FAMILY LAW – Season 1 – Episode 1 – SPOILERS

Abigail Bianchi (Jewel Staite) has two families and is alienated from both of them. Her husband Frank (Luke Camilleri) kicked her out of the house months ago because of behaviour related to her alcoholism, and that resulted in her arriving late in court and puking on a client. (It went viral on YouTube.) Her suspension by the Legal Society has ended, but she is still on probation and is forced to work for her estranged father, Harry Svensson (Victor Garber) because no one else will hire her. Harry’s other two children – Daniel (Zach Smadu) and Lucy (Genelle Williams) – are also employed by Svensson & Associates. Lucy is a psychologist and is married to Maggie (Ali Liebert). Daniel is a lawyer, and is engaged to Danielle (Yvonne Chapman).

On her first day at work, Harry tells Abigail the conditions of her employment: “You will take on only menial tasks,” he explains. “You will be prompt, respectful, and you will be sober. You will not draw any unnecessary attention to yourself or my firm. If you step out of line, I will fire you and you will be disbarred.”

Harry left his first two wives shortly after they became pregnant, and has been married a total of three times (divorced twice and widowed once). His first marriage, to Joanne Kowalski (Lauren Holly), resulted in Abigail who is currently living with her mother. Joanne does not seem pleased with that situation. (“Make yourself scarce,” she tells Abigail. “I don’t want to explain my 40 year old boomerang kid on a first date.”)

We have not yet met Harry’s second wife (Damiel’s mother).

Lucy’s mom was wife number three and she died when Lucy was eight. Harry raised his third child with the help of a full-time nanny, but Abigail asserts with complete confidence that if Lucy’s mother had lived, Harry would have left her too. (Lucy is distressed by this assessment. Though she is not fond of her half-sister, she is very curious about her, and offers much well-intended advice that Abigail largely ignores.)

Abigail’s first client is fourteen-year-old Rosie Gyurkovich (Audrey Smallman) who wants to take her mother Jeanette (Jennifer Robertson) to court to discover the identity of her father. The Gyurkoviches don’t have much money, but Abigail convinces Harry to take the case after locating Rosie’s father and discovering he has quite a bit of it.

The plight of the Gyurkoviches closely parallels the strained relationship Abigail has with her own two children, who have only a nodding acquaintance with Abigail’s side of the family. Nico (Brendan Sunderland) is the younger one and likes his mother despite being bullied by his classmates for it. Sophia (Eden Summer Gilmore) makes a point of avoiding her mother, until Joanne forces the issue. When Sophia decides to go to her room instead of joining everyone for dinner, her grandmother tells her: “You will sit. You will eat. You will do your best to be pleasant, because if there’s one thing you’ll learn as you get older, it’s that we’re all a bunch of screw-ups.” (The extended Svensson family orders people around a lot. You get used to it.)

Abigail has a shoot-from-the-hip approach to things and makes a lot of mistakes because of it, but usually ends up doing the right thing. She wins the case, but decides to do what’s right for the client instead of what makes money for the firm (much to Harry’s apparent displeasure). The best scene of this episode is the one where Abigail meets with her husband Frank (who somehow is also opposing counsel) to arrange a sensible settlement in the case, and (perhaps subconsciously) tries to do something similar in her marriage at the same time.

We learn that Harry Svensson might be a more complicated man than he seems when Judge Fraiberg (Laara Siddiq) has words for Abigail after she criticizes her father in court: “This is a small world,” the Judge tells her. “It’s a world in which your father is well-respected and well-loved. He gave you a second chance, Missy, when no one else would, so if you speak of him again, in court, the way you did the other day I will find you in contempt.”

Creator Susin Nielsen, who wrote the first two episodes, talked about the cast’s chemistry to Greg David of TV,eh?: “Jewel really sets the tone on set for all of our actors coming in. They all hang out all the time during the season, like every single weekend they were doing things together, doing dinners, it was hilarious. They don’t have to do that, they could just say, nice to see you, see you on Monday. What was so interesting about Jewel was that she could just elevate whatever was in a scene. She could take a comedic scene and just — with a look — make it that much funnier, and a heartfelt scene – again, just with a look – and make you tear up even more.”

---

All episodes of FAMILY LAW cam be streamed on The CW in the US, on Global TV in Canada, and on Apple TV in Australia.