4 out of 5

Created by: Richard LaGravenese, Tony Goldwyn

covers season 1

The setup for ‘The Divide’ and the posters prior to the show’s premiere suggested we’d be getting a legal drama that would be fueled by an examination of the way the racial divide – directly or indirectly – affects things.  Christine (Marin Ireland) works for The Innocence Initiative, an agency that takes on cases of those already jailed that members of the agency believe to be innocent.  The Initiative finds their way into a high profile case that’s put two white men in jail – Jared and Terry – for killing members of a black family, the case, at the time, tried by a black lawyer, Adam Page (Damon Gupton), who’s now the DA.  Page maintains that the conviction was about justice and not race and stands by the evidence.  But as Christine comes across more and more evidence to suggest that Jared might truly have been innocent (despite his confession), Page has to deal with what they may mean for his reputation, and his family.  It’s a powerful concept, and the racial aspect is obviously present but not splashed about overtly.  …Because, it turns out, ‘The Divide’ doesn’t want to be exclusively about race, expanding its palette to divides of different types – moral divides, class divides – and stepping far outside of the courtroom to dig deep into thoughts on responsibility, and guilt.  And the show shapes up into something rather amazing for this expanded view, fueled by believable and real performances from every single member of the cast.  As with a lot of TV, though, its the reshaping the distills some of the effect, and as our focus turns from Jared to Terry, there becomes more of an emphasis on ‘solving’ the case, when that’s really a secondary point to all of the social politics being examined.  But this is only really apparent when stepping back from the show.  Otherwise from episode to episode, the themes come across strongly, and we’re sided with ‘the underdogs,’ but the ‘bad guys’ aren’t always cast in easily defined black vs. a good guy white.  And the season closer is stunning – the kind of move you make when you have no idea if you’ll get a season 2.  Which, frankly, might be best, as trailing out these plot lines could only diminish their effect.  While ‘The Divide’ doesn’t exactly stay focused all the way through, I’ll easily trade that for the considered dialogue and strong acting and a willingness to explore themes without handing us an answer.