CBS’ Doubt is, at its core, a prototypical entry into the lawyer genre. Its characters make fiery arguments, trying cases ripped from the headlines. There’s nothing yet extraordinary—save for a casting choice—about the series. But it has enough compelling material that it can’t be written off completely.
Filling a The Good Wife-sized hole in CBS’ line-up, Doubt stars Katherine Heigl as Sadie Ellis, a dedicated New York defense attorney. (Remember: Good Wife spin-off The Good Fight is streaming on CBS All Access.) Heigl’s name now comes with an invisible asterisk attached after being denounced as quote-unquote “difficult” and appearing in a string of shitty rom-coms. Now, every time she takes on a new project, there’s hand-wringing over whether she can redeem herself. Heigl is an energetic anchor here, but her newest endeavor shares something in common with her breakout one, Grey’s Anatomy. Creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater are veterans of that doctor tearjerker, and they clearly know the value of building a strong ensemble, given the one they have assembled here. Sadie’s foil is Albert Cobb, played by Dulé Hill, who does the sturdy work he has for years. The protagonist’s mentor and father figure, Isaiah Roth, is the legendary Elliott Gould, who approaches his role with an appealingly mischievous touch, while Laverne Cox has a magnetic capacity for portraying empathy as her colleague Cameron Wirth. Heigl can be hampered by the ham-fisted speechifying required by the script, but she’s practiced enough that lazily inspirational dialogue doesn’t defeat her.
