It’s too bad “Trial & Error: Lady, Killer” doesn’t drop all its episodes in one day.
Highly addictive, it quickly makes you want to find out what happens to Lavinia Peck-Foster, the first lady of East Peck and her legal team.
Early on, we discover Lavinia (the appropriately outrageous Kristin Chenoweth) has been charged with killing her husband. Because she owns everything – and everyone – in town, a fair trial seems unlikely. Yet that doesn’t stop the proceedings and a potential win for Josh Segal (Nicholas D’Agosto), the New York lawyer who was sent to town last year to defend another highly guilty party. Now determined to make East Peck his home, he still has a lot to learn about the way things run.
Luckily, signs in buildings spell out rules like the “Lady Laws of 1952” and his staffers are more than willing to provide social details.
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Like Pawnee, Indiana, East Peck (which is somewhere in the South) runs at its own pace. It has a rivalry with a nearby town and openly invites ridicule.
Creators Jeff Astrof and Matt Miller aren’t afraid to amp things up in the second season, lighting Chenoweth’s fuse and letting her pop like a firecracker.
D’Agosto plays straight man to just about everyone, but doesn’t downplay his own laughs. As his assistants, Sherri Shepherd and Steven Boyer get most of them, largely because they’re the deliverers of bizarre news. (Yes, they do harp on the town’s name, finding every derivation of “Peck” that’s dirty.)
While the first season (which featured a nutty John Lithgow) was a bit out there, it wasn’t as far flung as this.
“Lady, Killer” doesn’t toe the line with its suspect; it lets the townspeople share her guilt.
A judge (who’s inaudible) sets her bail at $10, then loans her the money. When she arrives in the courtroom, Lavinia gives everyone a scarf – bribery be damned – then poses for photos.
Segal’s opponent (Jayma Mays) also has a surprise or two up her jacket sleeves. Among other things, she’s pregnant and not afraid to use the fact as a way to stall.
The courtroom antics nicely lampoon the staid fare on shows like “Law & Order,” but the fun begins when a podcast (“M Towne”) steps in and sends up familiar real-crime storytelling.
Because Astrof and Miller use the documentary approached favored by “The Office” and “Parks and Rec,” “Trial & Error” practically courts comparisons. It holds up, but there are moments when enough might be enough.
The show’s strongest character is Boyer’s Dwayne Reed, a Barney Fife-like resident, who appears to know everything.
“Lady, Killer” (note the punctuation) unfolds like a game of clue. There’s a body, there’s potential motive and there’s definitely a host of suspects.
Whether it’s Mrs. Peck-Fisher in the conservatory with a candlestick depends on how the writers have crafted the story.
Like “American Vandal,” though, it bears watching right up to the great reveal.
“Trial & Error: Lady, Killer” airs at 8 p.m. Thursday on NBC.
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Bruce Miller
Editor
Bruce Miller is editor of the Sioux City Journal. He has covered entertainment for more than 40 years and teaches newswriting at Briar Cliff University.
