Trial and Error Review: A Change in the Team / New Case, Old Murder (Season 2 Episodes 5 and 6)

Can it be true that Trial and Error‘s sophomore season is almost over?

It has flown by. It continues to be true that the double episodes feel like a summer burn-off (Save Trial and Error!) but the episode ending twists are wont to feel less gimmicky this way.

That is especially true after Trial and Error Season 2 Episode 5, “A Change in the Team,” which not only creates the aforementioned change in the team, but also a stunning change in the case.

What was presumed to be an entire season about the murder of Lavinia Peck-Foster’s husband took a sudden shift, when Judge Kamiltow ruled that she was not guilty. But then Josh figures out that maybe she is.

Then, on Trial and Error Season 2 Episode 6, “New Case, Old Murder,” Josh becomes so overwhelmed with the guilt of helping a murderer (pretty much confirmed at this point) get off that he teams up with Carol Anne Keane to try and get an old murder case re-opened and Lavinia Peck-Foster put in jail.

Both of these episodes turn out to be a richly comedic deviation from the formula that Trial and Error had previously established. Season 1, essentially, included things happening that made John Lithgow’s Larry Henderson look more guilty, all the while the audience believing he isn’t.

Originally, it looked like Lavinia Peck-Foster’s trial would follow the same mold. Instead, the show has turned that mold on its head by turning the first Peck-Foster “trial” into an “error” (See what I did there?).

Not only does she now admit guilt, Josh feels so guilty that he’s working on a case WITH Carol Anne Keane to try to get justice.

Just when you thought Josh might move on from Carol Anne, they’re back in each other’s lives to collaborate. The love triangle between Josh, Carol Anne, and Nina is surprisingly compelling. It builds on the chemistry between Josh and Carol Anne, but it makes you want to root for Nina because A) she hosts a true-crime podcast and B) she’s a normal, relatively well-adjusted human being.

Overall, the show is still running on its relatively juvenile sense of humor and the cast of characters up for anything (I use the term juvenile loosely, but I don’t know that there’s a better adjective. Still, it’s working).

Steven Boyer’s Dwayne, when temporarily fired by Josh, perfectly balanced the disappointment of being let go with his usual dumb, sweet self. Sherri Shepherd’s Anne, after a flurry of new medical conditions, returned to an old favorite to keep us giggling (laughing at inappropriate times is my personal fave).

A few other stray thoughts:

• The character of Lavinia Peck-Foster adds an OJ Simpson-like element to the trial. Since she’s so beloved and popular, most people refuse to believe that she’s guilty. Given that the OJ trial was both a cultural phenomena of its day and a dramatized ratings juggernaut just a few years back, it’s not surprising that the OJ similarities add a juicy, compelling layer to this season’s case(s).
• Not sure about which is right, so let’s ask the audience: “Hoochtube” or “Rumhole”?
• I, too, often use the word dalliance when I mean kerfuffle.
• East Peck ridiculous name of the week: Again Tompkins (First runner up: Atticus Ditto, Jr.)
• It is so great to see Jaleel White and even better that his character has such a great name.
• Finally, in case you forgot, the combination (because they kept losing the key) to the city is 8. It’s been changed 7 times.

The humor is working, and the twists in the cases are new enough to keep Trial and Error fresh, fun, and interesting.

Since they bucked Season 1’s formula, who knows where they’re going next? I don’t, but I want to find out.

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Trial and Error airs Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC.

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