Chemistry jumps off screen in ‘Family Law’
Veteran actor says dramedy one of best experiences he’s had
It seems fitting that on a show in which he plays a somewhat indifferent father to three adult children, Victor Garber didn’t get to interact with his co-stars until filming had already begun.
The kids — Jewel Staite (“Firefly,” “The Killing”), Zach Smadu (“Cardinal,” “The Expanse”) and Genelle Williams (“Remedy,” “Bitten”) — had already met and bonded during a screen test for “Family Law,” but Garber was delayed while shooting sci-fi comedy series “The Orville.”
Luckily, the quartet turned out to have chemistry “in spades,” according to the veteran Canadian actor. “The miracle of chemistry, it either happens or it doesn’t … We don’t take it for granted,” Garber said during a Zoom call. “It’s a gift to be with all these people.”
“Family Law” is one of the few Canadian shows making its debut during a fall season packed, as usual on Canadian networks, with American imports. It premieres Friday on Global TV.
Garber, 72, is clearly the marquee name in the comedy drama. If you watch TV or movies you’ve seen him in something.
It might have been “Alias,” as father to Jennifer Garner’s spy character, or superhero shows “The Flash” and “Legends of Tomorrow” as physicist Martin Stein. Or maybe you caught him in the Oscar-winning movies “Titanic,” as naval architect Thomas Andrews, and “Argo,” as Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor. And that’s a fraction of his credits on both sides of the border.
It seems high praise, then, when the London, Ont.-born Garber says “Family Law” is one of the best experiences he’s had as an actor.
The series is part legal procedural, part family dramedy, created by Susin Nielsen (“Robson Arms,” “The Adventures of Shirley Holmes”), who said during the Banff World Media Festival in June it was inspired by the skeletons in her own family closet and not having known her father.
Garber’s Harry Svensson, a successful family lawyer in Vancouver, has three children by three wives. He left Abigail’s mother (played by TV vet Lauren Holly) when Abby was seven for his second wife, who was pregnant with Daniel (Smadu). He left her for the mother of Lucy (Williams), who died when Lucy was eight, leaving Harry to raise her.
Daniel and Lucy work for Harry as a lawyer and psychologist, respectively. Abigail, also a lawyer and a recovering alcoholic, reluctantly joins them after a courtroom mishap turned viral YouTube video gets her suspended and Dad’s is the only law firm that will hire her. Her estranged pop and half-siblings are as reluctant to have her as Abby is to be there, but she’s an effective, intuitive lawyer — albeit not always as focused on making money as her father would like.
“Abby definitely takes after her dad, whether she will ever admit that or not,” Staite said during the Zoom call. Both blunt to the point of offence, “Harry and Abby just show the truth of things a little more often than some people do.
“Everybody in this show is flawed,” she added. “There are a lot of things about Daniel that can be deemed unlikeable or even Lucy, in later episodes of Season 1, you find out lots of things about Lucy that aren’t very favourable. But it’s all about showing people for who they really are and then having them learn how to get through those struggles.”
“There are very few dramas about nice people,” noted Garber.
“That’s the definition of drama … it’s about people who are flawed and why would you want to watch anything else?”
Whether people will watch is always the unknown variable for a Canadian show. Only a rare few homegrown scripted programs, like CTV’s “Transplant” or Global’s now cancelled “Private Eyes,” break the million-plus viewer threshold.
“Family Law” has already been renewed for and shot a second season.
Having seen the first two episodes, I can say that the chemistry the actors rave about jumps off the screen, and that it’s funny and clever, skilfully weaving its comedic and dramatic elements.
“When this show came along it had all the things that I wanted,” said Staite. “The people involved are wonderful … and then we have these beautiful stories; these scripts are completely amazing and so much fun to do as an actor … like it feels too good to be true.
“Some days, you know, I’m going, ‘Please just watch the show so I can keep doing this job.’ So hopefully we’ll get to do it for longer.”