Program: Canterbury’s Law

Network: Fox

Creator: Dave Erickson

Primary Cast: Julianna Margulies, Ben Shenkman, Keith Robinson, Trieste Kelly Dunn, James McCaffrey, Terry Kinney, Aidan Quinn

For some reason, I like Julianna Margulies. Always have. From ER to The Mists of Avalon, I have enjoyed most everything I have seen her in.

Until now.

That sounds harsher than it should, perhaps. There is nothing inherently wrong with Canterbury’s Law. Unless, of course, you are like me and see the same old lawyer drama repackaged with a female lead as inherently wrong. It’s Shark in a skirt (and I’m not overly fond of Shark, either). There’s nothing new here, and nothing worth spending an hour a week of my precious time with. I gave it three episodes to show me something that sets it apart from the rest of the TV lawyer schlock. It failed, I moved on.

The sad thing is, everything is in place for them to do something interesting. The writing and acting is good, the production values are high… but rather than take a risk and try going with something fresh (a la Eli Stone), they break out the lawyer-drama-schtick, right down to the repressed personal issues that affect both home life and work life, and the requisite bad guy DA who has it in for the head of the firm (Canterbury). Regardless of how well written it is, it’s predictable. Yes, predictable… 4 episodes old, and I can say it’s predictable. The only flag they haven’t yet waved is the “woman struggling to make it in a man’s world” but it’s there, lurking in the background in the form of the conflict between the DA (Terry Kinney) and Margulies, so I have to believe it will come out within the next few episodes.

In the end, if you are a fan of lawyer dramas, you’ll probably like Canterbury’s Law. It’s more of the same old tried and true stuff that’s been on prime time TV for the last decade. Unfortunately, there’s just far to much “been there, done that” in this entire genre for a “new” series to ever feel… well… new. Which undoubtedly means it will be around for a few seasons and take up valuable prime-time space. Pity, that.