Judged on Its Pro Forma Content

Love, especially the mother-child variety, can lead people to do some crazy things. How else to explain it when a woman can’t find day care for her two kids and feels the safest place for them is locked away in her car’s trunk? Or, as a less extreme example, when a grown-up daughter henpecks her mother about her health so much that they wind up fighting, with the daughter moving out of the house?

This sort of love, and all its sometimes perverted, sometimes funny permutations, is the crux of “Judging Amy,” which ends its third season tonight at 10 on CBS. In many ways, this episode typifies the series, showcasing the acting talents of Amy Brenneman as family court Judge Amy Gray and Tyne Daly as her mother, Maxine, a feisty social worker. But tonight’s story, written by executive producer Barbara Hall, is sadly too typical for its own good.

This is not for lack of plot twists: Maxine’s old flame Jared (Richard Crenna) reenters the scene, leading her to make two major decisions. Amy’s court services officer Bruce (Richard T. Jones) is sentenced in his trial on an assault charge. And Amy faces a custody fight from her ex, since she and her daughter have moved out of Maxine’s house and into a scummy apartment.

Too many of these maneuvers are telegraphed, though, for them to have much oomph, while the rest of the show follows the “Amy” formula: Amy rules on the woman who treats her kids like luggage, with the pangs of a “judge not, lest ye be judged” conscience; Maxine bucks the system to solve an abuse case; and Bruce is impenetrably dour (not entirely surprising, given that Jones sued series producer 20th Century Fox because he wanted to be allowed to leave the show; he recently dropped the suit and reportedly will return next season).

All these familiar elements can be fun, even comforting, but they work against the basic premise of a finale that tries to establish enough topsy-turviness in Amy’s world to compel viewers to return next season. Somehow, no matter how wrong things seem at the cliffhanger ending, you know they will be righted in due course.