The Verdict on ‘Judging Amy’

Here come da judge!

Can a young single mother give up a successful practice as a corporate attorney to return to Hartford, Conn., and become a juvenile court judge who lives with her pushy mother and juggles a frantic career on the bench with rearing her 6-year-old daughter?

Sounds like a plan.

The first two outings of “Judging Amy” are unchallenging but pleasant and likable, with Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly pairing nicely in this new CBS drama as Amy and Maxine Gray, an independent daughter and interfering mother whose clashing views converge on cue at the end of each episode.

If that seems pat, it is.

It helps enormously, though, that this is a very nice cast, with Dan Futterman working effectively, too, as Amy’s writer/dog-coiffing brother, Vincent (the most interesting member of the Gray family), and Richard T. Jones chipping in as the new judge’s wise court services officer, Bruce Van Exel.

Amy is a strong but compassionate judge, her grueling stint on the bench in the second episode, especially, vividly depicting some of the lowlifes, misfits and true victims that a juvenile court surely encounters, along with sad stories and their connection to vulnerable children.

The Grays are loving, but no super family, happily. A former social worker, Maxine is a controlling, smothering mother who is addicted to smoking and Internet chat rooms. Nor is Amy a slick or blase heroine. Her first day on the bench, she has to call a 20-minute recess to rush out and tend to her ailing daughter, Lauren (Karle Warren). Lurking ominously, meanwhile, is an unctuous member of the state attorney general’s office who appears to have an agenda for Amy other than friendship. Every drama needs at least one designated slug?

But oy! As one of those cutesy TV tots with an adult mouth (“It was a minimum day,” she reports to her grandmother after school), Lauren is a real pain.

There is something Teflon about the Grays, moreover. Initially, at least, they are touched by life without being bruised. There is mess, but within a general orderliness. There is discomfort, but no deep or enduring pain. And doing the right thing by the closing credits appears built into the format, a catchy line of dialogue just the thing to knot loose ends.

Bottom line: a moderate gavels up.

* “Judging Amy” premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS and will be broadcast at its regular time Tuesday at 10 p.m.