For the People is an American legal drama television series that aired on ABC from March 13, 2018, to May 16, 2019. On May 11, 2018, ABC renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on March 7, 2019.
On May 9, 2019, ABC canceled the series after two seasons.
Contents
Premise
Set in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Federal Court, For the People follows new lawyers—both prosecutors and federal public defenders—as their lives intersect both in and out of the courtroom.
Cast and characters
Hope Davis as Jill Carlan
Ben Shenkman as Roger Gunn
Jasmin Savoy Brown as Allison Adams
Susannah Flood as Kate Littlejohn
Wesam Keesh as Jay Simmons
Regé-Jean Page as Leonard Knox
Ben Rappaport as Seth Oliver
Britt Robertson as Sandra Bell
Anna Deavere Smith as Tina Krissman
Vondie Curtis-Hall as Judge Nicholas Byrne
Charles Michael Davis as Ted (season 2)
Production
Britne Oldford and Lyndon Smith were cast in the pilot as Sandra Black and Allison Anderson, respectively. Both roles were later recast with Britt Robertson as Black (renamed Sandra Bell) and Jasmin Savoy Brown as Anderson (renamed Allison Adams). After re-shooting the pilot and shooting the second episode with the new actresses, production was temporarily shut down in September 2017 in order to rewrite existing scripts for the rest of the season to adjust the show to Robertson and Brown's new dynamic. Filming for the second season began on September 23, 2018.
Episodes
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 69% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "For the People's concept may be all too familiar, but the character depth and clever dialogue help set it apart." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".