I know this is a late comment, but we in Australia are just viewing this unique American series. Firstly, I would like to thank Mr Lumet, for such a rarity in American TV. Normally what we, non-American audiences, are subject to what is the common formulised-to-the-max drama with each episode inevitably concluding with a win for the "good guys/gals". I simply am bored, no a little angry, with all these trite and over-glamourised TV dramas. I refuse to watch shows like Law and Order and other similar shows because they follow the same, thoughtless formulas which are normally so predictable, it really isn't worth my time while depicting a warped view of human societies.
In Australia we are showing it on our national TV broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, similar to the American Public Broadcasting System without the ads. This means, naturally, the audience is rather limited here which is, for me, a great shame. For if more non-Australians watched this insightful and mature drama where ordinary people are depicted as close as ordinary people are, they would get to know how flawed the most powerful country in human history is for those for lack the finance for the basic decencies of human needs, like sufficient nutrition, decent shelter, equal rights under the law, humane social welfare system, etc etc - and all this in a country which boasts the greatest number of billionaires on the planet. I cannot praise Alan Alder's acting enough though the rest of the cast deserve equal praise. But it is in the very conception and the great writing which has never faulted in its depiction of a courtroom environment that deserve the greatest praise.
I would imagine that a television drama which gives equal depiction to story and character would not be easy to sell to American and thus overseas networks. Whatever, it makes for compelling and intelligent television - a rarity from American networks.
It is such a shame that it doesn't have a wider audience.
Thank you.
