IF any lawyer ever did even a third of the things that Eliza beth Canterbury does on “Canterbury’s Law,” the outrageous Denis Leary/Jim Serpico show that premieres tonight, she’d be disbarred in about six and a half seconds.
But luckily this is TV, where lawyers-gone-wild are an always fun-to-watch staple. I mean, who wants to watch the real-life doings of litigators and defense attorneys who spend most of their time slogging through paper – not doing terribly exciting and slightly illegal things like they do on shows about lawyers. (See “Boston Legal,” “Shark,” LA Law,” etc.)
Anyway, here we have Elizabeth Canterbury (Julianna Margulies), who’s a lawyer with principles, if not scruples. She’s a mother without a child. And she’s a wife with a lover. Pure Denis Leary fantasyland fun.
Set in Rhode Island, Canterbury is head of one of those tiny law firms that resides in one of those cozy, warm townhouses that TV loves so much but that no lawyer living or dead has ever actually been in.
She and her husband (Aidan Quinn) have an unhappy marriage but it’s not until the second or so episode that we actually find out why – and it’s a doozie. Elizabeth has thrown herself totally and completely into her work to avoid facing her tragic reality, and meantime manages to bulldoze her way if not into the hearts of those around her, then at least into their brains.
She – like James Woods’ character, “Shark” – has a coterie of young associates who not only hang on her every outrageous word but do her unorthodox bidding. Canterbury, unlike Shark, however, hasn’t gone over to the dark side (or what people who aren’t lawyer’s call the “light side”) and makes her living defending seemingly disgusting killers.
Her staff is made up of her partner, Russell (Ben Shenkman), go-getter associate Molly (Trieste Kelly Dunn), and Chester (Keith Robinson), an overly-confident congressman’s son.
Her first case is one in which she must defend a child molester who is accused of murdering a young girl. Anathema for Canterbury in more ways than I want to reveal here, she nonetheless believes in the man’s innocence.
Next week it’s yet another dead girl and more outrageous antics that would have her entire law firm shut down. It ain’t reality – but then again, how much more reality TV can anyone stand without doing something that would require the services of a defense attorney afterwards?