Dulé Hill will return to the dramatic arena from whence he came to co-star in CBS’s pilot Doubt. Fans probably know Hill as the co-star of the USA comedy Psych, but his breakout role was Charlie Young, personal aide to the president, on The West Wing. And even though Aaron Sorkin’s White House drama could be as playful as anything on TV at times, it seemed like Hill was always the vehicle of anguish—his character’s backstory included a police officer mother who was killed in the line of duty, and his courting of the president’s daughter triggered a violent plot from white supremacists. But all that was made okay by President Bartlett occasionally clapping Charlie on the back or giving him absurd gifts like Paul Revere’s carving knife.
It sounds like Hill will be afforded more levity in Doubt, as Deadline reports that he’ll play Albert, a lawyer with “a good sense of humor” and a close friend of Sadie, the show’s main character who probably never laughs at all. Sadie and Albert are working on “a very high-profile case, representing a member of a prominent New York family.” Sadie eventually becomes romantically involved with the client, who might be guilty of a brutal crime, likely prompting Hill to crack wise about the situation using terrible law puns. (“You sure habeased his corpus!”)
Also cast are Kobi Libii (Alpha House) as Nick, “a smart, ambitious, and enterprising recent law school graduate,” and Laverne Cox (Orange Is The New Black) as Cameron, a “competitive and compassionate” transgender attorney. Doubt comes from longtime Grey’s Anatomy executive producers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, so look for most of the show to take place outside of the courtroom and inside elevators or supply closets at the law firm where characters will air their grievances, have sex, or both at once.