Trial & Error is one of the best parody comedy shows of the last decade but seems to have fallen through the cracks for TV viewers.
Get ready to laugh your socks off, or don't, that's your prerogative. Trial & Error was one of the best parody comedy shows of the last decade but seems to have fallen through the cracks. That may be because the TV show was canceled after only two seasons, but considering the new era of streaming, Trial & Error may have a shot at coming back sometime soon. However, if you are looking for a good laugh, now is the time to go sit back, relax, and laugh at Trial & Error.
The show may have slipped through the cracks when parody comedies are listed, but it shouldn't. The show was well-loved by fans and critics alike when it aired despite not continuing. Trial & Error creates an environment to laugh, not only at the characters but also at the hyper-dramatic crime drama genre as a whole. The show parodies true crime and legal dramas altogether, while also including elements of the workplace comedy genre as well. Trial & Error does all of this successfully and thus should no longer be overlooked.
Trial & Error is a law and crime mockumentary set in a fictional town in South Carolina. It follows Josh Segal, a New York City lawyer who ends up in this small town in South Carolina. Josh puts together a ragtag team to defend different and sometimes very eccentric clients from their office in a taxidermy shop. The first season chronicles the bizarre murder of the wife of a professor (a delightful and hilarious John Lithgow). Not only are the facts of the case utterly preposterous, but their client can't help but make himself look guilty at every turn.
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The second season follows a beloved female debutante (played by the wonderful Kristin Chenowith) in the community who is accused of murdering her husband and stuffing him in a suitcase. Both clients are high profile in this small town and eccentric in their own ways. The ensemble cast of this show is a large piece of what makes it great. The cast (including a fun Jayma Mays from Glee, Nicholas D'Agosto from The Office and Gotham, and a surprisingly hilarious and random Sherry Shepherd) works very well together and is able to create a comedic environment with ease. While Trial & Error only lasted two seasons, it is a great and quick watch if you are looking for something delightfully funny.
Comedy. There are many things that Trial & Error does well, but its best asset is its comedy. Trial & Error is a masterclass in parody comedy, which is a very particular subset of comedy as a whole. Comedy is jokes and frankly things that make people laugh; parody requires the ability to take something that at its core is not funny, and make it funny. Trial & Error manages to be better than most of the things it actually parodies, as a Pajiba article is titled, "Trial and Error is better than The Staircase." Like American Vandal, it mines its true crime parody for comic gold.
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The series is also a combination of a workplace comedy and a law procedural show, so it's like if The Office and Law and Order had a baby. That sounds awful, doesn't it? Those two things don't work together, right? Wrong. They do when parody is thrown into the mix, creating jokes within that genre space and making the idea of a law procedural and the tropes of true crime funny making something funny without offending anyone. Trial & Error perfected the parody in a procedural space, allowing anyone and everyone to laugh.
No show is perfect, and thus shows can be canceled for a multitude of reasons (or even no reason at all, with Netflix giving no reason for the cancellation of Julie and the Phantoms). Trial & Error was a special kind of show and thus was meant for a very niche audience, which doesn't always bode well for network television. The point of network television is for primetime shows to appeal to a broad audience, as that is what brings in the most viewership. When shows have a more niche genre and thus a smaller prospective audience, it is more challenging for them to succeed.
Since Trial & Error filled such a niche space, it was honestly doomed from the start. Sure, the pilot premiered with nearly six million viewers, which was genuinely surprising and great, but it gradually lost viewership (even if it ended with over two million viewers an episode, still somewhat respectable) The show had two acclaimed seasons on NBC, but even that could not save a sinking ship. The show, produced by Warner Brothers, was shopped around soon after the cancellation but was not picked up by any other networks.
The show has been off the air since late 2018 and thus has been mostly forgotten about. However, considering the niche genre that Trial & Error filled, it may be possible to bring it back on a streaming service. The expansion of streaming has allowed many shows to be produced that may have not been successful on a standard network. Now, fans of the show can only hope that Warner Brothers might bring it back and shop Trial & Error around to some streaming services.
Madeline is a film student and film fanatic. She has grown up watching and loving movies. She is thrilled to be writing about the thing she loves most.