Reckless is only four episodes in, and it’s already become formulaic. If we were to write our own formula it would look something like this: Reckless = case + (Roy/Jamie obstacle – them making up) + cliffhanger.
Every episode revolves around a court case — well, duh, that’s why it’s a legal drama — but each case is supposed to tug at your emotional heart strings. And we must be heartless because none of them have yet. Said legal happenings also require that Yankee lawyer Jamie go against Southern good ol’ boy and city attorney Roy every week. (How the people behind Reckless didn’t think to bring in some secondary lawyer characters is beyond us. Just look at what Michael J. Fox, Mamie Gummer, or Carrie Preston bring to The Good Wife.)
The next part of the formula involves something that acts as an obstacle for the ever-increasing sexual tension between Jamie and Roy. This week’s episode’s stumbling block revolved around the case the two potential lovebirds were co-defending. In this instance, two teenage boys were accused of murdering their football coach. Jamie finds evidence that could exonerate her client, but she doesn’t tell Roy, blind-siding him in the court room.
Don’t worry things are resolved a little too easily when Jamie makes a late-night stop by Roy’s house — one witching hours drop-by among many. She starts to open up telling him that she trusts him yadda yadda yadda, but the moment is spoiled when the news reporter who interviewed Roy last week — the same one he asked to go out on a late-night boat ride — comes out of his house … wearing his shirt. That reporter lady sure knows how to play some sort of game, making sure Jamie knows for sure that she got some Roy-lovin’. The icing on the cake of the gal’s game? Only asking Jamie to stick around for some beers to cool down on the hot and steamy Charleston night. (Again with the heat. Yes, summertime in Charleston is humid and hot. We know. Stop jamming it down our throats, CBS.) Jamie declines.
Which brings us to the final part of the equation: the cliffhanger. This time it involved Jamie’s undercover detective Preston getting a bag thrown over his head at the port. Side note: Who hangs out at the port as much as these cops do, other than the people that work there?
Other random going-ons in past Sunday’s show: disgraced cop Lee Anne turns down a half-million dollar settlement with the ; Lee Anne’s former lover and sketchy detective Terry proved he is sketchy — and involved in selling guns to some people who are up to good no and probably going to start some trouble in the neighborhood; and Roy’s boss and ex-wife’s father is in an open relationship with his wife but was busted by a friend. Whoops.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see who Preston’s nemesis is until next week.
Stay cool. Support City Paper. City Paper has been bringing the best news, food, arts, music and event coverage to the Holy City since 1997. Support our continued efforts to highlight the best of Charleston with a one-time donation or become a member of the City Paper Club.