Proven Innocent, a new Friday night Fox series, follows two defense lawyers whose firm specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. The mission is very personal to Madeline Scott (Rachelle Lefevre, known for A Gifted Man and Twilight - Breaking Dawn) who, at 18 years old, was convicted with her brother for the murder of her best friend, in a case led by the corrupt prosecutor Gore Bellows (Kelsey Grammer, from Frasier, Cheers). After spending 10 years in jail, and taking this time to graduate in law, Madeline and her brother’s conviction is overturned and she opens the law firm with her own attorney, Easy Boudreau (Russell Hornsby, from Seven Seconds, Grimm).
The jury is still out on the show. Although the premise is interesting, Proven Innocent seems to adopt the old formula of slowly developing the story while presenting a new case every week, repeating the same story while changing small details.
There is one aspect of the show that seems to work though. As in series such as Grey’s Anatomy, Proven Innocent uses a narration to frame the story of the week. In this case however, the narration is in fact a true-crime podcast led by the firm's communications director, Violet Bell (Nikki M. James, from Brain Dead and The Good Wife), which follows each case conducted by lawyers Madeline Scott and Easy Boudreau, and by the firm's investigator played by Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men).
If you think you would like this show and want to check out the first episodes, which have already been aired by Fox, they are available for streaming on Hulu. Let us know what you think!
- Lalu Farias