Shark was a really good show from the get go. It jumps right into the pilot and you feel a bit rushed in but it works. True, the show lived of James Woods performance. He made you like a guy who should have been unlikable. Sebastian Starks doesn´t hide who and what he is and that is why the character works. The scripts were good, it is always a challenge to come up with interesting stories in crime shows because there are so many. I enjoyed the look behind the courtroom where the deals are made. I though this to be believable. Second season was a bit weaker. The scripts weren´t worse but I did not like the Reyes for Woodland swap f.e.. Reyes is kind of a wannabe Stark but he´s not even close. And the new DA didn´t work well either althought they may have had plans for the character had the show continued.
The Writers strike hit the show at the worst possible time, the last four episodes were all over the place. And Devlin was gone without explanation. But it doesn´t really end on a cliffhanger. It´s more open end. I always imagined the next episode would have closed the Callison plot for good (getting him convicted for a death sentence) because just locking him up again and bringing him back later would have been repetitive at best. And after that there could have been another season but I think you could also make the argument that Stark retires after what happened in the last episode. But that´s just my imagination. That is what I mean by open-end. You make one yourself. I enjoyed every episode, it is one of the shows I at least whatched twice. I would have liked to see more but I don´t think this had 100+ episode potential.