Jared Franklin (Breckin Meyer) and Peter Bash (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) have a very different way of practicing law. "Shoot from the hip" and "fly by the seat of their pants" is a good way of putting it, but they always get results and that can't be argued. When they go up against a high-powered law firm in the pilot episode and mop the floor with them, it gets them a certain amount of attention, namely from the eccentric senior-most partner, Stanton Infeld (Malcolm McDowell), who wants them to come aboard.
No one in the firm could be more disgusted at their arrival than Infeld's nephew, Damien Karp (Reed Diamond), who thinks the pair flies in the face of everything the law stands for. It also doesn't help that Franklin has caught the eye of his former lady and fellow attorney, Hanna Linden (Garcelle Beauvais). To round out the crack legal team of Franklin & Bash are Carmen Phillips (Dana Davis), their ex-con investigator, and Pindar Singh (Kumail Nanjianni), their agoraphobic research attorney who never leaves the F&B man cave, if he can help it. Heroes' fans will love seeing Malcolm McDowell, Dana Davis and even Leonard Roberts, who plays Carmen’s boyfriend Dante, together again.
The guys will take on such interesting cases as a woman who claims to have been fired for being "too beautiful" even though she is anything but, a young wife accused of killing her elderly husband with sex, a family fighting over a valuable piece of sports memorabilia, and even a terminally ill man wanting to repay those he financially defrauded… at least until he finds out he was misdiagnosed. They do most of their thinking at their man cave, a sprawling apartment they share with Carmen and Pindar, where the booze is always flowing, there's always a party, and the hot tub is always full. It's a crazy life, but one that definitely works for the team.
Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar work beautifully together. Although they didn't quite find their stride until the second episode, now it is as if they've been doing this gig all their lives. They are both adorable, charming and a blast to watch. Special guests stars abound and include Kathy Najimi, Fred Willard, Harry Hamlin, Jason Alexander, Tom Arnold, Tommy Chong (in a marijuana episode, no less), Tricia Helfer and James Van Der Beek. As I was watching the show, Geck0 and JR Nip both came in at different times and not only sat down to watch what remained of the episode, but stayed for several more. It's that kind of show, so much fun you have to keep watching.
Special features are short and fun, including some Franklin & Bash commercials, a gag reel and quick featurettes on different aspects of the show like a tour of the man cave, Gosselaar’s infamous "butt shot" in one of the episodes, crafting the cases, and even an office tour led by McDowell. It’s fun stuff, the kind of featurettes I enjoy.
Overall, I can't recommend Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season enough. The only detractor from the entire series is the DVD packaging, which has all three discs stacked on top of each other, which makes them tough to remove. Aside from that, it's a perfect show - comedy, romance, a little drama and a stellar cast. If you haven't checked it out yet, you don't know what you are missing.
