The Best Episodes of Judging Amy
Last Updated: Feb 13, 2019
A family drama focused on three generations of women living together in Hartford, Connecticut. Amy Brenneman plays Amy Gray, who left New York City behind and now works as a family court judge. Karle Warren plays Lauren, Amy's daughter; Tyne Daly is Maxine, Amy's tough, opinionated mother.
#1 - Crowded House
Season 1 - Episode 10
Amy hears the case of an extremely abused, mentally ill teenager who has stabbed a teacher; Vincent's agent finds him a publisher who will sign him only if he completes another short story in the next four days; Maxine tries to help an overstressed young mother who is afraid that she will hurt her baby; Lauren strains Amy's patience as she waxes enthusiastically over Michael's girlfriend; Maxine faces a house full of her children for a week as Vincent moves back home to devote all his energies to writing, and Gillian takes a much-needed break from the strain that infertility has placed on her marriage; Vincent's short story inspires Gillian to return home to Peter and reconsider adoption.
8.60
#2 - My Name is Amy Gray...
Season 6 - Episode 22
Amy says her final goodbyes to Graciela. Maxine realizes that she made a mistake in pushing Ignacio away and tries to reach out to him but Ignacio rebuffs her because he doesn't want to be her yo-yo, jerked around on Maxine's whims. Bruce is still absent on Amy's last day in the courtroom. Holbrook tries to raise awareness about the bill before Congress that will effectively kill the juvenille justice system. Donna is amazed that Amy refuses to support the cause and brings several of the kids whose lives Amy has changed during her time on the bench in an effort to change her mind. Amy, frustrated by her limitations as a judge, runs into Marty Levine, who again tries to convince her to give the speech in Washington and run for Senate. Amy runs the idea by Lauren who at first refuses to give a straight answer but later supports her mom when Maxine attacks the decision. That same night, Maxine must rush to save a young girl from being pimped out by her prostitute mother. Amy receive
8.50
#3 - Come Back Soon
Season 3 - Episode 24
Although Amy tries to make the best of it, she and Lauren are still miserable in their small apartment; unable to avoid running into Jared and his date at the diner while looking and feeling her worst, Maxine gives him the cold shoulder, but Jared remains undeterred in his affection for her and finally gets her to accept an engagement ring; Michael sues for full legal custody of Lauren; just as Amy is prepared to ask her mother if she can move back in, she discovers that Maxine has puts her house up for sale; Bruce pleads no contest on his assault charge and receives a suspended sentence; Amy hears a case of a woman who locked her children in the trunk of her car because she had no one to care for them while she was at work; Maxine ends her medical leave after her dentist asks her to investigate the possible abuse of a teenaged patient; Bruce is fired and the dreaded Ian Jankowski is promoted to C.S.O. and assigned to Amy's courtroom.
8.43
#4 - The Extinction of the Dinosaurs
Season 3 - Episode 14
Barry invites Amy to a business dinner, where her outspokenness almost gets the better of her and the budding relationship with Barry; with Kyle's help, Maxine searches the streets for a runaway gay teen, and she later agrees to let him stay at her house until she finds him another foster home placement; Amy must decide if a teenager who wrote a play about killing bullies, joked about school shootings, and considers the Holocaust a warning to the ruling classes, presents a threat to society; Maxine's already strained patience with the way Brian is running Teen Harbor snaps when she witnesses a drug deal there, and she orders it closed, incurring Kyle's wrath; as Bruce prepares a recommendation for Amy on whether a woman whose alcoholism caused her to lose custody of her children should be reunited with them, he isn't entirely convinced that she has stopped drinking and decides to do a little surveillance, bringing along Andrea to keep him company.
8.40
#5 - Requiem
Season 4 - Episode 20
Stu convinces a reluctant Amy to go on an overnight camping trip which ends up bringing them closer together; after planning to wed Jared secretly on the weekend, Maxine is devastated when he has a sudden, fatal heart attack in China and lashes out in her grief to everyone around her, including a rebellious teenaged client; tensions run high in the Gray household when Maxine refuses to allow anyone to comfort her, and Peter and Charles bicker over the funeral arrangements as a way of handling their sorrow; Maxine gathers family and friends at the diner for a moving memorial service.
