How Does This Happen?

As I sit at my desk and eat lunch, I watch TV on Hulu. I have found a lot of interesting shows on there so far, and it gives me a chance to test drive a lot of new programming. Some things are good, some aren't, and then there are those that almost defy explanation.

"Outlaw" is a new Law based show on NBC. I say "law based" simply because within 10 minutes of the beginning of the pilot episode, it was clear that the actual laws and procedures which are supposedly discussed and practiced on this show was not a law of our land, but more like the law of Candy Land.

The premise is that the most politically conservative justice (yes NBC your overwhelming political bias is already showing) decides that due to the death of his father who thought he was doing things wrong, decides to resign his lifetime appointment from the Supreme Court (like that is ever going to happen) and embrace his inner liberal. Seriously? That is already implausible on a number of counts, but the fun doesn't stop there folks, not by a long shot. He makes a ruling on a Death Penalty case which is precedent creating  (another political statement being made within the first 10 minutes.... seriously?)  based on 100% non-constitutional bounds, then resigns and proceeds to go out and defend the person on death row who was the focus of his ruling. He doesn't even focus on the law once this happens either.

Basically... from every legal standpoint the show is 100% make believe.

I don't have a problem with Fiction, I love fiction. I love the creative leeway that a writer is given, their freedom to create from nothing something that is truly astounding. But I have a huge problem when that creative license is applied to concepts that are very much rooted in reality.

This is like a show about doctors, where when performing surgery they just start making up different organs that they are fixing. "Well it looks like the lower gastrolung was punctured by the bullet, but I believe that we can simply get a transplant organ from the Amazonian Land Badger and he should be right as rain." The premise is as likely to happen as the head of Brain Surgery at Johns Hopkins resigning his position because he wants to be an ambulance driver. "To better serve the people."

Seriously people, is this the best that we can do? How many people had to read this screenplay and give it the green light? Did none of those people ever ask the question "could this actually happen?" "Does this actually work like this?" This is the Jar Jar Binks of television people. How does this happen?