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10 Legal Shows Every Law Student Must Watch

Legal Shows Every Law Student Must Watch

Whether you are a law enthusiast, a legal drama fan, or simply passionate about good storytelling, legal drama shows can be one of the most satisfying entertainment experiences.

If you are preparing for CLAT or other law exams, it is important to learn many characteristics of the field of law. For this you must have chosen the best CLAT study program, books and other study material. But did you know that in addition to books and mock tests, there are many other ways to pave the way for a successful strategy for you?

These legal TV shows will help you learn many of the newest things about law that will help you in the profession. You can take time out of your daily study routine and watch these entertaining yet motivating shows.

We’ve put together a list of the best web series for law wannabes:

This Australian television series is about Clever Green, a lawyer who, despite being famous as Wag, is addicted to gambling, woman, addicted, knows people and legal matters, among many other things.

When you imagine a lawyer/attorney, it’s often someone with a sharp, serious, and witty character, isn’t it? Well, there are many such lawyers.

And then there is Cleaver Greene (Richard Roxburgh), often described as a “rake” (in the medieval sense of the word). As the story develops, things take some truly unexpected turns.

Seriously, this show is full of surprises and we’re not going to spoil them for you so you better just check it out yourself.

If you want a generous dose of witty humor, evil fun, and yet an endearing story in the legal genre, then this series checks all boxes. The series ran for five seasons, premiering in November 2010, and ending in October 2018. All 40 episodes are currently available on Netflix.

Watch trailer.

  • HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER

It’s a full-package series with thriller, drama, strong language, romance, and all of that. The suspense-driven, fast-paced legal show revolves around Annalize Keating, a high-profile, headstrong, confident and fussy criminal defense attorney and law professor at Middleton University, and her five aspiring students.

They band together to solve challenging cases, but soon find themselves embroiled in an assassination plot that rocked the entire university and changed the course of their lives.

Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) is a professor and one of the most brilliant lawyers in Philadelphia. How to Get Away With Murder follows Annalise and five of her students as they use their intelligence, skills, and classroom lessons to cover up a murder.

The power-packed show revolves around the consequences of one major incident that spans years and upends not just every character’s life, but the social and legal system as well. The plot thickens and twists in every season with new problems and characters, all striving to escape one thing – death!

HTGAWM ran on ABC for six seasons, premiering in September 2014 and ending in May 2020.

Watch trailer.

The program offers an excellent overview of the day-to-day operations of one of the leading law firms and their attorneys in New York.

The story takes a turn when the firm’s most respected attorney and newly promoted senior partner, Harvey Spector, recruits Mike Ross, a college dropout, as his colleague and persuades him to graduate from Harvard law.

Suits is most interesting because it looks more at the inner workings of the law firm than it does the actual cases that the firm takes on.

As the show follows Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams,) a law associate who never actually went to law school, Suits cleverly sees the character close the book on cases while maintaining his secret at the same time.

The show focuses on Harvey and Mike’s journey through complex cases and intricate interpersonal relationships, all while upholding Mike’s secret at the same time.

From rivals to love interests, through twists and turns of law and the legal system, Suits remains a masterpiece of a show in the legal genre.

Suits ran for nine seasons on USA Network, premiering in June 2011 and concluding in September 2019.

Watch trailer.

  • BETTER CALL SAUL

The American television criminal and legal drama series is a spinoff and prequel to the famous Breaking Bad series.

The television drama follows the story of Jimmy McGill, a clever but deceptive thief in Albuquerque, who seeks to save criminals in a court of law and hide his past, becoming the famous Saul. It ends through unprecedented events.

It barely comes as any surprise that Better Call Saul is the highest rated legal drama of them all. Being a descendent of Breaking Bad and taking place before the events of that show, Better Call Saul expands on the criminal underbelly of Albuquerque in ways that weren’t even imaginable.

From going in to greater detail about Madrigal to showing how Gustavo Fring built his meth empire, it goes in to great depth about organized crime in the city.

Better Call Saul premiered on AMC in February 2015, recording the highest-rated scripted series premiere in cable history at the time.

Five seasons of the show are currently available on Netflix. And if you are left with cliffhanging tension, there’s good news. The sixth and final season is expected to air in early 2022.

Watch trailer.

  • LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT 

The Law & Order franchise is one of the most successful on TV, but the first spin-off of the series, Special Victims Unit, is rated higher than even the original series.

Situated in a fictionalized version of the NYPD, SVU often focuses on crimes that are loosely based on real events that have gained considerable media attention. It is the staple of all legal dramas. No other legal TV show lasted longer nor created a more influential footmark.

