* Spoilers *The head of the police and district attorney insist on prosecuting a woman for a murder with zero evidence there was any altercation, assault, or struggle. There's zero evidence that a murder even took place. The lady is an older out of shape woman. the man is a hardened police sergeant type. Unbelievably stupid. Then, a guy without any apparent discipline or military training shoots a woman in the head using a handgun from the back of a moving motorcycle at a distance of about 25 meters. again, unbelievable. I lasted 2 1/2 episodes and had to turn it off. I like the premise of the show and the characters, but if the writing is going to make the characters do unbelievable stupid things that no real life professional would ever consider, I have to conclude the show was written by a bunch of 12 year old girls during a slumber party. How anyone could say this was a riveting legal drama is beyond me. They must know absolutely nothing about the real world. Don't waste your time.

Janet King came several years after its predecessor 'Crownies'. Crownies was a show that really deserved a better fate. It was a very good production, and even if it was determined not to have gone past a second season, there were enough open story-lines at the end of the first season that truly should have been allowed to play out in a second concluding season. As for the delayed spin-off (Janet King), it's a good show, but lacks the warmth and charm of the first series. They kept all the five young actors to start off, but quickly dropped one then another, in the hopes of distancing the new series from the concept of the old. What remains is of good quality, but less viewer friendly. It's unfortunate they decided to go completely away from the predecessor. Had they found a better balance between the two, retaining the best of both, it could have now overall been even better. As although the show now is by design very different, it's not necessarily that much better. It's now more mature and serious (less soap).. but unfortunately not as overall enjoyable to watch.

Obviously my esteemed fellow reviewer has an axe to grind. Describing it as pushing a "leftist, lesbian" agenda is utter nonsense. If the relationship were heterosexual, I seriously doubt that any such vitriol would be forthcoming. Yes, the initial police/courtroom/trial scenes had a couple of "reality" plot holes large enough to drive a tank through, but these are easy to forgive, given the extraordinary quality of this series. Perhaps if you require an absolutely, completely, utterly perfect drama series, you could make it yourself? If for no other reason than to show the rest of us how amazingly talented & absolutely NOT homophobic you must be.

I commenced to watch this program with great expectations based on the promotion on the ABC television channel. How the ABC promotions can claim glowing approval from critics when it hasn't been screened is somewhat problematic.Having now watch two episodes I was particularly disappointed with the biased feminist left leaning lesbian relationship, the contrived relationship between prosecutors and police, the shallow stereotypical good guy bad guy characters and the sharp feminist anti anti male diatribe in the office. Overall it has what what appeared to me to be a second rate shallow plot full of stereotypes with very little in the way of redeeming features.There is a strong underlying feminist anti male thread running through this and the bulk of the acting is unconvincing. I will be surprised if as this series (which is a spin-off from the low rating series "Crownies" ) has any greater success despite the hype and hyperbola from the ABC.Compared to other ABC series such as the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries and Dr Blake which are outstanding drama series this is but poor shadow. Altogether a most unenlightening experience.