Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Conviction’

Hayley Atwell rose to stardom as Agent Peggy Carter in the Captain America franchise and later received her own spin-off show (that was evidently cancelled without much good reason). She’s a charming force to be reckoned with when she’s on her game, and the television gods have given her a consolation prize with Conviction, ABC’s latest attempt at replicating the women-led success stories of Shondaland. We watched the pilot and we’re here to let you know what the verdict is. 

A Guide to Our Rating System

Opening Shot: The opening of a pilot can set a mood for the entire show (think Six Feet Under); thus, we examine the first shot of each pilot.
The Gist: The “who, what, where, when, why?” of the pilot.
Our Take: What did we think? Are we desperate for more or desperate to get that hour back?
Sex and Skin: That’s all you care about anyway, right? We let you know how quickly the show gets down and dirty.
Parting Shot: Where does the pilot leave us? Hanging off a cliff, or running for the hills?
Sleeper Star: Basically, someone in the cast who is not the top-billed star who shows great promise.
Most Pilot-y Line: Pilots have a lot of work to do: world building, character establishing, and stakes raising. Sometimes that results in some pretty clunky dialogue.
Our Call: We’ll let you know if you should, ahem, Stream It or Skip It.

CONVICTION

Opening Shot: Upbeat music plays as we follow the feet of Conner Wallace (Eddie Cahill), the District Attorney who has come to visit former First Daughter Hayes Morrison (Hayley Atwell) in her jail cell.

The Gist: Wallace heads up the Conviction Integrity Unit, a group of attorneys, experts, investigators, and others whose main goal is to investigate cases suspected of wrongful convictions. Hayes Morrison, former First Daughter, knock out defense attorney, and a professor fired for sleeping with her students, is blackmailed into becoming director of the CIU after she’s busted for cocaine possession and politically ambitious DA Conner Wallace offers to drop the charges in exchange for her taking the job. Aided by a helpful (albeit resentful) team including the power-hungry Sam Spencer (Shawn Ashmore), hardened NYPD vet Maxine Bohen (Merrin Dungey), forensics expert/ex-con Frankie Cruz (Manny Montana), and an Innocence Project vet with a secret past named Tess Larson (Emily Kinney), Hayes reopens old cases on a 5 day time limit to ensure that the conviction made was correct – and possibly exonerate the convicted individuals.

Our Take: It’s more than little baffling that ABC canceled the much-stronger Agent Carter to put Atwell on a cliche-ridden mess like Conviction. Ashmore is also underutilized here (he was great on The Following last year), and none of the characters have much depth – they are all lazily constructed and filled with strange quirks that are supposed to make sense without giving us any backstory. There’s also the plausibility issue – a five day limit per case plus the theory that just so happens to crack each one after years have passed just feels silly and as if they don’t believe their audience deserves better.

One of the main issues with the pilot is that it throws the audience straight in without giving them much exposition at all. Yes, there are one-liners dropped and a quick newspaper montage of Hayes’ colorful past, but it’s almost as though we are supposed to understand her past with Conner, her complicated relationship with her mother, her drug problem, etc, all at once. The extreme nature of her past is problematic as well – she’s been photographed nude, slept with her students, been fired from her job, and now is a supposed coke-head who presents no signs of hangovers or benders when she struts into the office in her designer clothes? It feels like a bit of a stretch, even for a “troubled” former First Daughter. Evidently all of the strangely shaped puzzle pieces do not fit together well, and we’re left scratching our heads about why such a great group of actors was left with such a lackluster series.

Sex and Skin: Hayes has no problem dropping her clothes in front of her team (she knows everyone’s seen the nude paparazzi photos of her) while she tries on dresses for her mother’s fundraiser, but she’s covered by some tasteful lingerie. She also has a close encounter with Wallace when she asks him to fire her and pretends to snort cocaine, and later dances close with him – oooh, history.

Parting Shot: After they exonerate Odell, Hayes surveys the stacks of cases they’ve been sent and wonders – “who’s next?”

Sleeper Star: Manny Montana’s ex-con Frankie Cruz serves some of the only surprisingly emotionally genuine moments over the course of the pilot. While he is supposed to be focused on forensics, he becomes invested in the cases on an emotional level and fights his hardest to make sure the convicts get their fair shot.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Imagine what you could do if you actually tried – if you worked at anything as hard as you do at making us all believe you don’t care. The question is: do you have it in you?” The speech given to Hayes by her mother regarding the predicament that Hayes is currently in is almost cringeworthy, and not just because of the out-of-place acoustic soundtrack playing throughout. Most of the dialogue throughout the episode is fairly cheesy and poorly written, but this speech might take the cake.

Our Call: Skip it. Sadly, Conviction is not much of a consolation prize for Ms. Atwell. She deserves better – the rest of the cast does, too. It’s a flailing attempt at another “strong woman” show, perhaps even worse than ABC’s other lackluster attempt in the genre this season, Notorious. Sit this one out and re-stream Agent Carter instead.

[Stream the pilot for Conviction  on Hulu or on ABC]

Jade Budowski is an indecisive sometimes-writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.