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All Rise
By Marty Brown,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Earnest courtroom melodrama has good intentions, violence.
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All Rise
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What's the Story?
In ALL RISE, Deputy District Attorney Lola Carmichael (Simone Missick) gets appointed to a judgeship and immediately has to navigate through the bureaucracy and politics of the justice system in order to ensure that the law is applied equally and fairly to everyone that enters her courtroom. The show features new cases each week and follows a variety of characters throughout the courthouse, including lawyers, clerks, security guards, and others.
Is It Any Good?
While certainly well-intentioned, this series consistently undermines and trivializes its messages of social equality by using hot-button issues in melodramatic ways. In the first episode of All Rise, for example, a courtroom is held hostage by a bigoted man having a breakdown, but other characters don't seem to be upset by it at all, making the event feel manufactured and exploitative. Additionally, the main character, Judge Carmichael, is presented as a flawless hero who breaks protocol (not to mention the law itself) to ensure that justice is applied fairly to those that enter her courtroom -- but assuming that a single person can always understand who's actually innocent and who is guilty is pretty much the opposite of what actually makes the court system work.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the American justice system. How does the trial system work? What are its positives and negatives? How do the characters in All Rise act on their beliefs about the justice system?
How does Judge Lola Carmichael view her responsibilities as a judge? What is her point of view? How does she express it through her work? What gets in the way of her ideals?
TV Details
- Premiere date: September 22, 2019
- Cast: Simone Missick , Marg Helgenberger , Wilson Bethel
- Network: CBS
- Genre: Drama
- TV rating: NR
- Last updated: May 22, 2023
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