Despite the fact that my “in progress” list of shows numbers way too many, the urge to try something else always seems to be present. One of the more recent titles to fall into this trap is the Canadian to CW transplant Burden of Truth. A starring role for popular CW star, Kristin Kreuk, the show is different than one might anticipate, but it’s also pretty good. Kreuk plays Joanna, a fierce independent attorney who’s a rising star at the firm her father also works out of. Together, they seem to be unstoppable. But then one of their corporate law cases takes Joanna back to the small town she and her father abruptly left some 15 years ago.
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The accusation against the client she represents is that they’ve made multiple of the town’s teenage girls sick, all from a vaccine. Joanna goes there determined to win the case and prove her client’s innocence… but while there she sees there is something making these girl’s sick. Already not the most popular newcomer in town, she meets up again with Billy Crawford (Peter Mooney), the boy she knew in high school. A lawyer now, Billy runs his own one man show, and when his niece falls sick, he has an even greater stake in finding answers. A curiosity Joanna too is drawn into…
Burden of Truth, season one (2018) CW Review
Law dramas aren’t something I watch a lot of, but when I see one that’s interesting, I tend to stick with it. For a while, I was very into Suits, and Fairly Legal is another one that’s really entertaining. But on a whim, I did decide to watch two episodes of this Canadian to CW drama transplant. I quite liked it, and then more recently, my mother and I binged the first two seasons.
As it happens, this show is really, quite good. There’s intrigue aplenty during each season. The format is a one-case follow throughout the 10 or so episodes that comprise a season. In the first, the series follows a case about these girl’s being ill; and the second is all about a family member accused of murder! There’s some flaws in the story threads, but overall, the series is tight and well written.
The show is 100% a law drama, but the minor romance that threads through is done well, mostly because the emotional space they are in, is not healthy. They have scars from the past (which we open more in season two), and because of this, writers exercise beautiful caution in letting the idea linger rather than forcing something onto the characters. The cast telling this story is quite good as well; it’s nice to see Kreuk in another CW show (Beauty and the Beast); and Mooney is a great counterpart as is the supporting cast, most of who give performances that pull us in.
If you like a drama with some emotional backbone, Burden of Truth is pretty good. Its cast is an asset, and the stories teem with plenty of emotionally charged storytelling.
PINTEREST PIN
Content: There’s some sexual content (we see couples waking up together), but nothing graphic. A man’s past reveals he’s been with underage girls (consensual). There’s a same-sex relationship. Some “intense” aspects of the show involve investigating and there’s thematic elements that comes from the season one case. The show is TV-14.
Photos: CW
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