury pool, suggests who should be picked from the pool and then Dr. Bull makes suggestions to the lawyers about how they should proceed with the case given the sitting jury.
I am of two minds about the show. As a TV show I found the first episode quite an interesting story. It's a procedural with all that genre's strengths and weakness. The flow of the show worked well, the writing was snappy and the resolution was satisfying. But, the show is not without warts. Bull could also stand for BS. The talent Dr. Bull has for reading people is the sort of thing many high school seniors, who haven't taken any psychology yet, think they will get from majoring in psychology in college. Bull can figure anybody out from a few data points or a long glance into their eyes. In the show Bull is backed up by tech mumbo-jumbo and a seemingly infinite working budget. The show ignores the fact that both sides in a trial can reject potential jurors, and assumes that one could easily hire absolutely any type of person to simulate the real jurors on short notice to take part in a series of practice/mock juries to test out trial strategies. At the beginning of the episode the audience is warned that normally only the wealthy are going to be able to afford Bull's services. Dr. Bull's firm seems to have not only infinite financial resources, but infinite personnel resources. It's a little hard to swallow, unless you decide to ignore it. I would say the biggest flaw of the show is the character of Dr. Bull. He's a constantly grinning smart aleck and he admits he hates lawyers, which would make most people question his line of work. They make a big deal of him making an instant analysis of a person and then telling that person how to address him according to that person's personality.
Frankly if you don't take it too seriously, I think it was a good episode of a good show. Bull is probably not the kind of thing I want to keep watching, but a show a lot of people might get into, and with good reason.
Score B+