Canterbury's Law

One of the very first genres to become firmly entrenched in the American television audience is the legal drama. When you think about it a moment it is a very natural occurrence. The most important thing about creating as drama is to generate conflict and the legal system offers an excellent fertile ground for such a genre. The entire legal system is based on the resolution of conflict achieving this through the inherently adversarial process of defense and prosecutorial attorneys facing off against each other in the courtroom. With so many dramatic elements fundamental to this profession there is little wonder that barely a season goes by without at least a few new variations on the theme cropping up. Some have the ability of lasting year after year while others quickly join the list of series cancelled before being given a chance to find its groove and gather an audience. One of the latest shows to receive membership in this regrettable club is ‘Canterbury’s Law’. It had potential but struggled just to make it through its first season. While some of the typical reasons such as a writer’s strike or paradigm shift in the audience’s expectations did not work against this show several other factors combined, resulting in its early demise. While it lasted it was highly entertaining. I did have a slot on my DVR series record menu for this series show I was a fairly regular viewer of the show. While it was not among my ‘must watch’ series it usually provided reasonably strong entertainment and was better than average for the genre. Instead of just fading away one season series have a second chance at a sort of immortality thanks to DVD. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released all six; yes count them, six episodes that comprise the life span of the series.

The series was the creation of Dave Erickson, a relative new comer to the production of teleplay. One thing that did work against this series was its ambition. It reached out to be vastly different than the usual run of the mill legal drama and was not to develop all the necessary side plots and back stories quickly enough to make it work. He has moved on to writing for a series that is even more intense and complicated; ‘Sons of Anarchy’. The difference is in there series the expectations of the audience’s reaction to the characters is different; more accepting of darkly emotional overtones. Part of the difficulty here is the choice of actress taking the lead, Julianna Margulies as Elizabeth Canterbury. For over a decade she played Nurse Carole Hathaway on the definitive medical series ‘E.R,’ during that time she played opposite George Clooney in what has been described as one of the great television love stories. Margulies established her career so firmly on such a beloved character that it was only natural for her to expand her craft by choosing to play a character completely opposite to that type. Not wanting to be type cast is understandable and the talented Ms Margulies is to be applauded for the professional bravery displayed here but the character of Canterbury was by design so intrinsically unlikeable it was a nearly insurmountable challenge to connect with the audience. Elizabeth Canterbury has her own small but reasonably well known firm consisting of herself and a few young associates. They are struggling to make ends meet but for Canterbury the important thing is not so much the financial rewards but helping her desperate find justice. As such she frequently takes on cases that no other attorney would touch. Now that is pretty standard fare for a series revolving around a defense attorney. The problem is how Canterbury comes off to the audience and unfortunately a sizable portion that perception is hypocritical. First and foremost is the fact that she deals with the stress in her marriage by having an affair with Frank Angstrom (James McCaffrey), a private investigator. Compounding this the way Canterbury is depicted even by the opening shots of her. She appears somewhat vain and self adsorbed. For example the first time we see her in the series is getting out of bed after a tryst with Frank. She spends what seems to be an inordinate amount of time applying her make-up, adjusting her expensive suit and wearing stiletto heels. While none of this is outside the norm for a professional woman such as this characters it is all about initial observation afforded the audience. This is made worse by the fact that her law professor husband, Matt (Aidan Quinn) makes every attempt to be loving and supportive to his wife. It is a matter of the first impression of the character being sufficiently unlikable and regrettably not enough time was afforded to the series to permit the introduction of some mitigating circumstances. And major thread in Canterbury’s personality is an event that occurred tree years before the first episode. While in a local playground with her young son, Sam, Elizabeth is momentarily distracted by a call from work. When she looks up her son is gone and a black van is speeding off. She has never forgiven herself for that distancing herself from her husband and throwing herself headlong into her work. She goes through extraordinary means to get an accused child murder, Ethan Foster (Charlie Hofheimer) off; tactics that backfire against her as her nemesis, Deputy Attorney General Zach Williams (Terry Kinney) convenes a Grand Jury to investigate Elizabeth for criminal misconduct.

The writers did begin to move to lessen some of the character’s inherent harshness. Part of this was to provide potentially interesting side stories seen through Canterbury’s staff. In one way or another each of them is emotionally damaged. Russell Cross (Ben Shenkman) had been part of the District Attorney’s office before moving to the other side of the courtroom due to budgetary limitations. Chester Fields (Keith Robinson) is a bright young lawyer who is rebelling against his congressman father by taking a position with a small, often controversial firm instead of fast tracking to a destiny in politics. Finally there is Molly McConnell (Trieste Dunn) who is passionate and not afraid to go against the boss. Unfortunately even though she has appeared in court she has yet to pass the bar. Like many aspects of this series there was just not enough time afford the project to allow the ingredients to properly blend.

Posted 07/19/2010