8.33
#6 - Victim Soul
Season 1 - Episode 4
Amy must determine if a comatose boy who is believed to have healing powers is being abused by his grandmother; Maxine clashes with her supervisor over taking an underfed little girl away from her anorexic mother; Vincent begins a relationship with an older woman.
8.21
#7 - Lullaby
Season 6 - Episode 2
Vincent's struggles with his latest novel leads him into blowing off his agent, who responds by dropping Vincent and demanding the return of the advance that Vincent's already spent; Maxine receives another award, and uses her acceptance speech to talk about the young boy lost in the system that she and Sean can't seem to locate; Amy's dealings with two troubled teenage girls and their mothers in Accountability court inspires her to change her focus when she returns to Juvenile Court; Maxine tries to avoid removing the children of a overburdened single mother working to overcome anger and abuse issues; David finally feels that he's put his wife's death behind him and can now pursue a relationship with Amy; Ignacio lets Maxine know that he's ready to do whatever it takes to have a future with her; Amy fires Donna to propel her into practicing law; Kyle decides to accompany Heather to Minnesota and take care of their son while she's in rehab.
8.20
#8 - Short Calendar
Season 1 - Episode 2
Short calendar day drops 54 cases on Amy's docket, and the long day stretches into night when she's forced to make a life and death decision about the fate of an abused child; Maxine decides to return to work; Amy's confrontation with Lauren's obnoxious new teacher leaves her with yet another responsibility in an already jam-packed calendar.
8.17
#9 - Sex, Lies and Expedia.com
Season 5 - Episode 23
Unwilling to let a poor client go to extremes to get prompt medical attention for her daughter, Maxine finds a way to get D.C.F. to cover the surgery the girl needs; David declares his love for Amy; Maxine gets shocking news about Ignacio and breaks off their relationship; Amy tragically miscalculates a teenager's propensity for violence; increasingly jealous over Peter's involvement with Shelby, Gillian confronts him about the future of their marriage, and doesn't like the response she gets; with the help of Buck and a little gunfire, Kyle finally finds a career path he can get excited about; the Grays receive a very unexpected, and very welcome, visitor.
8.14
#10 - Trial By Jury
Season 1 - Episode 3
Sitting in for a friend who's undergoing chemotherapy, Amy presides over her first jury trial and clashes with a former law school classmate who represents the parents of a murdered girl who are suing the parents of her teenaged killer; Maxine shops for a new car for the first time in her life; Vincent feels that Maxine doesn't take his writing seriously after she interrupts his work to ask him to babysit the six rambunctious first graders attending Lauren's sleepover party.
8.06
#11 - The Persistence of Tectonics
Season 1 - Episode 9
Amy juggles preparing Thanksgiving dinner, being on call, and coping with a surprise announcement from Michael; Gillian asks Maxine for help in financing another in-vitro procedure; Amy presides over an adoption in which the biological father shows up at the last minute to claim his child; Hillary tries to settle the score with Vincent during a Thanksgiving party at Alan's; Amy sentences two boys convicted of animal cruelty.
8.00
#12 - Spoil the Child
Season 1 - Episode 12
Amy threatens to remove a young boy from the custody of a father who asserts his right to beat his son regularly with a belt, leaving welts; Maxine becomes frustrated by her ever-increasing case load and a system that doesn't seem to care about the children it should be serving as she struggles to get placements for two orphaned and mentally ill siblings; Gillian and Peter begin the adoptive process; Vincent and Donna work out some roommate issues; Amy's assertiveness in dealing with a judge who disrupts her courtroom lands her a job offer; Donna turns to a reluctant Vincent for advice after her conjugal visit with Oscar goes badly; Lauren goes into a full-tilt brat meltdown when the dancing supply store runs out of her recital costume after Amy waits too long to order it; Amy stays up all night to make the costume after spurning Maxine's offer to help.
