Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

June 6, 2012 by Dennis Amith 

For those who are looking for a legal drama series with a lot of humor and a series that is just all-out fun, “Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season” is recommended!

Images courtesy of © 2011 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.

DVD TITLE: Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season

AIRED ON: 2011

DURATION: 10 Episodes (422 Minutes)

DVD INFORMATION: Widescreen (1:78:1) Anamorphic Widescreen, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French

COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

RATED: Not Rated

RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2012

Directed by Jason Ensler, Andrew Fleming, Steve Robin

Written by Bill Chais, Kevin Falls, Bill Krebs, Kristi Korzec, Aeden Babish

Executive Producer: Jason Ensler, Bill Chais, Kevin Falls, James Tarses

Co-Executive Producer: Jack Clements

Associate Producer: Katie O’Hara, Deen Dioria

Music by John Mace, John Robert Wood, The Elements

Cinematography by Dennis Hall

Edited by Philip Carr Neel

Casting by Debi Manwiller, Ricahrd PAgano

Production Design by Kevin Constant

Art Direction by Guy H. Tuttle

Set Decoration by Chuck Potter

Costume Design by Kelli Jones

Starring:

Breckin Meyer as Jared Franklin

Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Peter Bash

Reed Diamond as Damien Karp

Dana Davis as Carmen Phillips

Garcelle Beauvais as Hanna Linden

Kumail Nanjiani as Pindar Singh

Malcolm McDowell as Stanton Infeld

Cristina Valenciaga as Infeld Daniels Secretary

Claire Coffee as Janie Ross

Alexandra Holden as Debbie Wilcox

Rhea Seehorn as Ellen Swatello

Jared Franklin (Breckin Meyer, “Robot Chicken”) and Peter Bash (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, “NYPD Blue”) have a funny way of practicing the law. From making out with a plaintiff, to fist fighting on the courtroom steps, to chugging beers as evidence, these rogue lawyers will pull any wild stunts to win a client’s case. But their unorthodox methods get results. That’s why eccentric attorney Stanton Infeld (Malcolm McDowell, “The Artist”) asks them to join his high-powered law firm. Prepare for a culture clash as Franklin & Bash teach the old legal system a few new tricks. The complete first season features guest stars Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”), Beau Bridges (“The Descendants”), Harry Hamlin (“L.A. Law”), Tom Arnold (“Sons of Anarchy”) and Tricia Helfer (“Battlestar Galactica”).

In 2011, the American drama-comedy “Franklin & Bash” aired on TNT.  Created by Kevin Falls (writer for “The West Wing”, “Sports Night”, “North Shore”) and Bill Chais (“Shark”, “Family Law”, “Dirty Sexy Money”), the series would star Breckin Meyer (“Road Trip”, “Clueless”, “Rat Race”) and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (“NYPD Blue”, “Raising the Bar”, “Saved by the Bell”).

With the second season of “Franklin & Bash” starting in June 2012, the first season featuring ten-episodes, will be released on DVD courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Jared Franklin (as portrayed by Breckin Meyer) and Peter Bash (as portrayed by Mark-Paul Gosselaar) are two attorneys, who are guys who behave like they are frat boys rather than mature attorneys.  Both men love looking and talking about women and calling each other names and also making fun of people.

Jared is a self-confident lawyer who is the son of a famous trial lawyer, but refuses to work under his father and is often known for shooting his mouth or doing things without thinking.  Peter is Jared’s best friend, legal partner and the mature person of the two, but still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend Janie (as portrayed by Claire Coffee), who happens to be engaged to another man.

And with these two men, working for them are Carmen Phillips (as portrayed by Dana Davis), an ex-convict receiving a second chance at life. And Pindar Singh (as portrayed by Kumail Nanjiani), who is an agoraphobic and sci-fi fan that lives with both men and is often responsible for setting things up with their computers.

While both Franklin and Bash are new lawyers and are struggling to pay the bills (and have yet to pay Carmen and Pindar), good news comes their way when Stanton Infeld (as portrayed by Malcolm McDowell) of the law firm Infeld Daniels, is drawn to both Franklin and Bash’s unconventional technique in court.  And offers them a position at his corporate law firm.

And sure enough, Franklin and Bash now work for Stanton.  But at the new law firm, there are some attorneys who do not like Franklin and Bash.  One is Stanton’s nephew Damien Karp (as portrayed by Reed Diamond), who becomes the duo’s rival.  Meanwhile, Damien’s ex-girlfriend, lawyer Hanna Linden (as portrayed by Garcelle Beauvais), tries to get closer to Jared in order to get back at Damien.

The first season of “Franklin & Bash” showcases both men working at Infeld Daniels, taking on major cases for the law firm.

“Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season” comes with the following episodes. Here is a spoiler-less summary of each episode featured in this set.

DISC 1

• EPISODE 1: Pilot  – Franklin & Bash are hired by Stanton Infeld to join their corporate law firm.  The duo take on the case to defend a heroic airline pilot.
• EPISODE 2: She Came Upstairs to Kill Me - Franklin & Bash take on a case to defend Isabella Kaplowitz (special guest: Natalie Zea) who is accused of using sex to kill her elderly billionaire husband.
• EPISODE 3: Jennifer of Troy – Franklin & Bash take on a lawsuit to defend Jennifer Putnam (special guest: Jillian Bell), who was fired because she was too sexy, but when the guys meet her, she is quite plain.
• EPISODE 4: Bro-Bono – Franklin and Carmen team up in a divorce case to undercut a millionaire adventurer Rick Paxton (special guest: Harry Hamlin).

