Lessons Learned from "Drop Dead Diva"

All photos courtesy: Lifetime

Hi class and welcome back to Sitcomology 101, with your professor Dr. Kelley. This week’s assignment was Drop Dead Diva (which isn't technically a sitcom, but, hey, I'm the professor here, so we study what I want!), so I hope everyone is caught up with the required watching. It’s always nice when these shows are enjoyable to watch, isn’t it?

Lesson One: If the characters are likeable, the show is actually fun to watch

I would say this is the single most important lesson that we can take from last night’s Season 3 premiere of Drop Dead Diva. When the characters are fun, sympathetic and entertaining, the actual show doesn’t have to be that great to still be enjoyable. Characters can be stereotypical, like the dumb blonde girl, but making them relate-able and three-dimensional makes it much easier to overlook the less-than-stellar qualities of the show.

Lesson Two: Legal shows don’t have to have any connection to the way that the justice system actually works

In America, there are two types of law. There is TV law, which is what we see in shows like Drop Dead Diva, Boston Legal, Law & Order, etc. Then there is real law, which is the type of law that happens in actual courtrooms. These two things are in no way related to one another. In fact, the closer that a TV show is to the way that law is actually practiced, the less enjoyable that show will be, so they tend to just make it up as they go along. 

That’s why shows can have scenes where a defense lawyer will put someone on the stand that she has never spoken to, or a judge will hear a case in her extremely cluttered and messy office and then sentence the person to buying a billboard. Or maybe the judge can also just decide to waive doctor-patient confidentiality because she wants to.

Another thing to notice is that here police don’t investigate crimes (at least not very well), lawyers do, and they are guaranteed to find the last-minute piece of evidence that proves their client innocent.

Josh Stamberg, guest star Wendy Williams, and Kate Levering

Lesson Three: Injuries, amnesia, and comas

If you are a coma patient on a TV show, someone had better come over to tearfully spill their heart out over your unconscious form, because this is the magical TV coma elixir. Should you be one of those unlucky people who does not have someone who harbors a secret love for you, you are destined to be comatose for ever. Sorry about that.

Many TV trauma patients will also suffer from “TV amnesia,” a very specific type of amnesia that only makes one forget the important information they received in last season's finale. This allows for a whole second season based on a character agonizing over whether they should share the forgotten information again. (Prediction: Grayson is going to remember whatever it was he forgot from last season when he is at the altar, preparing to marry Vanessa.)

Brooke Elliott as Jane and Jackson Hurst as Grayson

So what did fans of the show think? Were you happy with the season premiere? Are you looking forward to appearances by the likes of Clay Aiken and Lance Bass later in the season? Would you hire Jane to be your attorney?

Drop Dead Diva airs Sunday nights on Lifetime.