Pilot Script Review - See Kate Run

SEE KATE RUN (fka I CLAUDIA)

Written By: John Scott Shepherd

Draft Date: December 12, 2008 (still under the title "I Claudia")

Pages: 63

Network: ABC

Category: Jury's Out

See Kate Run is one of ABC's "a bunch of different genre playfully thrown together, let's hope it works!" pilots. It has romantic comedy (between Kate and co-worker, boyfriend of two years Dan). It has politics (in the version I read, we start in 2028 as Kate is on the verge of being elected President of the United States, so the series is supposed to play as a "how she gets there" story... a tactic I disagree with, more on that later). It's a legal show (Kate, Dan, and Katie's BFF Ellie are lawyers at the DA's office in Boston).

Kate is something of an Ally McBeal-styled mess. We meet her (in the present), waking up late, hungover, rushing out the door, and forgetting to take her slippers off and put heels on. A little bit crazy, a little bit unambitious. She accidentally said the word "marriage" to Dan and when he didn't respond with anything committal, she considered the relationship over. A lovable ball of neurosis? That will be up to Amy Smart.

Ellie, Kate's best friend, is more on the ball. She expects to be promoted to ADA that very morning (and Kate expects it for her). So Ellie is pissed off when the DA takes her off a case (against a drug dealer who is a jackass even by drug dealer standards, as Ellie describes him). The DA tells Dan, in confidence, that the reason he took Ellie off and put Kate on is because the case is going to take a sharp turn south.

Meaning, of course, the pilot is about Kate proving herself as a lawyer. Kate gets a great rallying moment on the steps outside of the courthouse (after she breaks a heel...) where she candidly and angrily vows to put the drug dealer scum to justice, a moment that, for some reason, "goes viral" and makes Kate an overnight sensation... drawing the attention of a campaign manager who thinks she has a shot at winning her local district in 8 months against a conservative talk radio host who is, thus far, running unopposed.

There is a lot of maneuvering and posturing and witness scaring, but finally the key witness testifies and Kate wins the day and is made ADA. It's not particularly complicated legalese, but this show really wants to play equal parts rom-com and legal / political show.

I very much like the relationship between Kate and Ellie, which could easily play as backstabbing girlfriends hating on each other, but instead is one where they support each other despite jealousy, hurt feelings, etc.

End of the day, the series rests entirely on Amy Smart as Kate, so I have to wait to see the screener.

Question, though... if the election is in 8 months (end of the season), then does the entire series change in season two when Kate goes to Congress? Or does she lose? I wonder.

One other note... if there's a way to get rid of the flash forward to 2028 with Kate winning the Presidential election... please do it. It only serves as an introduction to the character (and thus the juxtaposition with the completely un-put-together woman we meet in 2009) and never comes back. Will future episodes check in with Future Kate? Should it? It smacks of Jack & Bobby, but on a shorter time span (oh, and Future Kate as a 15 year old daughter... whose is it? the script clearly wants us to ask... but I didn't really).