DISC 2

• EPISODE 5: You Can’t Take It With You – Franklin & Bash take on a case for a client who owns a world series home run ball (special guest: Robert Pine) but for Jared, he must take on his superstar lawyer father Leonard Franklin (special guest: Beau Bridges).  Peter and Hanna represent reality star Ronny Streppi (special guest: Tom Arnold) against producers that portrayed him as a bad father.
• EPISODE 6: Big Fish – Franklin & Bash are hired to represent a revile and terminally ill financier, Carter Lang (special guest: Jason Alexander).
• EPISODE 7: Franklin vs. Bash- Jared and Peter represent two pole-dancing sisters, Amber North (special guest: Jud Tylor) and Simon Winters (special guest: Marisa Petroro).

Disc 3

• EPISODE 8: The Bangover – Franklin & Bash are put on house arrest by a Judge Sturgess (special guest: Kathy Najimy).  Meanwhile, an ex-con puts Carmen in danger of parole violation.
• EPISODE 9: Bachelor Party – Bash is hired to defend his ex-girlfriend Janie Ross’ fiance Nathan Conner (special guest: James Van Der Beek). Franklin defends a teacher accused of having sex with a student.
• EPISODE 10: Go Tell It On the Mountain - Stanton is being manipulated by a scheming law partner (special guest: Tricia Helfer).  Franklin & Bash must prove Stanton’s innocence of a murdering his best friend 15-years ago.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season” is presented in widescreen 1:78:1 and English Dolby Digital 5.1 Digital Surround. For the most part, “Franklin & Bash” is a series that has always looked good on DVD.  Video quality has its vibrant moments outdoors, well-lit during indoor scenes and one of those series that I wished was released on Blu-ray.

With that being said, like most series on DVD, “Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season” while looking good, does tend to show some artifacting (most people will not notice) as expected on DVD especially during darker lit scenes.  But for the most part, this is a good looking series on DVD.

As for the audio, presented via Dolby Digital 5.1, this legal drama/comedy series is dialogue driven but also tends to feature quite a bit of music and both dialogue and music are clear and I detected no audio problems during my view of “Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season”.

Subtitles are in English, English SDH and French.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season” comes with the following special features:

• Franklin & Bash Behind the Scenes – (3:56) Interviews with the cast of “Franklin & Bash” who talk about the characters they portray.
• Franklin & Bash & Friendship – (1:59) What happens behind-the-scenes of the filming of “Franklin & Bash” and the bromance between Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar and how cool their chemistry is between their characters.
• Creating the Cases – (1:59) Executive Producer Kevin Falls and Bill Chais talk about the cases for the series.
• Behind the Behind – (1:12) Mark-Paul Gosselaar talks about the nude scene he done for the series and the challenge of doing the nude scene.
• Working for Franklin & Bash - (3:13) Dana Davis and Kumail Najiani talk about their characters.
• Malcom McDowell Office Tour – (1:34) A featurette featuring actor Malcom McDowell giving a tour of Stanton Infeld’s office.
• Man Cave Tour – (6:34) Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Goselaar take the audience of the tour of Franklin & Bash’s hme.
• Franlin & Bash Commercials – Featuring three commercials: Bilingual, Legalese and Hot Tub
• Gage Reel – (2:16) Outtakes from “Franklin & Bash”.

“Franklin & Bash” is a legal drama/comedy series that I really enjoyed.  With what a legal comedy drama series such as “Drop Dead Diva” has done in showcasing the female perspective and the long friendship between two women, “Franklin & Bash” does for the male viewers in bringing the bromance to television by showcasing two guys who work hard, party hard and aren’t afraid to have fun outside and inside the court room.

Granted, “Fraklin & Bash” is definitely more slanted for the male viewers as both main characters are always checking out the ladies and love having fun, the chemistry between both characters work well.  Almost in a frat brothers kind of way!

Also, another major plus for the series is that Malcolm McDowell plays the role of a major partner of the law firm and like Franklin & Bash, he likes to have some fun for himself as well!

And with a cast of cool supporting characters and a special guest appearing in each episode, “Franklin & Bash” turned out to be a pretty cool legal drama series with a lot of comedy and definitely not meant to be taken seriously.  The writers definitely push the button on how crazy things can go.  For example, in the episode “Pilot”, Franklin gets one of the witnesses to undress in court.  In another episode, while trying to showcase a client that has been terminated for her beauty (when in reality, she’s just a plain woman), Bash somehow gets captivated by the young woman and starts kissing her during trial.

So, while we have seen a good number of serious drama series in the past, once in a while, it’s good to find a drama series about lawyers, that doesn’t take itself too seriously and the characters can be fun to watch!

As for the first season, the series definitely has come out strong but it will be interesting to see what direction the series will go for season 2.  The fact that these guys continue to win their cases and act the way they do, there has to some conflict or some form of change that will affect or test Franklin & Bash’s friendship.

As for the DVD release, “Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season” only features 10 episodes and quality for video and audio are very good on DVD.  You also get a few bonus features on all three discs but I’m hoping that there will be a commentary track for the next season release or even longer special features.

The first season of “Franklin & Bash” was enjoyable.  Each episode was fun to watch, both Breckin Meyer and Mark-Paul Gosselaar are great and the supporting cast including Malcolm McDowell were all fun to watch.   And the fact that each episode has a special guest star was also great to see.

Overall, for those who are looking for a legal drama series with a lot of humor and a series that is just all-out fun, “Franklin & Bash: The Complete First Season” is recommended!