Tonight is the season finale of CBS’ legal drama series All Rise, in which the producers have put together a virtual pandemic-themed episode titled “Dancing at Los Angeles.”
ALL RISE is a courthouse drama that follows the chaotic, hopeful and sometimes absurd lives of its judges, prosecutors and public defenders, as they work with bailiffs, clerks and cops to get justice for the people of Los Angeles amidst a flawed legal process. Among them is newly appointed Judge Lola Carmichael (Simone Missick), a highly regarded and impressive deputy district attorney who doesn’t intend to sit back on the bench in her new role, but instead leans in, immediately pushing the boundaries and challenging the expectations of what a judge can be.
With Los Angeles under a mandatory shelter-in-place order and trials piling up, Judge Benner authorizes Judge Carmichael to preside over a virtual bench trial, a case regarding a dispute between brothers over a car, on the virtually produced, timely episode. While Emily represents the defendant, Kurt Beto (Mo McRae), Mark represents the prosecution, marking the first time he tries a case in Lola’s “court.”
Also, Mark and Quinn (Lindsey Gort) explore how to continue their romantic relationship while quarantined in separate homes; Judge Benner oversees court from afar and learns to cook; Sara finds temporary work as a food delivery driver; Luke and Emily’s relationship is taxed by separation; and germaphobe and type-A Sherri contends with the new world (dis)order.
Throughout it all, unknown dance party DJ Tailwind (Dorian Missick) offers a comforting, irreverent voice for all Angelenos in lockdown by sharing his music and thoughts via his laptop at home.
For Missick, this episode is special because she gets to work, although not together on-screen, with her husband Dorian Missick, who is portraying his real-life moniker, DJ Tailwind.
In speaking exclusively with Blackfilm.com, Missick talks about the episode, the judicial system and working again with her husband.
How would you best describe the episode we’re about to see?
Simone Missick: This episode of All Rise watches our characters, this band of folks who work in the downtown LA judicial system, try to manage still giving justice to people in the height of this pandemic. It was written by Greg Spottiswood, our show coach, learner and other writers within a couple of days, and they really had to think about what were the state of things going to be three weeks from now, which is when the episode would air and and really figure out where would the legal system be? What would each of these characters be doing? How would they be managing within this crisis, and it’s very similar to the way a lot of people are dealing. If there is a feeling of loneliness and fear and anxiety and then they still that need that we all have to connect.
The episode is really great because unlike most episodes, we have almost a narrator who was the DJ and that DJ is played by my husband Dorian Missick, who is Tailwind Turner in real life and on the show. It gets to bring an element that we’ve seen a lot of people using during this time on social media of watching their favorite DJs watching battles on Instagram and staying up till all hours of the night listening to people spin music and we get to see that also be integrated into a show that’s really different from a lot of our episodes. It’s definitely an honest look at the way that people are dealing with the Coronavirus and we do it in our own special All Rise way with good dialogue, these funny characters and relationships just really taking these matters seriously.
How much of the episode is scripted dialogue and how much of it is from what you’re doing in real life?
Simone Missick: All of it is scripted. It is definitely scripted. We don’t improv that often on our show. We really try to work as much as it out ahead of time with our writers in order to make sure that everything that’s happening is honest and true, but there were some really funny moments that happened from the technology of it all of shooting it virtually that made it into the show. There was a moment where one of our leads Ruthie Ann Miles, who plays Sherri, she kept muting herself and forgetting to take yourself off mute. She would go to deliver her lines and we’re like, “Ruthie, we can’t hear you.” and she’s like, “Oh crap!” Then she would unmute herself. So there’s a part on the show where she’s like, “Am I muted? All of you get out of here. Get out of this conference call.” It was just something that came up in real life and then made it onto the show. And there are a bunch of little moments like that I think the audience will be able to pick up on, but for the most part, the words were very beautifully written by our writers.
When you look at the judicial system, what happens to the to the everyday people like judges and lawyers and cases that still have to be tried and people that are still waiting to hopefully get out or be freed?
