Canterbury's Law

This show isn't necessarily good or bad.. But The Good Wife's a lot more intriguing. Elizebeth Canterbury stars a "controversial" lawyer who bends the law while going through personal issues(a missing son and her husband not lovng her). I gave this a shot on Netflix. It's a good watch if you have a lot of time in a day. I really can't stand the main character. She comes across really cheesy. The story line is actually quite good if the show were developed onto further seasons. I see where they're going with this. Prosecuting Attorney v. Defender of the Defenseless. The pilot would have been better if you realized that she's dealing over her missing son. Also the show doesn't make sense to me until the last episode.

I'm enjoying the show, mostly. MOST shows I've grown attached to have a weak start, because they're rushing to show us the new characters - but over time, they spend less time developing the characters, because you know them by then. In the pilot, I thought I would hate the Russell character, because for one, I'd fire him outright, and for another, I don't want some wet blanket always raining on the lead character's ideas. It's weak. He's developing well now, and I think he might prove to be my favorite on the cast.

I wasn't crazy about this latest episode, because the main plot line - her eventual arrest - took the whole hour, while minor plot lines, such as her relationship with her husband - I couldn't care less about. A staff member who is studying law and another who is being encouraged by his dad to jump ship. So basically, an episode where the overall story moved very little - where "nothing happened". I'm willing to keep watching it a few weeks.

Defense attorney Elizabeth Canterbury (Julianna Margulies) is willing to cross the ethics line to defend her clients. She and her husband Matt Furey (Aidan Quinn) are still struggling after she lost their son three years earlier. Her law partner Russell Krauss (Ben Shenkman) is a former prosecutor who likes the straight and narrow path. Russell's former boss, Deputy Attorney General Zach Williams (Terry Kinney), is out to get Canterbury after losing to her. Her investigator Frank Angstrom is also her former lover. Her associate Chester Fields is rebelling against his political father. Her other associate Molly McConnell is struggling to pass the bar.

There is an issue with some of the characters. Canterbury is always the one who believes in her clients' innocence and nobody else believes it. It happens far too often. It's silly that her underlings keep harping on their clients' guilt. They're defense attorneys whether the clients are innocent or guilty. There are some issues with believability. The acting is all solid. This mid-season replacement was quickly cancelled. That's probably for the best since Margulies would go on to lead a better show although the two lead characters have many similarities. In The Good Wife, she has a softer edge with more rooting interest. She's not as militant. In this one, her strident nature is problematic. It's an intriguing show but I need recalibrations with some characters.

I was looking forward to this because I'm a fan of Julianna Margulies' previous work.

What a disappointment!! It's all I could to keep my eyes open through the pilot.

The script was clunky and clearly would have been better served by being a two-hour pilot. The characters were poorly drawn, with very little given to the actors to use. The photography was very poor, with many shots extremely grainy or out-of-focus or plain badly lit.

But most galling was the poor directing by Mike Figgis, who joins a longer and longer list of "feature directors" doing a very poor job directing a pilot. The show had no visual style to speak of, unless shaking the camera and underlighting all the scenes in Canterbury's Office is supposed to pass off as a style.

On the plus side, James McCaffrey was excellent as usual, so was Julianna, but Ben Shankman killed every scene he was in. He looked like he was fresh from amateur hour.

I might give it another try, but I doubt this will last more than a few episodes.

Yet another disappointment in a horrible season for network TV.

After 2 episodes it is clear that we are stuck with a tough guy chick surrounded by squishy, wimpy male supporting characters which is disappointing. I thought she was great in the Sopranos! The courtroom scenes presented some good "lawyering" lines in her role. The airings so far have been bereft of any skillful or stimulating ending. I hardly watch prime time series as I discovered years ago that these shows were just too dumbed down or worse yet, made statements that were just too contemptuous (beyond upbeat humorous satire) of the traditional institutions that have been the backbone of this country's greatness. But this show just didn't captivate my interest or worse , it was a turn off. i hope to see Ms Margulies in better roles in the future.