AllMovie

Though packaged for CBS by the successful production team of Brian Grazer, David Nevins and Ian Biederman, the weekly, hour-long legal drama Shark might never have seen the light of day had not celebrated stage and film actor James Woods agreed to sign on as star. Woods was cast as famous and famously arrogant and ruthless defense attorney Sebastian Shark, who literally stopped at nothing to clear his celebrity clients. When one such client ended up beating his wife to death after wriggling out of a domestic-abuse charge, the chastened Shark experienced an epiphany. The formerly flamboyant attorney humbly offered his services as a prosecutor in the office of his longtime enemy, LA district attorney Jessica Devlin (Jeri Ryan), who headed the High Profile Crime Unit. Even though Shark was now working on the side of the angels, he still tended to take an unorthodox (and sometimes underhanded) approach to his job. Others members of Jessica Devlin's team included wealthy, egotistical Casey Woodland (Samuel Page), energetic and eager-to-learn Madline Poe (Sarah Carter), streetwise intellectual Martin Allende (Alexis Cruz) and tough-talking newcomer Raina Troy (Sophina Brown). Also seen in the cast was Danielle Panabaker as Shark's estranged teenage daughter Julie. Shark debuted September 21, 2006, with a pilot episode directed by no less than Spike Lee.