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Canterbury's Law
SERIES: Fox, Monday/Friday 8:00p (60 minutes)
Starring
Julianna Margulies,
Ben Shenkman,
Keith Robinson,
Trieste Kelly Dunn,
and
Aidan Quinn
Julianna Margulies returns to serial television as a lawyer who fights for justice even as her personal life is a mess.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| CREATED BY: |
Dave Erickson
|
| FIRST AIR DATE: |
March 10, 2008 |
Moved from original Monday, 8:00p time slot to Friday, 9:00p time slot 28 Mar 2008.
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
83
Christian Science Monitor Gloria Goodale
This is a good, old-fashioned legal procedural with few special effects but quite a lot of serious, adult writing.
83
Entertainment Weekly Ari Karpel
Julianna Margulies now gets to command the screen in something juicier than the usual procedural. [14 Mar 2008, p.70]
80
LA Weekly Robert Abele
The indignant heart of Canterbury's Law is that of a case-of-the-week procedural--a suitably suspenseful one at that--and within those institutional boundaries it's nice to see Margulies shake off the martyrish mien of Nurse Carol Hathaway on ER for somebody whose self-destructiveness gives her a nasty, intelligent severity at work.
80
TV Guide Matt Roush
Law revels in reckless, rude antiheroics. But Margulies also excels in giving her character emotional depth, with a tragic backstory and a rocky personal life involving a long-suffering husband (Aidan Quinn) and a hot private eye (James McCaffrey) on the side.
80
Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
No television series has been built around a less likable character, or rendered itself so strangely, compulsively watchable as a result.
80
Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
Margulies, who appears to have buried Nurse Hathaway - and her scrubs--for good, is a crackling presence in the courtroom and just about everywhere else.
75
USA Today Robert Bianco
The show maintains a sensible balance between introducing Elizabeth's foibles and telling the story at hand--a well-constructed case that has her battling an ambitious prosecutor (the always interesting Terry Kinney).
75
New York Daily News David Hinckley
Margulies is sufficiently skilled that she finds the parts of Elizabeth Canterbury we can like, and her internal struggle is what makes this more than just the latest lawyer show.
75
New York Post Linda Stasi
If any lawyer ever did even a third of the things that Elizabeth 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.
75
Chicago Sun-Times Misha Davenport
As Elizabeth Canterbury, Julianna Margulies is a feisty pit bull in designer heels. She's willing to do just about everything to clear her clients. If there's one fairy-tale aspect to the show, it's that she's able to take on only clients who are actually innocent.
70
Time James Poniewozik
Margulies vanquishes her ER heroine image, but bad dialogue and dull legal stories undermine her case.
70
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
Julianna Margulies--also listed as a producer--is convincing as a lawyer whose only true solace is her work. Still, she lives under a black cloud that threatens to burst at any moment and overwhelm the show.
70
Newsday Diane Werts
What Canterbury has powerfully going for it, besides the magnetic/vulnerable Margulies, is a cast surrounding her with equal strength, from principled second Ben Shenkman to Terry Kinney as their sneaky prosecutorial adversary, plus an array of effective guest stars from the rich East Coast acting pool.
70
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
Just as with "New Amsterdam," the second episode establishes that this seeming cliche of a show has a little bit more going for it than you might think, even if the ending fireworks appear to be a weekly event. (And, OK, they are kind of fun, if not exactly believable.)
70
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
Canterbury has promise but her law needs a lot of work.
70
Washington Post Tom Shales
Margulies rises so grippingly to the challenge that whatever else it is, "just another" courtroom show Canterbury's Law most definitely is not.
70
San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
The series gets off to a reasonably strong start, propelled nicely by some decent (and, for network TV, hard-edged) writing and engaging performances by an above-average cast.
60
PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs
Forceful but also vulnerable, flawed and brilliant, Liz is plagued by her self-righteousness and, judging by a couple of episodes, the show is plagued by her rightness.
60
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
Though it's competently made and catches fire dramatically from time to time, Canterbury's Law doesn't have quite as much dramatic depth as those other shows ["Damages," "House" or "Saving Grace"]do at their best.
60
Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall
Margulies is a potent enough screen presence that this part of the show could be interesting, but Canterbury's self-destructive streak gets overshadowed by all the Leg Show material and the overheated courtroom theatrics.
60
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
Margulies is an ideal actress to carry off this icy role. Perhaps in the hands of a more deft writer, Canterbury's Law could be the edgy show it aspires to be instead of the common courtroom drama it is.
60
Salon Heather Havrilesky
Unfortunately, when you take Canterbury's admirable vim and vigor out of the picture for a second, this is just another courtroom drama, limited to the same old overdramatic courtroom scenes that we've seen a hundred million times before
60
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
Without Margulies, the case would be closed for Canterbury's Law. She gives the show a chance. Her biggest challenge will be overcoming the writing.
50
San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
For all the effort that was put into making Canterbury complicated, not nearly enough quality control was put into the writing.
40
Variety Brian Lowry
Based on a subsequent episode, however, the backstory feels thin, and even with its gritty tone and a serialized plot thread that loops back to the first case, the hour proves numbingly procedural.
30
Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara
Canterbury's Law is a Frankenstein's monster of a dozen cop/law shows, a pale, lurching version of the flawed and fascinating women who are taking back television like so many modern Cagneys and Laceys.
30
The New York Times Ginia Bellafante
Ms. Margulies never recedes from the scripted egomania; she rams right through it. She remains shrill even in grief.
 The average user rating for this tv show is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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