WTF When’s The Finish? That is what I was feeling about twenty minutes into Fox’s brand new show – Rake — with Greg Kinnear as Keegan Deane, a lawyer by trade and a mess of a human being by every other account.
I had very high hopes for this series and I have not completely given up yet, but the story had some major holes from the beginning that I was unsure about. The opening scene has Keegan in a sports bar watching a game. The team he has money on wins and you can see he is elated. It would lead you to believe that he was in an extremely tight financial situation. But as soon as he wins, he buys the bar a round of drinks. This easy come, easy go attitude is punctuated when after that, he gets taken to the bathroom and pummeled by an employee of the man he owes the money too.
This is where the series can shine because Greg Kinnear does a great job of being funny while getting beat down. The show just goes on from there. He gets his car towed while parking in front of his friend’s house where he has been crashing for the last four months. How do you not see that coming, Keegan?
While I don’t hold TV to be completely accurate, it is amazing all he is able to accomplish in one day. He is going to a court hearing where he is just supposed to enter his client’s plea of guilty. But his client changes his mind and decides to plea not guilty. Somehow the court system is extremely fast in L.A. because later that afternoon, after he went to see his weekly hooker and tries to sell a tuna on the black market, he is back in the court room trying the case with a full jury and witnesses on the stand. Hmmmm.
The hijinx continue to ensue. There are car wrecks, cars compacted, visits to his therapist (that also happens to be his ex wife) and, of course, police corruption since the series is set in L.A. This all happens in 24-hour period.
I do say we need to give this series a couple more episodes. It has a great cast led by Greg Kinnear. Right now though, Keegan Deane is just a poor man’s Hank Moody from Californication, it is not an easy thing to be the lovable loser. As it stands now, they are just losing. A few good one liners and a character we can actually root for would help tremendously in the weeks to come. Let’s go, Rake. I am pulling for you but it is a bad sign when I am already throwing out the lifeline in the series premiere. I will reserve harder judgment until we see what next week unveils.
Rake airs Thursdays at 9/8c on FOX.
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