Kiddie drama for grown-ups

From:The Australian
Date:Jan 28,2004
By Georgina Windsor

The Guardian
8.30pm, Ten
SIMON Baker does a good line in angst. He gets plenty of practice playing tortured lawyer Nick Fallin. If you were playing a drinking game and tossing one back every time he cracked a smile, you'd stay pretty sober.

But, then again, Fallin doesn't have much to laugh about. A hotshot young lawyer in his father's firm, he had a raging drug habit and partied hard before a police raid brought his world crashing down. Caught with a serious amount of cocaine in his possession, he managed to avoid jail by agreeing to do community service at a children's law advocacy centre.

The centre helps children involved in legal hearings, and the portrayals are unrelentingly grim. Most of the cases involve abuse and neglect and rarely have a happy ending. It's about doing the best you can with scarce or stretched resources. Many times the lawyer ends up acting as temporary guardian of the child. Hence the show's title.

At the same time, Fallin tries to juggle full-time work at his father's firm. Burton Fallin, played superbly by distinguished actor Dabney Coleman, is as riven by conflict as his son and the pair have a rocky relationship. Both struggle to become better people but are their own worst enemies.

The Guardian is one of those shows that flies under the radar both here and in the US. While receiving critical acclaim, it has never been a huge hit. It gets solid but not spectacular ratings and even though Australian Baker's name gets raised as a Golden Globe or Emmy possibility, his name never makes the final list of nominees.

It's a shame, really, because the show attracts viewers who like grown-up dramas that manage to get the balance of interesting legal dilemmas and personal revelations of characters right. As NYPD Blue did when it first started.

As well as Coleman, the strong supporting cast includes Alan Rosenberg and Wendy Moniz who shine as the bosses of the centre, Alvin Masterton and Lulu Archer. They are determined to not to give Nick an easy ride. Given the centre's case load, they can't afford to. Now, after two years of dealing with some harrowing cases – such as tonight's example of trying to find good adoptive parents for two young HIV-positive children – Nick is starting to change into a more understanding thirtysomething yuppie.

And after a couple of years of lusting after and supporting Lulu through a marriage break-up, Nick has embarked on a relationship with her. Nick is a complicated man, and the viewer walks beside him as he tries to do the right thing, often falling victim to his own failings. A savvy drama such as The Guardian is not going to fall prey to the old "changed man due to the love of a good woman" cliche. His relationship with Lulu has its ups and downs – and tonight faces its biggest challenge to date. Somehow I just know that Nick, no matter how hard he tries, isn't going to see this one through.

Baker has said before that it was this ambiguity that attracted him to the role: "I like the fact that he's imperfect, which is like everyone ... That's what drew me to it. It didn't seem usual. It seemed like a throwback to a period where we used to have leading characters who weren't genetically, spiritually perfect. Remember those days? Leading men were regular guys, someone you could identify with. Steve McQueen was a regular guy. Charles Bronson was a regular guy. Clint Eastwood's a regular guy."

They didn't smile much, either.