Canterbury's Law

STUDIO: Fox
PREMIERE: March 11, 2008
STARRING: Julianna Margulies, Ben Shenkman, Keith Robinson, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Terry Kinney, and Aidan Quinn
CREATED BY: Dave Erickson

After decades of entries in the genre, it's becoming harder and harder to answer the question - "Why should I bother with another legal show?" A large majority of recent trips into the magical land of TV courtrooms have completely failed to justify their existence. The truth is that, after decades of legal shows, the bar that these shows have to hurdle to separate themselves from all the other cookie cutter series continues to rise. But for every Convicted or Justice - shows that barely made it to the air - there's a show like Boston Legal that runs for years on a low budget. You can't blame them for going back to the well but more of them need to ask why.

Five minutes into Canterbury's Law, the inspiration for the latest legal drama is clear and it's another Fox show that took a similarly overdone genre and mined it for ratings gold - House. Elizabeth Canterbury is the Dr. House of the legal set. Like the irascible doctor, Canterbury gets from point A to point B differently than any of her peers. But what Canterbury's Law misses about that hugely popular show is that it's not just the title character that makes it a success but the unusual medical mysteries that he solves. The first two episodes of Canterbury's Law give viewers a great central character but the rest of the TV courtroom is shockingly empty.

Elizabeth Canterbury takes the risky cases that nobody else wants. Her personal life has been ruined by some of the cases she's taken and she's still haunted by the unsolved disappearance of her young son. It's torn her marriage with her law professor husband (Aidan Quinn) apart and made her a workaholic to avoid her own personal demons. Like all TV lawyers, Canterbury has a talented young team around her, including Russell (Ben Shenkman), Chester (Keith Robinson), and Molly (Trieste Kelly Dunn). Directed by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) and executive produced by Denis Leary and Peter Tolan (Rescue Me), Canterbury's Law wants to paint a vivid picture of a woman whose professional life has permanently impacted her personal one. She's the kind of woman who wins the case and still says "I don't know what I'm doing." Elizabeth Canterbury is more than just another tough broad on TV. She actually feels genuine and fully defined, largely due to the excellent work by Julianna Margulies, who could keep this show going on her acting alone.

Sadly, after praising Margulies' work, there's not much nice to say about Canterbury's Law. The first two cases are both shockingly predictable and completely ridiculous at the same time. You'll see the 'twists' coming a mile away and there's a fine line between rebellious characters and courtroom behavior that's going to make even the least legally aware person call foul. The climax of the second episode if so ridiculous (hint - you can't just pull an undisclosed and unconfirmed piece of evidence out of your pocket to cross-examine a witness) that it undermines the concept of the show. Canterbury's Law is supposed to erase the line between an accomplished woman's personal and professional life but that requires consistently believable writing, which the show just does not have in its first two episodes. Margulies tries her best, but Canterbury's Law falls into the same unbelievable traps as so many of its predecessors. It never answers that increasingly important question with the amount of TV choices out there - why bother?