Janet King is the spinoff of Australian crime series Crownies. The series follows Janet, several characters from Crownies and a few new characters joining the National Crimes Commission. The series is noticeably darker this time around, with more focus on arc villains and enemies within the legal system. Rather than having a single series with lots of episodes like its predecessor, Janet King has eight episodes per series.
It aired for three seasons between 2014 and 2017.
Janet King contains examples of:
- Amoral Attorney: Owen Mitchell openly admits to fudging evidence to put away criminals or lying about deals to convince witnesses to go to trial. Not to mention the fact he's the one leaking rumors about Janet and Erin to the press, potentially costing Janet her job.
- Big Bad: In the first season of Janet King police constable Jack Rizzoli, who was revealed to have orchestrated the overarching plot. For Janet King's second season, Patrick Baccaro. For its third season, Darren Faulkes.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Ben is noticeably absent from the series, only briefly appearing in Series 3. Erin and Tatum only appear for the first series.
- Darker and Edgier: There's noticeably less humour this time around. Especially prevalent when Ash is killed in between Series 1 and 2.
- Downer Ending: The Series 3 finale is by far the most depressing. Darren Faulkes gets away with everything, Bianca breaks up with Janet, Zoe dies from tainted drugs and Lina gives up on taking the bar exam. The only real highlight is that Pearl's life gets better.
- It Never Gets Any Easier: Lina's increased aggression in the workplace leads to her taking mandatory therapy sessions. Richard also finds himself taking on cases that his colleagues would find morally grey, which he gets defensive over.