Lasting 20 years, this Dick Wolf creation not only helped pave the way for multiple spin-offs (Law & Order SVU, Law & Order Criminal Intent, Law & Order Las Angeles) but it also helped soften up the 90’s TV viewership to accepting legal drama as a prime form of episodic entertainment.

This Stallworth of a legal series was formulated around a two part premise: the police and legal procedural portions of the justice system. Many of the plots were “based on real life cases” but greatly dramatized for TV purposes.

Watch trailer.

Though it was fairly short lived compared to other legal dramas, as many of them tend to have hundreds of episodes, Damages is one of the most engaging courtroom shows there has ever been.

Each major case in the show spans a whole season, so more time and effort has gone in to the research and it properly breaks down how legal proceedings go, unlike other shows that throw weeks-long proceedings in to a 40 minute episode.

What also makes the show great is the fact Patty (Glenn Close) will to do anything to win a case, no matter how unethical it is.

Watch trailer.

  • THE GOOD WIFE

The Good Wife is grounded in reality almost more than any other legal show if it wasn’t for American Crime Story, which is based on real-life court cases.

As the show is about a wife of a state attorney who goes back in to law when her husband is caught in the middle of a sex scandal, The Good Wife is massively influenced by real life events such as the scandal involving Bill Clinton.

The show interestingly explores the dynamic between these women who allow their careers to take a backseat to further benefit their husbands’ ambitions, even when they are caught with their pants around their ankles.

.Watch trailer

  • TRIAL & ERROR

Need a laugh? Need some John Lithgow to brighten your legal mind? Then Trial & Error is a great bet.

This NBC episodic comedy debuted in 2017 to strong reception by fans and critics. The show takes a well-aimed, sarcastic shot at the growing genre of reality-law species, i.e. Netflix’s immensely popular Making A Murderer.

In this scope, Trial & Error does a darn good job at keeping the laughs rolling as a young and ambitious New York defense attorney, Josh (greatly played by Nicholas D’Agosto), who is paged to a southern and somewhat backwards town to defend the murder charge of Larry Henderson (played by John Lithgow).

Armed with an incredibly inept and hilarious support staff, it is basically Josh and Larry vs. the entire town as every step of their trial process happens to find more and more damning evidence against the defense.

Watch trailer.

  • THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY

The People v. O.J. Simpson is another striking legal drama series on Netflix you ought to watch. The story follows and is based on the real-life events of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial and also on Jeffrey Toobin‘s book The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson.

The 10-episode series dramatizes and explores the twists and turns of the case, using interviews, talks, and archival footage of one of the most significant legal and criminal cases in the history of the United States.

The story of the television series features the infamous O.J. Simpson murder case and depicts the riveting trial scene. The first episode of the drama shows the investigators visiting O. J. Simpson after the bodies of Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were discovered.

The authorities suspect O.J. Simpson behind the gruesome murder, and prosecutor Marcia Clark takes the case.

The show is communicated to the viewers from the perspective of a lawyer. It explores the chaotic behind the scenes dealings and complexities on both sides of the O.J. Simpson trial.

It made a massive impact as a miniseries and received several awards for the exemplary performance of the cast and accurate portrayal of the characters.

Watch trailer.

  • LAW SCHOOL

Law School is a South Korean television series that follows the character of Yang Jong-Hoon (Kim Myung-min), a former prosecutor-turned-law professor, and a tough one at that too.

Yang teaches at the prestigious Hankuk University Law School, where he is not quite popular among his students, mostly because of his blunt and biting remarks. He doesn’t really care about what his students think until he and some of his students get involved in an unexpected incident.

The grave situation forces Yang and his students to join forces and seek justice using all their legal and survival skills.

The legal drama series explores the ambitions of prospective lawyers, the law and justice system of the country, and teacher-student dynamics. With an exciting and thrilling narrative, the show is among the best pieces of Korean entertainment on Netflix.

Law School so far has only one season with 16 episodes on Netflix. While fans are expecting a second season to come out in 2022, there hasn’t been any announcement from the creators yet. Until then, the first season is sure to keep you busy.

Watch trailer.

CONCLUSION

Binge-watching the above mentioned legal dramas would be one of the best things to do right now while we are stuck at home. Not only are the mentioned series, are entertaining but they also serve the educational purpose for young aspiring lawyers.

All the shows have highlighted the intricacies of the legal profession and also portrayed how interesting and invigorating this profession could be.

P.S. If you would like a second part of this recommendation list, let us know in the comments below!

P.P.S Are you an aspiring law student? Read more of our advisory pieces here. 

Source: Lawctopus

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