Started September 22, 2016 · Canceled · Based on 1 season, 10 episodes through December 8, 2016 · TV-14 · 43 min
Notorious follows Julia George, the powerful producer of a Los Angeles cable news show, and Jake Gregorian, a famous defense lawyer. They use each other to shape headlines, protect clients, and control public opinion while a murder case pulls their private lives into the fight. Each episode mixes a new crime or scandal with the larger mystery around Sarah Keaton's death. The tone is glossy, fast, sexual, and cynical, and it treats news and law as worlds where image can matter more than truth.
The show gives Julia and several other women control over major news decisions, while men often serve as rivals, clients, lovers, or helpers. The two main lawyers are black brothers with an Armenian family name, although the show only loosely uses a real Armenian lawyer as its model. It also includes a short but important gay love story in which Levi's hidden love for Oscar leads to betrayal and suicide. Several episodes discuss women being paid less, women being passed over for men, the double standard around older women with younger men, and news coverage that favors blonde, wealthy victims over poorer women of color. Those ideas are clear but they support sensational crime stories more than they shape the whole season.
Community feedback
Was our 61% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Notorious.
Woke representation / casting
The series places Julia, a white woman, in charge of the number-one cable news show. The series also gives major roles to two Black brothers in law and a visibly mixed supporting group that includes Latino, Iranian-American, and Filipino-American performers. The Los Angeles setting makes a mixed staff believable, so the casting is not a strong setting mismatch. Daniel Sunjata publicly called the people-of-color leads progressive and described the Black brothers with an Armenian surname as a major win. The repeated lead pattern and that framing support a clear but not dominant score.
48%
Woke political dialogue
The show directly says that Julia's former boss paid female editors less than men. The show calls out news coverage that favors blonde, blue-eyed, upper-middle-class girls over poorer girls. The show also discusses women being passed over for men and the double standard around older women dating younger men. These lines recur in several episodes, but they sit inside crime and media plots instead of driving every episode.
47%
Identity-driven story themes
The series makes Levi's love for Oscar a major part of the first murder arc. The series shows Levi hiding that love by pretending to be SweetVicki, and his suicide becomes a key plot turn. Julia later turns a missing-girl story into a challenge to news coverage that favors rich, white-looking victims. The show also returns to women's pay, career barriers, and sexual double standards in later episodes. Crime, sex, and media power remain the main story, so the identity themes are strong subplots rather than the whole show.
50%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Episode 6 has Julia say that news outlets chase blonde, blue-eyed, upper-middle-class girls while ignoring other missing girls. The episode links that choice to weaker police attention and makes LHL admit its own bias. Episodes 8 and 9 show women being passed over by men and judged differently for sex with younger men. The series also attacks news and law as corrupt, but much of that is general crime-drama cynicism.
38%
Woke character or canon changes
The series loosely uses Armenian attorney Mark Geragos as the model for Jake. The released show makes Jake and Bradley Black brothers with an Armenian family name. Daniel Sunjata's interview openly points out that identity change and praises the choice as a progressive win. The series does not present Geragos by name, so the source change is visible but limited.
30%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. Reviews and viewer posts mainly argued about weak writing, sleaze, and whether the show was fun or boring. No clear anti-woke or anti-left backlash about identity, DEI, or political messaging was found.
0%
Creator track record context
Josh Berman brings a strong LGBT and representation-focused record from Drop Dead Diva. Berman also said that Notorious would address the gender pay gap and include gay characters. Allie Hagan has no comparable activist or identity-driven record in the stored context. The mixed creative team therefore gives the title a moderate creator track record context, led by Berman.
36%
Production
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