Simone Missick: That’s what the show attempts to tackle. The way that our justice system works now, pre-Coronavirus or BC is I like to call it Before Coronavirus, I think public defenders only had something crazy like anywhere from 12 to 22 minutes with a client. That’s how overworked they are. That’s how many cases they have to manage. It’s a sign of how stressed our judicial system is. The idea that trials are being pushed and delayed indefinitely, and people are being held in prison for lengthy periods of time, just because of the sheer manpower and the weight of the pandemic, is a scary thing about what happens when the pandemic is over. Our show seeks to tackle what that is. There are a lot of different courts around the country who are making decisions about lowering bail amounts to zero and doing so for nonviolent offenders in order to reduce the number of people being brought into jail.
We are keying in on all of those things that are happening in real time to the men and women who work within the criminal justice system and who are caught up in the system. And the idea that, there are so many prisoners who may or may not be guilty, regardless, it doesn’t matter of their level of guilt, whose health and lives are being lost every day as a result of staying in confined quarters. And the men and women who guard them. No one should have to suffer in the way that we see a lot of people in our prison systems that are jailed, suffering and being asked to do things that aren’t safe. We choose to touch on that throughout this episode as well. It’s really exciting to be at the forefront of telling that kind of story. that’s not just framed around the news.
I haven’t done the research, but you and Dorian have probably set the record for most times that a married couple have worked together on different projects. How was it the doing again this time?
Simone Missick: It was great. This time, interestingly, we’re not working on screen together because, obviously, for the sake of the story, these characters don’t live together. They don’t know each other. He’s just a DJ. What was really fun is, there’s a dance party, and he’s DJing it and I’m in one part of the house, listening to the music, and he’s in the on the other part of the house playing the music. Even just setting up for that shot, it was like, “Okay, I get to use this light, but you get to use that light” because we’re sharing equipment. It was really fun to be able to have him on the show in a way that I think is really organic to who he is as a person and as an artist. Dorian’s been for DJing for years and he has a party in LA called Cherry Poppin Wednesdays and he’s been on Instagram, doing doing different benefits and fundraisers; and then just playing for for his normal Wednesday night crowd. For the show writers to come in and ask him to do so on the show was exciting because who knows if or when either of us would have been able to work on each other shows like this. His show was on ABC with For Life and our show is on CBS. Those are two competing networks and they figured out a way to make it work and for us to be two of the very few actors working right now in this industry when hundreds of shows and productions have been shut down, that’s not lost on me. I think that’s a great blessing.
Have you appeared on his IG Live sets?
Simone Missick: Probably walking in the background, I think I have like a towel or some water once and I let that be that. I stay out of that. I’m not dancing. I’m dancing on the other side of the camera.
As you play a judge on the show, are you learning about the judicial system as you play this character?
Simone Missick: I think that our writers really aim to be authentic. They take stories that are not ripped from the headlines, but ripped from the inside pages of newspapers that are the stories that people don’t always pay attention to. It is still affecting a person’s life, individuals lives and so I’m definitely being educated throughout the season on different procedures. Things that are legal and illegal. I don’t think that they shy away from shining a spotlight on some of the failures of our judicial system, and then also offering up alternatives and hope. I get a lot of people who are lawyers and judges who say, “I do not like watching legal shows, but there is something about your show that I quite enjoy.”
That’s a huge thing. It’s not lost on me that our show does a good job of painting all sides of the story. It’s not just this liberal, idealistic point of view. it’s not just this conservative, point of view. It really highlights everyone’s points of view when it comes to how we look at the justice system. We are able to do so in this time, especially talking about something that’s so present like the pandemic that is on everyone’s new cycle in everyone’s household. Most people know at least one person who is impacted by it. This is something that’s very important for the world to be seeing take place on screen, and it’s asking the questions that lots of legal systems around the world are having to ask.
Has the show been renewed for season 2?
Simone Missick: We have not found that out yet. Hopefully, the success of this episode will solidify that but I think that because the the pandemic is such an evolving thing. It’s something that we’re as an industry, we don’t see the necessarily the solutions yet on how to do it safely, as a lot of industries are trying to figure it out how to get people back to work safely. I think hopefully once we have the nation and as a world figure that out, our show will be getting picked up for that second season.
Behind The Scenes Preview of the All Rise virtual Season Finale
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