Reviews

(BBC America, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 8:40 p.m.)

BBC America’s Gavin & Stacey could just as easily have been titled England and Wales as the new series centers around a lad from Essex and a lass from Barry whose romance brings their respective friends and relatives together, for better and worse.

While Anglo-Welsh sore points — including issues of nationalism and language — may not mean much to U.S. audiences, universal themes of romantic and familial ties should weather the Atlantic crossing just fine. (NBC has reportedly acquired the rights and may adapt the show, a la The Office.)

Season one follows its central pair as they go from being long-distance lovers to newlyweds. Along the way, their respective best friends — played by series creators James Corden and Ruth Jones — strike up an unusual relationship of their own.

The emphasis in the early installments is primarily on scoring laughs (albeit sans a laugh track), but the show’s tone grows increasingly seriocomic. In fact, as the narrative advances, Gavin & Stacey’s focus on overall story arc and character development — rather than episodic situation-comedy-type plotting — lends it a soap opera quality sure to please fans of long-running U.K. soaper EastEnders. — George Vernadakis

(TNT, Monday, Sept. 1, 10 p.m.)

NYPD Blue producer Steven Bochco turns his camera on the often-flawed legal system in TNT’s new legal series Raising the Bar.

The gritty drama tries to differentiate itself from other legal procedurals by showing the complex relationships between former law-school classmates who battle each other in the courtroom as prosecutors and public defendants but hang out together at night — set against the backdrop of a broken and often-corrupt criminal justice system.

NYPD Blue alum Mark-Paul Gosselaar stars as Jerry Kellerman, an idealistic public defender who, in the show’s pilot, finds himself defending a man he believes is wrongly accused of rape. The prosecutor is Kellerman’s friend Michelle Ernhardt (Melissa Sagemiller), who harbors some reservations about the case.

The two work out a plea deal, only to have it rebuked by tough and ambitious judge Trudy Kessler (Jane Kaczmarek), who has it out for the impetuous Kellerman and forces the case to trial despite questionable evidence.

Gloria Ruben (ER), Natalia Cigliuti (All My Children), Teddy Sears (Ugly Betty) Currie Graham (Boston Legal), J. August Richards (Conviction), and Jonathan Scarfe (Into the West) round out the cast of a very fast-paced and entertaining show. — R. Thomas Umstead