super-secret info (hint: romance) on david tennant’s new show!

I recently read some of the casting sides for the pilot of Rex is Not Your Lawyer, also known as That Which Is Bringing David Tennant to America.  (Thanks, Gen!)

Earlier this week, we heard that Abigail Spencer, who I knew as “That Girl Who Killed Her Brother in the Bones Episode ‘The Man in the Mud,’” but who others know as “The Elementary School Teacher Who Recently Sexed Up Don Draper,” had been cast as a series regular on Rex, playing the title character’s fiancee.

I, the consummate shipper, was immediately intrigued.  See, usually when characters are introduced in the pilot as the significant other of the main character, we aren’t supposed to expect them to stay together for very long.  Often, said love interest is the villain.  (Terri Schuester. Enough said.)  And given Spencer’s history (read: the only two roles I could remember) as a sexy crazy person, I thought it was quite possible that she was merely a foil for the real ship.  Which was when I sought out the casting sides.

Turns out, I was totally right.

Lindsey, Rex’s ex-fiancee (notice the ex-), left when Rex had his nervous breakdown, the event precipitating the series, in which the hero, a lawyer, finds himself incapable of litigating and resorts to counseling legal clients to represent themselves.  He’s been reading her e-mail since the split, and she’s seeing someone new.  In the pilot, Rex and Lindsey see each other for the first time since their split, and things are heated.  He calls her out on her doofy new boyfriend, and it’s obvious that the two still have some serious feelings for each other (and whoa angst), but she also seems like kind of a bitch.  Oh, and she’s also an attorney, and in the pilot, she’s the one going up against Rex’s first new client.  Toward the end of the pilot, the two share a kiss.  The stage direction reads, “Lindsey looks into his eyes, searching for the man she fell in love with. Then she takes a breath, leans in and kisses him on the lips. It’s soft but intense. She pulls away.”  ANGST.

Okay, so there’s that.

But then, lurking in the shadows …

… in a place so subtle that takes a true devotee of television romance to pick it out of the script pages …

… is Sophia.

Very early in the pilot, we meet Rex’s colleague, Sophia.  She’s either his assistant or a paralegal or some other kind of legal profession that’s not “lawyer.”  The description calls her “26, uniquely appealing, opinionated about the world around her, independent and enthusiastic.”  I like her already.

Throughout the pilot, she’s supportive of Rex in his getting-his-life-back-together business, but she also doesn’t let him get away with any BS.  (She notes that it’s unbelievable that Rex still goes through Lindsey’s email.)  And at the end of the episode, it’s Sophia and Rex (ah, think of the portmanteau possibilities…) who we return to.  He’s obviously still intent on getting Lindsey back, and she may or may not be harboring a crush on her boss.  The last stage direction is, “Sophia smiles as Rex launches into another fabulous story as the bursting light of the sun engulfs them.”  Sweet, right?

So, yeah, I think it’s really promising that the series has set up what looks like a solid love triangle in episode one.  I could see how people would actually ship Rex/Lindsey (probably Skaters, although by that point it’ll be September and they might be changing their outlook on television by that point–teeheehee), and I can see how people would actually ship Rex/Sophia.  I’m very interested to see who gets cast in that part.

Beyond that, the show looks promising.  Likeable characters, a new twist on an old genre, and, well, David Tennant.  What more do you need?