Notorious - Pilot - Advance Preview

It may not hail from ShondaLand, but the glossy “Notorious” has all the ingredients of a TGIT show – sexy shenanigans, public scandals, and characters who are The Best There Is in their professional lives and Hot Messes in their personal lives. “Notorious” sticks pretty closely to the ABC nighttime soap formula, so if that’s not your jam, this won’t be for you. But watching the pilot, I found it more entertaining than I was expecting.

At first blush, one would assume the two lead characters would be at irreparable odds. Julia George (Piper Perabo, “Covert Affairs”) is the executive producer of “Louise Herrick Live,” the #1 cable news show in the country. In that role, she does whatever it takes to break the big story, and break it first. A frequent guest on the show, Jake Gregorian (Daniel Sunjata, “Graceland”) is a high-profile Los Angeles defense attorney. His goal is to take control of the media narrative and spin it in his client’s favor. But not only are Julia and Jake friends, they have a secret “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” arrangement to help them both get ahead. “We don’t lie to each other,” Jake reminds Julia during one clandestine call.

We see that partnership at work when Julia’s show breaks the news of a tech billionaire client of Jake’s being arrested for a hit-and-run accident. But when it spirals into a bigger story, it will put their alliance to the test. It appears that this will be the serialized spine of the season, with cases of the week spinning from Julia’s newsroom and Jake’s law office.

As I mentioned in my one line review for the SpoilerTV 2016/17 Pilot Shows – Reviews and Ratings article, there’s a lot of interesting push-pull relationships in the mix. Above her, Julia has to deal with the antics of her show’s anchor while, below her, she gets a nepotistic new production assistant hoisted on her. And Jake’s flashier, media-friendly way of practicing law is a source of conflict with his partner. But the biggest, of course, is Julia and Jake’s. They both clearly value their friendship, but are also ambitious enough that, at the end of the day, they’re going to do what they have to do to achieve their separate goals. I’m curious to see how the characters calibrate that balance week-to-week. Also, Perabo and Sunjata have nice chemistry, though I think I’d prefer it staying a platonic, teasing one.

There’s also plenty of familiar faces TV fans will recognize. Among the regulars are “Angel” alum J. August Richards as Jake’s aforementioned law partner – and brother – and “Friday Night Lights” star Aimee Teegarden as an associate at their firm. And guest starring in the pilot are Marc Blucas (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Dilshad Vadsaria (“Greek”) as paramours that cause problems for Julia and Jake.

The pilot hammers down too hard on how sex-crazed the star of Julia’s show is (we get it, she’s horny). And the B-story at Jake’s law firm is a snooze (in general, I found the machinations at the news network much more interesting). But I think there’s enough here for, at minimum, a guilty pleasure on Thursday nights.

“Notorious” starts making headlines next Thursday on ABC. Until then, come share your hopes for the series in the comments section.