Line #34 Series/FranklinAndBash


1	''Franklin & Bash'' is a comedy/legal series on Creator/{{TNT}}. It stars Creator/MarkPaulGosselaar (aka Zack Morris of ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' fame) as Peter Bash and {{Creator/Breckin Meyer}} as Jared Franklin, two irreverent young lawyers and legal partners who are recruited to a prestigious law firm to bring a fresh energy to the overly-stuffy atmosphere in the law firm. It ran for four seasons from 2011 to 2014.
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4	!!Tropes in ''Franklin & Bash'':
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6	* AmbiguousEnding: Two in the finale. [[spoiler:Franklin and Bash take a roulette, with the black or red determining whether they stay in Los Angeles or move to a new job in Austin. No say on what happens if [[TakeAThirdOption it lands on green.]]]] The second is with Stanton, [[spoiler:who begins choking on a cracker as the episode ends.]]
7	* AmoralAttorney: Damien in the first episode, when he colludes with a CEO to sell out an airline pilot to limit an airline's liability by paying a witness to make false testimony. He rarely if ever sinks that low in future episodes but still is arguably TheFriendNobodyLikes.
8	* AmbulanceChaser: How the two are operating in the first episode, but LighterAndSofter versions as per the show's tone.
9	* BlueOni: Peter is more calm and less impulsive.
10	* BollywoodNerd: Pindar is a somewhat geeky Indian.
11	* BrilliantButLazy: Both Franklin and Bash, of course.
12	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Peter and Jared are both pop culture buffs prone to CourtroomAntics, but they have a good record of wins.
13	* CallingTheOldManOut: Franklin, with his father.
14	* CelebrityParadox:
15	** F&B have a poster of ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' in their home. Their boss is played by Creator/MalcolmMcDowell.
16	** In another episode someone brings up ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' to which Stanton replies, "I love that director!"
17	* TheCharmer: Bash.
18	* ClearTheirName: The first season finale has Franklin & Bash working hard to clear [[spoiler: Stanton Infeld of murder charges]].
19	* CoolOldGuy: Stanton Infeld, naturally. After all, he hired Franklin and Bash himself.
20	* DatingCatwoman: Peter has some chemistry with Wendy Cowell starting when she's suing one of their clients in her first episode.
21	* DeadpanSnarker: While some characters excel in being snarky, the deadpan can be found mostly with Damian. Or as he would put it - Awesome.
22	* EmbarrassingFirstName: Jared's real first name is Elmo.
23	* FaceHeelTurn: Rachel, the films new partner, embezzles millions of dollars for their clients and flees the country between seasons 3 and 4.
24	* FairCop: Wendy, Peter's short-lived girlfriend is an attractive cop.
25	* FakingTheDead: A notorious prankster fakes his own murder to get revenge on his former best friend who is engaged to the prankster's former girlfriend.
26	* {{Fanservice}}: Plenty, starting with every party Franklin and Bash host. Especially apparent in the episode where they defend the two pole-dancing instructors. Bash has plenty of shirtless scenes too. He also had one scene exiting a hot tub in the nude.
27	* FortuneTeller: The Infield family is revealed to have one in the finale, who has predicted numerous things from when members of the family would die to [[spoiler:Stanton stabbing his friend.]] The last prediction, [[spoiler:that Stanton will be killed by a "noble fish", is seemingly averted when Stanton eats some fugu and lives just fine.]] But as the episode ends [[spoiler:Stanton begins choking on some crackers from the "Noble Fish" brand.]]
28	* GeniusDitz: Again, both Franklin and Bash. They have zany personalities, but they arguably use this to their advantage in the courtroom, allowing them both to be almost-literal {{Bunny Ears Lawyer}}s.
29	* GotVolunteered: Their corrupt client in "Big Fish". Determined not to let the guy pull a KarmaHoudini (but also afraid of getting themselves disbarred for unethical conduct they claim that if acquitted, the man will volunteer his business skills to help the economy of Haiti for the next several years, and the man is too startled to deny this before it's on record, and he faces contempt of court charges if he reneges.
30	* [[SheIsAllGrownUp He's All Grown Up]]: The flashback in "Waiting on a Friend" showing Peter and Jared's first meeting showed Peter was fat, had curly hair, and short (shorter than Jared).
31	* HelloAttorney: Peter is a male version. Hanna is the quintessential female example of the trope.
32	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Peter and Jared are long-time close friends and companions, and both are heterosexual womanizers.
33	%%* HollywoodLaw:
34	* IronicEcho: Used by Damien in the season finale to put Britt in her place.
35	* LighterAndSofter: Than your average procedural. Hell. even ''Series/BostonLegal'' is a tad darker by comparison.
36	* LongBusTrip: Wendy disappears about halfway through season 2 and doesn't reappear until an episode of season 4 which reveals she and Peter broke up after he forgot an important date (although they manage to be AmicableExes).
37	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: At the start of the Season 3 premiere, Franklin and Bash foolishly make a bet with Stanton's new partner, Rachel King, that results in the two of them having to complete a live nationally broadcast interview on the Piers Morgan Show in the nude except for shoes and socks. (They're concealed by a desk, but the sideshots suggest that Mark Paul Gosselaar was actually naked.)
38	* OfficeSports: One episode opens up with a curling game using janitor brooms and people sitting in rolling chairs.
39	* OffWithHisHead: A comedic [[spoiler: and post mortem]] version. When Stanton says goodbye to [[spoiler: his long deceased friend]] he pats him on the cheek...and his head falls off.
40	* OutWithABang: In an early episode Franklin and Bash are tasked with defending a woman accused of killing her wealthy old husband with sex that caused a heart attack.
41	* PerverseSexualLust: They cite [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Betty Rubble]] and [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Jessica Rabbit]] as the hottest animated women, and Pindar says the title goes to [[Anime/SailorMoon Setsuna Meiou/Trista Meiou/Sailor Pluto]] (gaining stares from the rest of them).
42	* PutOnABus: Hannah in Season 3, and Carmen and Pindar in season 4.
43	* RedOni: Jared is the more easily angered and risk-taking of th pair.
44	* RefugeInAudacity: A man who is FakingTheDead appears to Pindar on a beach while wearing a sci-fi costume. He knows that Peter and Jared cannot not use this to prove in court that he is alive because Pindar will never be believed if called as a witness.
45	%%** The main characters often engage in this as part of their CourtroomAntics.
46	* RightForTheWrongReasons: In "Big Fish" Damien and Hana get Pindar attached to meet with a client their trying to hook because she's Indian and so is Pindar. The woman instantly sees through their transparent appeal for a CommonalityConnection by having a lawyer with the same skin color as her. Then it turns out that she's a fellow germaphobe which sparks a more sincere CommonalityConnection with Pindar (and she likes his business ideas), meaning that he was the right lawyer for the job, just not as an appeal to tokenism.
47	* StockLegalPhrases
48	* ThanatosGambit: One episode has an old man whose prized baseball is the subject of a lawsuit (and who knows he has a bad heart) keep the baseball inside the clothes he wants to be buried in, along with a letter saying that any of his heirs who dig up his body (trying to get at the ball) will be disowned.
49	* TitleDrop: The protagonists refer to themselves as "Franklin and Bash" often, and the titles of some of the episodes are also sometimes dropped in such as in "Bro-bono" and "Franklin vs. Bash".
50	* WorkingWithTheEx:
51	** Bash's ex is an assistant District Attorney against whom he has a 1 for 14 record early on in the season.
52	** Hannah and Damian.

Context Series / FranklinAndBash