8.00
#13 - Gray vs. Gray
Season 1 - Episode 21
Maxine gets a new supervisor at D.C.F.; Donna becomes stressed when Oscar's attorneys petition to have his conviction reversed; Amy and Maxine are at odds over having Maxine's terminally ill client testify in a case that Amy is hearing; Vincent counsels Donna against telling Oscar about her attraction to other men, and reassures her that her feelings are normal.
8.00
#14 - Men Aren't Monsters
Season 3 - Episode 19
The Gray house is completely ransacked by vandals who appear to have targeted the house after receiving an adverse judgment in Amy's courtroom, and it takes all of Amy's persuasiveness to convince herself and her daughter that they are safe; after Joe McKenzie takes over at Teen Harbor, Kyle disagrees with his strict approach but they settle their differences after Joe sees how Kyle uses his training to treat an epileptic teenager; Maxine enlists Sean's help in her own investigation into Pamela Taylor's death at Buckley Hills; Amy hears the case of parents accused of abuse for transferring their son to a new school every year to get him more easily noticed by the scouts who can recommend him for a college basketball scholarship; Maxine finally finds the perfect foster father for Eric right under her very nose, although it takes a little convincing for both the adult and the teenager to see the wisdom of her choice; against his better judgment, Bruce spends the night at Andrea's house,
8.00
#15 - The Bottle Show
Season 3 - Episode 20
Maxine is saddened when Jared fails to call her upon his return from China, so Sean arranges a casino night fund raiser to cheer her up; a born-again teenager charges her mother with parental neglect for working as a stripper, and Amy must decide whether to place the girl in foster care; Donna confronts Kyle after she finds a syringe and morphine in his room drawers and is relieved to hear that he keeps it as a reminder that he is capable of making the choice to stay clean every day; after his daughter tells him about her ill-timed encounter with Bruce, David Solomon files a complaint against Andrea, who immediately ends her relationship with Bruce for fear of losing custody; responding to a message from Bruce attempting to explain the situation, Solomon shows up at the courthouse and threatens, taunts and insults Bruce, who is arrested and jailed after he knocks Solomon to the ground with a punch.
8.00
#16 - Lost and Found
Season 4 - Episode 11
Maxine incurs the wrath of the mothers in Lauren's carpool; Amy fears her parenting skills will be called into question when a family-relations officer visits her home as part of Michael's custody suit; Kyle and Lily try to locate a man Lily misdiagnosed and prematurely released from the hospital; Maxine feels Sean's new relationship with a new foster mother is inappropriate; substituting in probate court, Amy rules on whether a mother can have her son declared legally dead despite the father's hope that the boy, who disappeared four years earlier, is still alive.
8.00
#17 - Roadhouse Blues
Season 5 - Episode 14
Despite their protests, Maxine and Amy fail to convince anyone that that dinners out with Ignacio and David don't constitute dating; Amy is asked to decide if a man in the Witness Protection Program can regain custody of his eleven year old son after the boy's mother dies; Lauren and Victor are unhappy when they discover that their parents are dating; Maxine races against time to prevent the participants in a suicide pact at a local high school from carrying out their plans; Shelby's band gets a gig at a local bar, and Peter's invitation to his mother and sister to hear him play provides the opportunity for the relationships between Amy and David, Maxine and Ignacio, and Peter and Shelby to grow and intensify on the dance floor and stage.
8.00
#18 - You Don't Know Me
Season 6 - Episode 12
Unaware that he is hiding his true feelings and pretending to be happy for her, Amy is annoyed by Bruce's casual response to news of her engagement. Amy is also annoyed that her relationship with Bruce has evolved to the point where he knows all of her idiosyncrasies, including, he asserts, how she'll rule in the heartrending case of a teenage girl with epilepsy whose parents disagree about whether or not she should have risky brain surgery that may stop her seizures; Elsewhere, Maxine has issues with an affluent, mostly white prep school after a student there is severely beaten; a publisher takes an interest in Vincent's new book; Lauren lashes out at Amy for being pregnant.
