Random TV Shows You Should Watch: Trial & Error
If you watch true crime docs, you become invested in the crazy people and their stories like they are fictional characters on your favorite TV show. It’s hard to watch Tiger King and not think: Oh yeah, Carole Baskin fed her husband to some fucking tigers.
Trial & Error hilariously parodied that genre with ridiculous characters of their own. The show — co-created by Jeff Astrof (New Adventures of Old Christine) and Matthew Miller (Chuck) — is a fish out of water story that features a New York City lawyer relocating to the fictional small town of East Peck, South Carolina.
In two seasons on NBC (2017–18), the show tackled two separate cases. The first season features the murder case against eccentric poetry professor Larry Henderson — played by John Lithgow. Henderson is accused of murdering his wife Margaret.
Despite being a genuinely nice man, the entire town turns against Larry. In fairness, he doesn’t do himself any favors. The opening scene is Larry taking a call from the cable company while explaining to the 911 dispatcher that his wife is dead.
Nicholas D’Agosto plays Henderson’s well-meaning but inexperienced lawyer Josh Segal. He’s initially sent to East Peck just to prep the trial for his boss but develops a strong bond with Henderson. When Josh’s boss pulls out, he puts his career on the line to stay in East Peck and defend Henderson by himself.
But Josh is in way over his head. The locals call him a “Northeasterner” while he tries desperately to prove to everyone that he fits in. During the trial, someone calls Josh a witch, and he politely asks the judge: “Can we please have that person removed?”
Josh’s bizarre experience starts when he’s picked up at the airport by his lead investigator — Dwayne Reed (Steven Boyer). Josh tells his new teammate about the pharmacy and Dwayne smiles big, “I guess that’s someplace for me to visit if I ever get to New York.”
Our introduction to Dwayne is the embarrassing reason he was fired from the East Peck Police Department. He left his police car in neutral during a routine traffic stop and it started rolling away. Dwayne thought it was being stolen and started shooting the windshield.
We meet Josh’s assistant and head researcher Anne Flatch (Sherri Shepard) next. If you’ve ever watched 30 Rock, you’ll recognize her as the star of Queen of Jordan — Tracy’s wife Angie.
On Trial & Error, Shepard is a star. Anne has a number of bizarre disorders that highlight the show. The first one we see is her facial amnesia. She meets Josh and 45 seconds later asks him who he is. Some of her better ones: Speaking with a British accent after going to the dentist and Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Naomi Elias of Film School Rejects has the full list here.
Josh falls for Carol Anne Keane — the prosecutor in the case who’s determined to execute Larry. Carole Anne Keane is my favorite character on the show. It’s not just because she gave us this elite gif. Although that’s part of it.
Jayma Mays steals the show as Carole Anne. Born and raised in East Peck, she couldn’t be more different than Josh. She knows the people and has experience in the courtroom. For the most part, she runs circles around Josh, both in and out of the courtroom. The rivalry between Carole Anne and Josh is the driving force of the show.
John Lithgow is replaced as the client in season two by Kristin Chenoweth. She plays Lavinia Peck-Foster, the richest and most beloved woman in the town that bears her name. She hires Josh and the team to defend her when she’s accused of murdering her husband. The show is aptly renamed, Trial & Error: Lady, Killer.
She speeds away from the police the case looks like it’s going to be a cakewalk for Josh and his team from the onset. The judge sets Lavinia’s bail at $10 and pays it himself.
Chenoweth dials the Southern old money gimmick up to an 11 with her performance. She refers to the help only by their title, Josh is “lawyer” and Carole Anne is “orange lawyer”.
Of all the reasons to watch this show, Chenoweth is at the top. But don’t take my word for it. Kristen Baldwin argued for Entertainment Weekly that Chenoweth was deserving of a Golden Globe.
Trial & Error leans even harder into the true-crime gag when they introduce Nina Rudolph (Amanda Payton) as the host of the popular true-crime podcast M-Towne. Joshua Axelrod wrote about the accuracy of a fake podcast for Fansided. Josh and Nina work together, so naturally, a love triangle develops with Carole Anne.
So what happened to Trial & Error? Critics enjoyed it. Season 1 has an 86 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes and Season 2 ranked even higher at 91 percent. Even Lin Manuel-Miranda was a fan. After the show was canceled, Warner Bros. tried and failed to find another home for it.
The lead-in to the special one-hour series premiere was the season one finale of This Is Us. I understand NBC’s strategy, but I can’t imagine many people want to dive into a new show after crying for an hour at whatever fresh hell they just witnessed. The ratings back me up on that. Also, it was 10 pm E.T. on a Tuesday in March.
NBC had clearly given up by season two. The lead-in to the premiere was a rerun of Ellen DeGeneres’ game show. Womp womp.
I recently binged Utopia, knowing full well, it had been canceled months ago. It ends on a massive cliffhanger and it was ultimately a complete waste of eight hours. The show was too weird for its own good, John Cusack was a snooze as the villain, and the body count was just excessive.
So I understand if you’re reading this and thinking, “I don’t want to invest my time in a show that gets canceled after a short run.” But it’s not a complete waste, for me anyway, if the show is great. I still watch episodes of Trial & Error now.
Please check out the first entry of my series about the former CBS sitcom: The Class.
Unfortunately, Trial and Error is no longer available to stream for free on NBC.com. But you can purchase it on Amazon, Apple TV, and YouTube.
