‘Bull’ episode 2 review: Expanding the team; keeping the focus

Tonight, “Bull” gave us a case full of intrigue, drama, and plenty of conflict. Yet, at the same time we also had a judges’ bench in the mock courtroom that also doubles for a bar. You know, the kind with drinks!

The show’s biggest challenge remains all the clear tonight after what we saw during the pilot: You’ve got to find a way to make these courtroom battles interesting every week. In turn, we have a hard time imagining that Jason Bull can win every time if the writers want things to remain exciting. There has to be conflict, and a guy’s gotta lose a few times. Still, we’re glad that didn’t happen tonight with such a sympathetic defendant, a female pilot who had to deal with not only the trauma of a plane crash that she miraculously survived, but also sexism from a jury that may not be subconsciously aware of the way in which they are discriminating.

The show’s biggest strength for now is its cast, led by Michael Weatherly but with many other super-capable people including Freddy Rodriguez (who we got to see in a far greater capacity this week),  Geneva Carr, and others. The chemistry is there, and you want this sort of camaraderie from people that makes it look like they’ve been working together so much longer than they really have. How they managed to get from point A to point B (victory) this week was very challenging, mostly because they were dealing with jury biases so subtle.

The one thing that “Bull” really needs for now is a more tangible rival, whether it be a stronger prosecutor, a judge with an enormous vendetta, or maybe someone on the other side. He needs to be challenged more! To use a comic-book analogy, how about bringing in a villain? “Bull” is doing a lot right and is fun entertainment, but it could be doing even more. Grade: B+.