--- description: A detailed analysis of the bad judge's infractions title: Bad Judge: Kate Walsh's Bad Behavior, Indexed image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31041161aec1f39/6986a679361760870c90e2fc/bad-judge.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # So How Bad Is the Bad Judge in _Bad Judge_, Really? by [Adam Carlson](/author/adam-carlson/) ## Adam Carlson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 2, 2014 3:00 PM CUT  John Ducey as Tom and Kate Walsh as Rebecca -in NBC's Bad Judge. John Ducey as Tom and Kate Walsh as Rebecca -in NBC's Bad Judge.John Fleenor—NBC by [Adam Carlson](/author/adam-carlson/) ## Adam Carlson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 2, 2014 3:00 PM CUT _This article contains spoilers._ [_Click here_](void%280%29 "undefined") _to reveal them._ If NBC’s _Bad Judge_, premiering tonight, were a different kind of show, its main character would already be in jail. (_T_ _hat_ would be a show worth watching.) In the first two episodes, Kate Walsh, who plays the Hon. Rebecca Wright, does a lot of bad things, but then she _also_ rescues at-risk youth. Wright isn’t as bad as the _Bad Teacher_ that starred Cameron Diaz, but she’s definitely badder than the _Bad Teacher_ that aired on CBS. The show’s not quite _Bad Santa_, but it’s way less lovable than _Bad News Bears —_ while trying to pretend it’s not mugging just as hard. In the first episode, Judge Wright commits the following offenses: \-She wears jean shorts to work \-She drives (and defends driving!) a van emblazoned with a racist mural \-She uses a probably illegally obtained handicap pass \-She has sex on her desk \-She has sex on her desk during work hours \-She bribes the child of parents she sent to prison \-She threatens to “cut” a 12-year-old bully \-She teaches the aforementioned child to sucker-punch the aforementioned bully \-She gives a lenient sentence to an admitted bigamist and probable sociopath \-She brings a child to a bar at 10 p.m. Sensing a pattern? _Bad_ _Judge,_ like many of the _Bad_s before it — comedies all _—_ treats Wright’s misbehavior with air quotes. If she weren’t already fundamentally together, who would be there to give tough love to the Lohan-lite actresses who land before her? Wright is free and fun and learning about life and herself. She doesn’t care about niceties. She cares about _justice_. (We know that she cares because she has to keep denying that she does.) Walsh, at least, is having a blast where she can, burping and drugging and sending a courtroom full of paparazzi to lock-up. Too bad her show mistakes saying something outrageous with saying something funny. And all that misbehavior can’t cover over a lot of Sitcom 101 hi-jinks, including: a black sidekick, a cute colleague, a blowhard colleague, and a put-upon boss. The gold standard for this type of thing is _It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_, which is a show that actually _is_ insane. _Bad Judge_ is just wasted potential: if she didn’t have to be so good, Rebecca Wright would actually be pretty good at being bad. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3446298/bad-judge-kate-walsh-rebecca-wright/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3446298/bad-judge-kate-walsh-rebecca-wright/"},"headline":"So How Bad Is the Bad Judge in Bad Judge, Really?","datePublished":"2014-10-02T15:00:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:28:31.935Z","description":"A detailed analysis of the bad judge's infractions","url":"https://time.com/3446298/bad-judge-kate-walsh-rebecca-wright/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31041161aec1f39/6986a679361760870c90e2fc/bad-judge.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Adam Carlson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/adam-carlson/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd31041161aec1f39/6986a679361760870c90e2fc/bad-judge.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bad Judge - Season Pilot","caption":"Bad Judge - Season Pilot","creditText":"John Fleenor—NBC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3446298/bad-judge-kate-walsh-rebecca-wright/","name":"So How Bad Is the Bad Judge in Bad Judge, Really?"}}]}] ```