This is one in a series of Media Life previews of those programs.

Name of show 
“Canterbury’s Law”


 
Timeslot 
Fox, Monday 8 p.m.
 
Plot synopsis 
In “Canterbury’s Law,” former “ER” star Julianna Margulies moves from the emergency room to the courtroom as Elizabeth Canterbury, an attorney looking to get ahead by taking on cases that no one else will touch. Most of her clients are wrongfully accused, and she’ll go to great lengths to clear their names, even if it means breaking the law in the process.
 
As you would imagine, this creates a hectic work life, and that puts a strain on Canterbury's relationship with her law professor husband, Matt Furey (Aidan Quinn). The couple has a dark history going into the series. They’ve suffered the disappearance of their son, and that case remains unsolved. Her life is messy and conflicted. She carries on an extramarital affair.

Her stage is the courtroom, where she scraps for wins against a personal life that's crumbling.

But what comes out of it all is a larger character, one that just a few years ago might not have been assigned to a woman. These days troubled women protagonists are all over cable. She's one of the rare ones on broadcast.

With not much going for her at home, Canterbury devotes long hours to the office, and here she has a friend in co-worker Russell Krauss (Ben Shenkman), a former member of the Rhode Island attorney general’s office who was forced out for not backing his boss when he was involved in some shady shenanigans.
 
Also on the Canterbury legal team: Chester Grant (Keith Robinson), son of a congressman from whom he is alienated, and Molly McConnell (Trieste Kelly Dunn), a strong-headed young woman who stands by her principles even when they are not popular.
 
The show is produced by “Rescue Me’s” Jim Serpico and Denis Leary.
 
Outlook 
“Canterbury’s Law” has a better than decent chance of success, and one reason is the strength of the cast.
 
Margulies built a strong following during her seven-year run on “ER,” and Quinn has a long list of roles to his credit, even if his last try at TV, NBC’s “The Book of Daniel,” was a flop.
 
Also, the story of a headstrong woman working in law is a pretty solid premise, and it's one that worked for Fox with “Ally McBeal,” though that show was lighthearted and quirky by comparison.
 
Another plus: Timeslot-wise, “Canterbury’s Law” is quite different than its broadcast competition in the 8 p.m. timeslot, as the one drama on against comedies and reality.

It airs against NBC’s reality show “My Dad is Better than Your Dad,” which has averaged just a 2.8 rating among 18-49s over its first three episodes, and the CBS comedies “How I Met Your Mother” (repeat) and “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (3.3 season-to-date average among 18-49s).
 
Tonight it will also face a special where-are-they-now edition of “The Bachelor” on ABC, but ABC will offer tougher competition next week when it rolls out the latest season of “Dancing with the Stars” in the 8 p.m. slot.
 
That may end up hurting “Canterbury’s Law” ratings among women, but legal drama fans should still be drawn to the program.
 
The buzz 
“Canterbury’s Law” isn’t breaking new ground, but that that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Legal dramas are a fixture in primetime and a well-proven genre.
 
“It’s just another formulaic ensemble law drama that we’ve been seeing even before ‘L.A. Law,’” says Karen McCallum, media director at Albuquerque’s Esparza Advertising. “But the formula works.”
 
The program has also seen plenty of promotion time on “American Idol,” which can never hurt, and that should lead to a fair amount of sampling for tonight’s premiere episode, she says.
 
“If you have a decent sampling, with the overall climate on broadcast TV right now, I’d say it has a decent chance of success,” McCallum says. “I think there are a lot of ‘Law & Order’ fans that are hungry for a new legal drama they can be involved with.”
 
McCallum also sees the show’s cast as an ingredient for a potential recipe for success, with actors popular enough to draw viewers simply on name alone.
 
What critics are saying 
“Brilliant, but deeply troubled female leads have been scoring big on basic cable for a while - think of Kyra Sedgwick in TNT’s ‘The Closer,’ and Glenn Close in ‘Damages’ on FX. ‘Canterbury’s Law’ … toes a similar line, and does it admirably well.” – Gloria Goodale, Christian Science Monitor
 
“Think ‘House’ in stiletto heels with a law degree, and you’ll start to get the picture of Fox’s relentlessly edgy ‘Canterbury’s Law,’ a lightning-paced legal drama that roars with a feisty thunder.” – Matt Roush, TV Guide
 
“‘Canterbury's Law’ is a bold choice on the part of Margulies, who abandons her America’s dour sweetheart image to play something new and daring, but on the whole the show isn’t as courageous as she is. It’s afraid of being too unsympathetic, of giving viewers a woman who is every bit as flawed as the lead characters on ‘House’ or ‘Shark.’” – Ted Cox, Chicago Daily Herald