WE tv’s first original scripted series, The Divide, has an impressive pedigree, coming from screenwriter Richard Lagravenese (Behind the Candelabra) and Tony Goldwyn (Scandal). Premiering July 16 at 9pmET with a special two-hour debut, this story takes on a true divide in American society that can be vividly seen in the state of the justice system.
An intern working with The Innocence Initiative, Christine Rosa (Marin Ireland), finds herself wrapped up in a case involving the justice system’s racial divide. Eleven years ago, a white man was convicted of killing a black family in their home. The date for his execution looms and Christine believes that he may be innocent. With the help of enthusiastic attorney Clark Rylance (Paul Schneider), finding new DNA evidence may be the key that allows her to prove the man’s innocence and end the race war that has long surrounded the case.
Christine and Clark’s efforts on the case earn them hate-fueled threats and even District Attorney Adam Page (Damon Gupton) feels pressure as his case against the convicted man seems to crumble. In the end, the ball is in Adam’s court as the DNA results are not returned before the man’s execution. However, it wouldn’t be a true justice story without a little twist. When the DNA results come back a few days after the execution, they are negative — making the executed man innocent of the crime.
Even though Christine and Adam are on opposite sides of the case, they have a developing chemistry, even as the case puts a strain on Adam’s marriage to corporate lawyer Billie (Nia Long). Christine is trying to prove something and bring justice forward. While Adam was the person who helped put these two men in prison, he starts to realize that he may have been wrong in doing so and feels for Christine. He can see her passion for this case as she slowly takes apart the case he had made. While he look for assurance from his father that placing the men in jail was the right thing to do, he can’t seem to get Christine out of his head. It seems likely that this relationship between Christine and Adam will further develop as the series continues and the case keeps unraveling. Who knows? Adam might even take back all of what he has said in order to help out Christine in the end.
This series will be without a doubt a huge hit with all the detective-story and CSI fans. Being a fan of TRUtv myself, I found the first episode to be very entertaining. It’s important that the show took something such as the split between races in law enforcement as a leading topic. This situation is becoming a critical issue in today’s society and a lot of times, the violence in these cases is an act based on race alone. This fictional case resembles that of the Trayvon Martin case, however, the identity of the killer in the series is a bit foggy. Yet, they share the same aspects of race being the dividing factor between making critical decisions on what is right and wrong and who is guilty or not. As unfortunate as it may seem to have a show based off of the division between the races in legal cases, it reveals an aspect of American society where the shadowed out areas are those that turn away from hearing the truth.
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Steve Willkie/WE tv
