You remember Harriet Korn. Kathy Bates played her with this incredible, grumpy gravitas—a patent lawyer who got fired, hit by a car, and then decided to open a law firm in a literal abandoned shoe store in a rough neighborhood in Cincinnati. Season 1 was quirky. It was David E. Kelley doing what he does best: preaching from a soapbox while making you laugh. But Harry's Law Season 2? That was something else entirely. It was a massive pivot that felt like two different shows fighting for the same soul.
NBC was in a tough spot back then. The show had some of the best total viewer numbers on the network, but the "demo"—that 18-49 age bracket advertisers obsess over—wasn't there. So, the powers that be decided to give the show a facelift. They traded the dusty, cluttered charm of the shoe store for a sleek, glass-walled corporate high-rise. It was jarring. One minute Harry is defending people for stealing bread, and the next, she’s taking on high-stakes murder trials in a mahogany-row environment that looked like it was borrowed from the set of Boston Legal.
The Great Casting Purge and the New Blood
Honestly, the most painful part of the transition into the second season was who we lost. Aml Ameen was gone. Brittany Snow’s Jenna Backstrom, who provided a lot of the show's heart, was suddenly sidelined and eventually phased out. It felt cold. To fill the void, we got Mark Valley as Oliver Richard and Jean Smart as the delightfully antagonistic Roseanna Remmick.
Christopher McDonald stayed on as Tommy Jefferson, thank god. His chemistry with Bates is what kept the show's pulse beating. Tommy is the quintessential peacock—a guy who loves the sound of his own voice and the fit of his expensive suits. Watching him clash with Harry’s "I don't give a damn" attitude in a more professional setting changed the stakes. They weren't just underdogs anymore; they were players.
The shift was intentional. David E. Kelley has gone on record in various interviews discussing how the network pushed for a more "traditional" legal procedural feel. They wanted Law & Order energy with The Practice's flair. What they got was a season that felt a bit schizophrenic. On one hand, you had these deeply moving, small-scale stories about social justice. On the other, you had the "Trial of the Century" arcs that felt a little too polished for a woman who used to keep her office in a place that smelled like old leather and foot spray.
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Why the High-Rise Shift Mattered
When you move a character like Harry Korn into a corporate penthouse, you risk losing her edge. But Kathy Bates is too good for that. She played the discomfort. Harry didn't fit in those hallways, and she knew it. That friction became the engine for much of the drama in Harry's Law Season 2.
The cases got bigger. We’re talking about things like the "Gorilla" case or the heavy-hitting Second Amendment debates that Kelley loves to write. The show became a platform for some of the most intense "closing argument" monologues on television at the time. Harry wasn't just defending clients; she was defending her worldview in a system that she clearly despised.
It’s easy to forget how much the landscape of TV was changing in 2011 and 2012. Streaming was starting to nibble at the edges of the broadcast world. Shows needed to be "big." The intimacy of the shoe store was sacrificed for "scope." Was it a mistake? Ratings stayed decent, but the soul of the show felt stretched thin.
Real Talk: The Writing Style
Kelley’s writing in this season is incredibly dense. It's wordy. It's fast. If you blink, you'll miss a scathing insult or a profound observation about the American legal system. The dialogue isn't how people actually talk—it's how we wish we talked when we were angry.
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- Harry: "I don't like you."
- Roseanna: "Most people don't."
- Harry: "I'm not most people. I'm worse."
That kind of exchange is the bread and butter of this season. It's theatrical. It’s almost like a play that just happens to be set in a courtroom.
The Reality of the Cancellation
Despite the creative shifts and the attempt to court a younger audience, the show didn't survive past this year. NBC canceled it in May 2012. The irony? It was still one of their most-watched scripted programs. The "death by demographics" story of this show is a classic case study in how television used to work before the total fragmentation of the streaming era.
If Harry's Law Season 2 were released today on a platform like Netflix or Max, it probably would have been a massive hit. The older audience that loved the show is the exact demographic that drives a lot of "comfort viewing" success now. But in 2012, if you didn't have the kids watching, you were dead in the water.
Looking back, the season is a fascinating time capsule. It shows a creator trying to balance his artistic instincts with the crushing weight of network notes. You can see the seams where they tried to make it "cooler" and "sexier," and you can see Kathy Bates stubbornly refusing to let the character become a cliché.
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How to Revisit the Series Today
If you’re looking to dive back in, don't expect a seamless transition from the first year. Treat it like a reboot.
- Watch for the Guest Stars: This season had some incredible guest turns, including Alfred Molina and Jean Smart. The acting caliber was never the problem.
- Focus on the Closing Arguments: If you're a fan of legal drama, the speeches Harry gives are some of the finest examples of the genre.
- Ignore the Set Change: Try not to get too hung up on why they left the shoe store. Just accept that they're in the big leagues now.
The show is currently available on various digital platforms for purchase or streaming, depending on your region. It’s worth it just to see Bates at the top of her game. She won an Emmy nomination for this role, and she deserved it. She took a character that could have been a caricature and made her feel like a real, breathing, frustrated human being.
When you finish the final episode, "Onward and Upward," it feels bittersweet. There was clearly more story to tell. Harry was just starting to find her footing in that corporate world without losing her soul. We never got to see her fully burn it all down.
To get the most out of a rewatch, pay attention to the subtext of Harry's relationship with the law. By the end of the second season, she isn't just a lawyer; she’s a philosopher who happens to have a bar license. Focus on the episodes "The Whole Truth" and "There’s Will, and There’s a Way" to see the writing at its peak. These episodes strip away the flash of the new office and get back to the core of what made Harry compelling: her unwavering, often inconvenient, sense of justice. Don't look for a tidy ending, because in the world of Harry Korn, justice is rarely tidy. Look instead for the moments where she refuses to blink in the face of a system designed to make her look away.