TV Tuesday: The Fix

I am a loyal listener of the Happier in Hollywood podcast, hosted by two TV writers who have been friends since high school and writing partners for 15 years, Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain (Elizabeth is also co-host on the Happier podcast, with her sister, famed self-help author Gretchen Rubin). For the past year or so, Liz and Sarah have been talking about a TV show they were working on - first writing a pilot, then pitching, and finally actually producing at ABC - and I have been excitedly looking forward to seeing it come to life. It is now on the small screen, a thriller called The Fix, that the partners created, wrote, and produced along with Marcia Clark, and my husband and I are both enjoying it very much.

Robin Tunney, who played Teresa Lisbon on The Mentalist, here plays Maya Travis, a famous lawyer who tried a handsome celebrity for the murder of his wife eight years ago in L.A. After that devastating loss - and certain that a murderer went free - Maya retreated to Washington state, where she met a horse rancher and settled into a quiet life. Now, though, Sevvy Johnson, the high-profile celebrity played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (who famously played Mr. Eko on Lost and more recently played Detective Bird on Ten Days in the Valley) appears to have killed another woman. It's enough to draw Maya out of retirement and back to L.A., where the D.A.'s office welcomes her back and asks her to head up this new case. Sevvy is a charming actor who has raised his children on his own. He was dating a young woman (best friend of his oldest daughter) named Jessica who worked as a personal trainer and recently showed up dead on the beach early one morning. Evidence - and suspicions - once again point to Sevvy, and this time, the D.A.'s office, and especially Maya, want to make sure he doesn't get away with murder. Sevvy's super-sleazy high-priced lawyer, Ezra Wolf, played by Scott Cohen, is confident he can once again win his case and keep his client a free man.

This legal thriller is fast-paced and twisty right out of the gate, with new surprises in every episode. Maya may be sure that Sevvy is guilty, but there is enough doubt planted - including his own tearful proclamations of innocence - to keep you guessing. And even if he is guilty, will he get away with it? In case you hadn't noticed the similarities and the role of Marcia Clark in the show's creation, there are definitely parallels here to the O.J. Simpson case. The cast is superb, especially Tunney and Akinnuoye-Agbaje in the lead roles. Both have been favorites of ours in their previous roles and are in top form here. The characters are well-developed, the dialogue is crisp and realistic, and the suspense is constant. We are watching about a dozen shows right now, but this one is at the top of our list, one of the few that we watch On Demand as soon as a new episode is available. We just finished watching episode 7 of 10, and we can't wait to see what happens next.

The Fix airs on ABC Mondays at 10 pm, and all episodes are available On Demand and on the ABC website (right now it looks like most are free though episodes 2 & 3 require your cable or satellite log-in). It is also available for streaming on Amazon for $1.99 an episode, and (I believe) on Hulu.