8.00
#19 - Happy Borthday
Season 6 - Episode 14
Amy finds it rather difficult to follow her mom's advice and embrace her 40th birthday as a milestone. Donna is in Amy's court representing a 13-year-old girl who accidentally kills her friend while they are out on a joyride but shows no remorse for her death. Maxine tries to determine whether two brothers are better off without the presence of their father, an ex-con, in their lives. Amy miscarries on her 40th birthday. Amy drowns her sorrows at a bar located on the beach, where she meets a stranger who gives her the perspective she needs during her difficult time.
8.00
#20 - The Paper War
Season 6 - Episode 16
While attending a bench and bar dinner, Amy gets into a heated argument with the State Attorney and accuses his office of being politically motivated in regard to the juvenile justice system.
8.00
#21 - Presumed Innocent
Season 1 - Episode 11
Amy takes it personally when Stuart appeals her decision to overturn the jury's verdict; Maxine arrives at a creative solution in placing an extremely gifted teenager who chronically runs away from his foster placements; Donna becomes Vincent's new roommate; Amy must decide whether to remove a child from the care of a mother suspected of suffering from Munchausen by Proxy syndrome; after her verdict is upheld, Stuart asks Amy out on a date, and she royally disses him as she turns him down flat.
7.89
#22 - The Out-of-Towners
Season 1 - Episode 19
Heeding the request of counsel to deliver one of her ""rants"" at a sentencing hearing, Amy lectures a young drug dealer whose mother has made tremendous sacrifices to provide him with a better life; much to Peter's dismay, Maxine accepts a date from an attractive man she meets at the diner; Amy gets ""backwater detail"" subbing for another judge, and travels with Bruce to a small town to hear a case centered on the misdiagnosis and overmedication of its teenage boys; as her abductor's case comes to trial, Lisa and Vincent argue when her fears for the possibility of acquittal, and thus her safety, increase; pending the outcome of an investigation, Susie is back at work after a one week paid suspension and, over Maxine's objections, sets in motion a chain of events which eventually leads to the death of a young mother; Amy and Bruce have divergent reactions when confronted with intolerance during their trip; Maxine unsuccessfully tries to resign, and ends up being blackmailed into acceptin
7.86
#23 - Sins of the Father
Season 5 - Episode 13
Ignacio says it with flowers as he continues his gentle pursuit of Maxine; Heather begins to act erratically around Kyle, who's shocked when he discovers the reason; Lauren and Peter each find a new perspective on life during a trip to the mall, and when Amy expresses displeasure at the look of things look upon their return, her brother gives her an earful; Maxine is perplexed by a father's reaction when she investigates a possible case of child abuse in a family with a history of violent behavior; a teenager tries to pull a fast one over on Amy in an effort to prevent his mother from gaining additional visitation time; Bruce puts his foot down when Amy once again attempts to cast him in the girlfriend role as she obsesses over her relationship with David.
7.86
#24 - Revolutions Per Minute
Season 6 - Episode 19
Lauren announces to the family that she has decided to become a vegetarian. Amy has a confrontation with Lauren's spiked-haired friend Reagan about the issue when Reagan and her brother stop by to take Lauren to school. Amy hears a case in which a teenage boy is accused of assaulting his mother and locking her in the basement. The boy admits that his mother beat his pit bull to death and also used to leave him home alone when he was a small child. Maxine investigates a child abuse allegation involving an autistic child. The child was screaming a lot because he missed his mom's boyfriend. Peter becomes concerned about what Gillian did during their separation. They decide to drop the issue and make up.
7.86
#25 - Disposable
Season 5 - Episode 18
Tensions run high as the family prepares for Ned's birthday party; a shoplifting trial in Amy's court exposes a prostitution ring in a group home for teenage girls; Maxine enlists the assistance of a former client to help a dedicated foster mother as she struggles with illness; Bruce gets testy when Amy's unsolicited advice about his conflicts with Mia over their living arrangements hits too close to home; Gillian resists Matthew's temptations; compelling new evidence and a new witness force Amy to grant Danny Hawkins a new trial and cope with David's resistance to handing the case over to another prosecutor.
7.83