The BEST episodes of Judging Amy
Every episode of Judging Amy ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Judging Amy!
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 - Sex, Lies and Expedia.com
Season 5 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/18/2004
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.
#2 - Lost and Found
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/17/2002
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.
#3 - Come Back Soon
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/21/2002
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.
#4 - My Name is Amy Gray...
Season 6 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/3/2005
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
#5 - Lullaby
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/12/2004
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.
#6 - Sex and the Single Mother
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/16/2003
Amy presides over the custody case of a young boy whose mother thinks he is being harmed by the Neanderthal on-air posturings of his shock-jock father; Maxine discovers that becoming a therapist in lieu of becoming a patient doesn't work out for anyone involved; Kyle mends his fences with Heather and helps her bring some solace to her dying father; Gillian begins to doubt her feelings for Peter as she strikes up a friendship with the father of one of Ned's playmates; Amy becomes flustered when David doesn't seem to be interested in a relationship, and makes a fool of herself in confronting him with a complete misinterpretation of his reasons.
#7 - Silent Era
Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/11/2005
High-school student Graciela Reyes is brought to Amy's courtroom for violating her parole, but it is soon uncovered that the reason for this is that her mother has moved to Gautamala along with her two brothers, leaving Graciela behind; Meanwhile, the Gray family rallies around Maxine after she is forced to have open-heart surgery after she suffers a second heart attack during a visit to the cardiologist; Sean locates Anthony Bird, who is living with a family who had recently adopted him.
#8 - The Extinction of the Dinosaurs
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/22/2002
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.
#9 - Getting Out
Season 6 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/26/2005
Amy dreams that Bruce makes breakfast for her and Maxine and then dances with her in the kitchen. Amy finds out about some new information that may get Graciella a new trial. Unfortunately, Graciella is murdered in prison before this happens. Sean and Maxine got to exreme measures to help a foster family that may lose their home because they can't make their mortgage payments. One of Vincent's students tries to stab him with a pencil. Amy hears the case of a 10 year old boy with an extensive history of violence. The boy accuses Bruce of challenging him to a fight. Amy tells Bruce twice to stop looking at the boy. They call a recess and Amy and Bruce have a big argument in chambers. Bruce then announces that he is quitting his job. At the end of the episode, Amy announces she is quitting hers also.
Watch Now:Amazon#10 - Drawing the Line
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/29/2000
Amy must decide if a brain-injured woman is fit to be a mother; Maxine discovers that a teenaged client is being abused by his therapist; Leisha meets Amy, and faces her ire for piercing Lauren's ears without permission; Vincent and Maxine clash over his journalism career; Amy faces a class of insufferable law students when she's asked to teach a seminar at Yale; Donna takes modeling herself after Amy a bit too far when she begins to show up for work dressed and coiffed exactly like her mentor; it's all bark and no bite when Amy decides to dismiss the case of a drug dealer sniffed out by a four-legged member of the neighborhood watch.
#11 - The Bottle Show
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/9/2002
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.
#12 - Kilt Trip
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/4/2003
Forced to substitute for an ailing colleague just two days before her wedding, Amy presides over a felony murder case involving a 14 year old boy and makes a controversial decision to overturn the jury's verdict; Stu's groomsmen are less than thrilled when they realize that they'll be wearing kilts instead of tuxes at the wedding; Kyle hatches a plan to surprise the rest of the family with Vincent's presence at the wedding, and gets a surprise himself when he walks in on Vincent and Heather making out; Amy forgets to get a sub as the judge on call, and ends up signing one warrant after another for David; Maxine's search for an apartment goes poorly, and the attempts of a co-worker and Stu's mother to be helpful only make things worse; Amy's pre-wedding jitters turn into a full scale panic attack as the ceremony begins; realizing that she doesn't want to marry Stu, she calls the wedding off; later that evening, Vincent tells Amy that Carole has left him for her oncologist.
#13 - Lost in the System
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/1/2002
Amy and Michael agree to work out Lauren's custody with a mediator; Maxine and Kimberly clash over a child lost in the system; Jared returns from China to get an answer from Maxine; Lauren fears that their apartment is haunted and Amy begins to agree with her; appearing before Amy in court as the caseworker for a teenaged mother, Maxine gives an impassioned plea which provides Amy with food for thought about not only the girl, but Amy's relationships with Maxine and Lauren; Bruce runs into Amy and spurns her offer of friendship, but later relents most emphatically.
#14 - Trial By Jury
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/28/1999
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.
#15 - Short Calendar
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1999
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.
