NEW YORK (AP) – If you look for it, there’s a lot of stuff packed into “The Grinder,” a funny if – at first glance – lightweight comedy starring Rob Lowe and Fred Savage.
There’s brotherly love. Sibling rivalry. A quest for authenticity by someone used to profiting from make-believe. A spoof of celebrity. And a not-implausible argument that effective jurisprudence is as much based on theatrics as the law.
Premiering Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. EDT on Fox, “The Grinder” finds big-time TV star Dean Sander (Lowe) reaching the end of his successful run on a legal drama called “The Grinder,” which he headlined as the winningest fake lawyer since Perry Mason.
With his series now canceled, Dean decides to pay his family a visit in their all-American hometown of Boise, Idaho, where his dweebish younger brother Stewart (played by Savage) is a real-life lawyer who actually practices law – though not so heroically.
Pleased with what he finds there, Dean decides to ditch Hollywood and sign on to Boise-style real life, at least as he understands it. This includes horning in on the family’s law firm as a self-styled partner despite his lack of a law degree, license or courtroom experience beyond a Hollywood soundstage.