A Steamy Law Drama with Serious Ethical Questions

Becoming a lawyer in the United States is an exhausting, expensive process, which is one of many reasons people of color have been locked out of the industry for so long now. Roughly 5% of all lawyers, as of statistics gathered in 2020, are Black, and the demographics that are seeing the highest increase in new lawyers are still white men. Women are coming to the field in increasing numbers, but there has been little change in the number of people of color. To progress in a field where not only the numbers are against you as a person of color, but also the ideologies, sometimes it takes some sticky moral decisions to progress further up the ranks. Hulu’s newest streaming release, a legal drama called Reasonable Doubt, showcases one Black woman’s struggles as she navigates the industry in a top position.

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Reasonable Doubt is a product of Disney’s new Onyx Collective, which is dedicated to showcasing the works of BIPOC creators. The Onyx Collective will be curated on the streaming platform Hulu, and its first official project under the brand was actually Questlove’s Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). The 1619 Project will also be launched under this brand, but, until then, much-needed content like Reasonable Doubt will find audiences through the Onyx Collective.

Emayatzy Corinealdi, who previously starred in The Young and the Restless and The Red Line, was cast in the leading role of Jax, which was announced when the series was officially confirmed with news outlets. Not long after the initial announcement, Tim Jo (The Neighbors), McKinley Freeman, and Angela Grovey were cast in the show. Other notable actors appearing throughout include Christopher Cassarino, Michael Ealy, Brooke Lyons, and Sean Patrick Thomas. Many of their characters, however, provide merely context and are a convenient backdrop for the leading lady.

A Hotshot Lawyer Takes a New Case

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Reasonable Doubt introduces Jax, a lawyer that continues to rise through the food chain. She has the picture-perfect life that one dreams of when they say they are going to become a lawyer: she is a partner at a well-known, established law firm, has a beautiful home, and a picture-perfect family to populate said home. The opening scenes immediately smash that perception, which is established later on, as she is seen bound in rope to a chair, cloth shoved into her mouth, making eye contact with the end of a gun that goes off in a moment of suspense. All in all, this is not the ideal situation for someone who has devoted their life to the law, and there are a lot of questions about how she ended up in this situation, to begin with. And, of course, that comes with a staple to the genre and these kinds of legal dramas: the rewind.

This rewind is not too big of a time jump; it goes back six months when Jax is assigned to a relatively high-profile case with an affinity for details. First, she takes on a client that is a famous basketball star, who is being taken to court because he made a girl feel like she has been sexually harassed. Although the basketball player is her client, Jax shockingly rolls her eyes when describing the plaintiff, calling her a “thot” and tells another woman at her office that one cannot press charges for making someone uncomfortable. It is in these moments Jax becomes a little less like a person and more like a coldhearted attorney, making her even more unlikeable as a character, but it surprisingly refreshing in the sense that these are probably what law offices are like. Even if a woman, especially a BIPOC woman, makes it to the top through the methods other people use, the odds of them becoming a part of the system are even higher.

At the same time, her husband and she are trying to work through the process of separation. This seemed to be the most likely option because of her devotion to her job and the sheer number of hours she puts in per week, which is his reasoning–viewers will soon learn that this is a one-sided perspective. While the separation is happening, Jax is getting to spend more time with a former client of hers that was convicted and spent sixteen years in jail—although the details of this are murky, as he did not do what he was convicted of and was instead a scapegoat for whomever actually did it. This is not the only person to catch Jax’s eye, though, as she immediately has hots for the security guard her husband hires to stand outside of her home.

Everything begins to escalate as Jax becomes tied up between three different men and the wealthy entrepreneur that becomes her client, who comes in with a sexual assault case that turns into a murder charge. She must now navigate the emotional territory of taking on a high-stakes case that has suddenly escalated, as well as her troubles. Her husband installs cameras around their home to claim he is trying to protect his estranged wife and kids, but there are more sinister, controlling undertones to his actions, making it seem like their issues are not as one-sided as they initially seem to be.

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A Conflicted Protagonist

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One of the best, most satisfying parts of Reasonable Doubt happens to be just watching Jax be what contemporary society would dub a girl boss. She is a female lawyer that is willing to cut down on who she deems to be her opponent, especially if it is from someone from the majority that historically has held power socially and legally. The only Black female partner at her law firm, Jax’s achievements are not to be forgotten, as well as a gradual unpacking of the microaggressions that come with simply existing as a Black individual in the United States. This does not mean that Jax is someone with her hands clean, though, but a counterargument to her more nefarious actions could be that other individuals, specifically white people, with her status that do the same would be seen as more acceptable. Jax, on the other hand, would garner more scrutiny doing this not only because she is a woman, but because she is a Black woman specifically.

At one point, in a voiceover, Jax even admits she is drawn to danger, explaining why she keeps getting involved with people she really should not be seeing as she does. It becomes increasingly clearer that Jax does have conflicted feelings about everything she is doing, but, perhaps, Reasonable Doubt is a warning about what it takes to become successful in this industry. Jax is not a simple public defender anymore; she has ascended to the big leagues, becoming the only Black woman at a big law firm. Pickers cannot be choosers when it comes to climbing the ladder of success, and that makes one of the most curious points about her as a character are her internal struggles which are not as obvious throughout the show.

One of the series’ biggest flaws is the pacing; even in the first episode, as friends, clients, family, and coworkers are introduced in rapid succession, the pacing is not enough. Perhaps this is because the characters fall within certain archetypes and feel static—the only character that truly feels fleshed out is Jax herself. Some raunchy, brilliant one-liners would not have gone on television about twenty years ago, but they work well with the context. Fans of Scandal might enjoy this one, although it does not live up to the hype that Scandal generated over a decade ago.

Reasonable Doubt would appeal to those looking for a legal drama with high-intensity drama elements and a steamy set of events. It is juicy, not looking to hold back in its content and going a step further than what other mainstream shows in the genre might not seek to do out of fear. There are formulaic elements to the show, that is for sure, that might remind someone of a Shonda Rhimes show, but a Rhimes show would not do what Reasonable Doubt does. Even if it makes its protagonist unlikeable and on the losing side of some pretty unethical questions, it becomes harder and harder to rip away one’s eyes from the screen to see what happens next.

The first two episodes of Reasonable Doubt are available to stream on Hulu as of September 27, 2022. The remaining episodes will be released weekly until all eight episodes have been released.

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