Judging Amy

What does a career woman want? Evidently, her mommy. Continuing Providence's theme of regressing professional girly women, Amy takes as its heroine Judge Amy Gray (Amy Brenneman), who's returned from New York City to Hartford, Conn., to live with her social-worker mother (Tyne Daly). Amy benefits from a strong cast and a slightly harder-nosed attitude than its treacly forebear, but if this judge doesn't stop wearing her robe like a security blanket soon, she's going to try our patience.

--By James Poniewozik