#16 - Thursday's Child
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/8/2002
Amy's discovers that the man the police have in custody may not be her stalker after all; Maxine refuses to give up on a client who may be the victim of police brutality; after Bruce denies having romantic feelings for Amy and they agree that confusion and alcohol led to their embrace, they decide to be friends who don't kiss; Kyle applies for a residency and is confronted by his sponsor for not working his program; a persistent attorney paves the way for Bruce to regain his court position; Amy must decide if a retarded teenager is competent to make her own reproductive choices.
#17 - Revolutions Per Minute
Season 6 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/12/2005
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.
Watch Now:Amazon#18 - Happy Borthday
Season 6 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/22/2005
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.
#19 - Dream a Little Dream
Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/15/2005
Amy oversees an emotional case involving a 13-year-old boy with a history of violent behavior who shot and killed his grandfather who was suffering from terminal lung cancer; Maxine uncovers a human smuggling operation while following up on a report of a young boy being beaten numerous times; Vincent witnesses the gunning down of a prostitute by her pimp; Meanwhile, Amy and David search for the perfect house to start their life together in.
#20 - My Little Runaway
Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/11/2004
Despite David's protests, Amy puts an end to their romantic relationship when he finally returns to Hartford; Maxine realizes that a teenaged client who was abused as a young child has become mentally ill when the girl makes a series of false rape accusations; Kyle has a career epiphany after he meets a fellow traveler at the airport who happens to be an undercover police officer; at her 89th birthday celebration, Isabel Messina is as rude as ever to Maxine, but completely charmed by Sean as he sings her an unusual birthday song; Amy hears the case of a teenaged boy who keeps running away to join the circus; Amy and Kyle lend David support when a critically injured Victor is rushed into surgery after being struck by a car.
#21 - Predictive Neglect
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/4/2004
Amy is dismayed when the courthouse cleaning lady tries to fix her up with her son amid gossip about David's departure; Lauren pesters Amy to send her to rock star camp; political posturing makes life at D.C.F. more miserable than usual until Maxine comes up with an inspired solution to the problem and is able to reunite a mother with her sons; when Amy presides over a shoplifting case, she discovers that the case is rooted in the neglect of two children -- the plaintiff and the daughter of the plaintiff's famous defense attorney; David sends Amy a postcard from Houston; Kyle quits his job to reassess his future after he discovers that his father died never having pursued his true passion in life; Maxine has a little tiff with Ignacio over his qualms about Courtney's dating Sean because of their cultural differences, and Amy is surprised when Bruce agrees with Ignacio; Maxine grieves the loss of her brother, and is especially saddened when her sister-in-law asks that she not attend th
#22 - Christenings
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/6/2004
The rift between Peter and Gillian widens at Walt's christening; Maxine overcomes her resistance and resumes therapy; when a tree that's been neglected crashes through Amy's kitchen window, she mistakenly calls in a landscape designer who reveals a keen insight into the state of both Maxine's garden and her soul; a young girl appears in Amy's court charged with reckless endangerment for running a pro-anorexia web site; Maxine is disturbed when the frustrated mother of a boy with a chronic neurological disorder turns from conventional medical care to a dubious faith healer in an effort to help her son; Amy is mortified when an upheaval during her sushi dinner date with David ruins both the evening and David's new and very expensive shoes.
#23 - Maxine, Interrupted
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/11/2003
Maxine's reunion with Sally Godwin, her college classmate and former co-worker in the social work trenches, comes under strain after the up-and-coming politician reveals that she's back in town to evaluate Maxine's performance, and they clash over the case of a child with a sexually transmitted disease; a father testifies on behalf of his teenage daughter who appears before Amy for conspiring in his attempted murder; Bruce utilizes Donna's assistance in a creative approach to mediating the divorce of an elderly couple fighting over custody of their pet parrot.
#24 - Wild Card
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/4/2003
Maxine and Sean battle a sleazy attorney with a penchant for blackmail when they attempt to remove a child from her negligent parents; Amy presides over the case of a deadbeat dad who is willing to go to extreme measures to avoid paying child support when he learns that his son's paternity may be at issue; Maxine is ""filled with existential dread"" at the prospect of the wedding ceremony Gillian is planning for her; Kyle experiences a sleepless night discovering why the parents of a handicapped man who appears to be healthy insist that he be hospitalized overnight.
#25 - Boston Terriers From France
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/7/2002
Amy turns into a henpecking daughter upon Maxine's return from the hospital, forcing her mother to suffer through a healthier diet and a walking group for seniors; after Maxine questions the wisdom of living with Amy, they agree it would be best for Amy to move out; Amy's worried that Bruce is planning to enter a guilty plea on his assault charge; Kyle is forced to tell a runaway that she's dying; Amy hears the case of a high school student who hides her baby in a storage room during class.