Night Court is back, but is it what fans of the original are hoping for? Our Night Court review will fill you with some hope, and some reservations.
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It isn’t easy to believe that it was been more than 30 years since the original Night Court came to an end on NBC. The series ran for 193 episodes across nine seasons, and won multiple awards across that time. While other sitcoms from that era, such as Cheers, Frasier, and even Wings, come up quite often in discussion in syndication, and Night Court seems to be at least somewhat forgotten. Hearing that the series was coming back was a bit of a surprise, but it’s real, and it’s happening.
The new series focuses on Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch) as she takes over her dad’s old courtroom. On her very first night on the bench, her public defender quits, sending her on the hunt for a new one. She decides to look up her dad’s old friend, Dan Fielding (John Larroquette) to see if he will come and help her out. After some initial hesitation, he suits up, takes on the opposite role he used to hold, and tries to defend the cast of oddball characters that march through the court.
Other new characters include the ill-defined Neil (Kapil Talwalkar) as the court clerk, Olivia (India de Beaufort) who is a career-driven assistant district attorney, and the wisecracking bailiff, Donna “Gurgs” Gurganous (Lacretta).
Across the six episodes NBC provided reviewers with, only two things seemed to be consistent: The quality of the episodes was inconsistent, and I can’t tell you one interesting thing about Neil. The first two episodes felt as though the writers just wanted you to assume that these people are going to work together for years and be best friends. The series finally allows them some time to breathe, change up the pairings, and so forth, and it begins to feel a bit more natural.
The writers also seemed to finally remember part of what made the original series so great, and that was the oddball characters that would come through the docket each night. When we finally get to the woman who believes she’s a werewolf, things finally feel a bit more settled.
There is some promise here, and hopefully, the series will eventually be able to live up to it.
Night Court airs on Tuesday evenings on NBC.
Disclaimer: NBC provided The Nerdy with the first six episodes of Night Court season 1. We watched them to competition before beginning this review.
