The Details

The Firm

Thursdays, 10 p.m.; premieres January 8, 9 p.m., NBC.

A 19-year-old movie is not exactly the freshest source material for a TV series, but The Firm doesn’t feel dated or incomplete, even though it does follow directly from the movie’s story of ambitious lawyer Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas, taking over for Tom Cruise), who helps take down a mob-connected law firm. A decade later, Mitch, his wife Abby (Molly Parker) and his 10-year-old daughter are emerging from the witness protection program. But Mitch is quickly drawn into yet another conspiracy, and the mob isn’t quite done with him, either. He somehow still finds time to take on new legal cases, and the show balances rote legal-procedural elements with the more exciting larger conspiracy, which resembles Damages in its use of suspense-generating flash-forwards. Seeing Mitch fight against a sinister conspiracy was what made the movie entertaining, but the TV-series version strands him in a dull courtroom drama too much of the time.