I may be a little biased on this review because Hayley Atwell can honestly do no wrong.
Conviction is a crime drama that centers around an investigative task force created to exonerate wrongfully convicted criminals. The first episode showed that this is a tour-de-force for this premier season, due largely in-part to it’s diverse range of characters.
Why I loved it: As I said, Hayley Atwell is everything and this show is here to prove it. Her character isn’t meant to be likeable; she is a defense lawyer who has worked very hard in life to push away emotions and uses sex appeal and insults in order to get what she wants. Filling in the cast is what I bet will be a future love interest golden-boy, a paralegal who has a few secrets from her past, an investigator whose tension with the NYPD is going to be an important part of this series, and an ex-con working their forensics.
The one caveat I had with this show is that it gave too much too quickly in the first episode, rather than setting up issues for future episodes. There’s blackmail, yes, but all the characters are mostly aware of it. There was already an emotional heart-to-heart between Atwell’s character and her mother, and the tension between her and her boss comes close to really being there, but somehow falls short of the mark. This show will struggle with maintaining interest without any huge story arcs, and hopefully some will arise in the next few episodes.
All in all, this show is staying on my watch-list, and I’m excited to see what is going to happen with it.
filmandcoffee 