Sitcoms don’t dominate prime time television as they used to – AND – half of the ones that are on are reboots instead of a production of original thinking.

However, there is a new show on NBC called Trial & Error that’s maintaining the hope for original programming…

Story: A New York defense attorney relocates to a small town in South Carolina and opens his own private law practice. Of course, his first employees are some of the wackiest people in town and their antics lead to client defense the likes of which you have not seen.

We’re at season two. Each season is a new murder case. This is one of the things that makes this show so funny. They’ve managed to capture the humor in murder, court, trials and small town people. And none of it is a regurgitation of a previous show.

Characters: Josh Segal is the young lawyer played by Nicholas D’Agosto. The prosecutor is Carol Anne Keane played by Jayma Mays. This is good casting and they give life to their characters.

Sherri Shepherd as the law office assistant Anne Flatch and Steven Boyer as the law office investigator and former police office Dwayne Reed are the wacky/off-color/mostly unusual team that round out the defense. In a nutshell, they succeed at being just plain weird…

But each season so far has hinged on the defendant. So far, John Lithgow has portrayed a college professor accused of killing his wife and now, Kristen Chenoweth is on trial for killing her husband… And by the way, she’s the richest and most popular woman in town. Both take their characters over the top in the most campy way possible.

Visual: Shot in the classic NBC way… they like to use their camera to give you deadpan delivery. Small town. Big city guy shows up in a small town. Wacky people dress funny… have unusual hobbies, habits and ailments. Roll all of that together and it looks and sounds like comedy.

Rating: A-. While I find this to be a refreshing show, I think it’s because of the combination of characters. If you watch NBC enough, you’ll note that there’s a theme in their sitcoms… weird, wacky characters with deadpan delivery. It’s the NBC way… but I like that they’re at least not doing Everyone Loves Raymond over and over and over again.

This show is worth watching because it’s truly comic relief…