Her new show, Canterbury's Law, is also flawed, if not deeply so. The main problem: It requires quite a leap to get beyond the premiere Monday at 8, and commit to the lead character, even though it's obvious from the get-go that Margulies is pouring a load of talent into her portrayal.

Elizabeth Canterbury is a hard-charging lawyer with a messed-up personal life and an impossible case and a bunch of baby associates, whom she treats shrilly, and you think, "Well, I've seen this before on Shark or House or wherever," and you click over to Howie Mandel at Deal or No Deal.

But wait! Howie's not on until 9 this Monday, How I Met Your Mother's still in reruns, and only the most craven viewers would settle onto The Bachelor: Where Are They Now? (Answer: In some dark corner praying fervently that this desperate rehash will give them 30 more seconds of fame.)

So maybe Margulies has a chance in this Fox not-so-hot spot. You wonder whether her character does, stepping out on her hubby with her handsome private eye, tampering with the jury, and suborning perjury just to get her client off with a 21st-century Perry Mason-style courtroom confession from the real culprit at the end.

But, as it did last week with New Amsterdam (which follows Canterbury's Law on Mondays), Fox sent out two episodes of the series, and, just as with New Amsterdam, the second one 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.)

Canterbury's Law comes from loony Denis Leary and his partner Jim Serpico, who make FX's Rescue Me, and with them lurking in the background, the show has two powerful, ongoing dramatic arcs.

In the first, Canterbury locks horns with Deputy Attorney General Zach Williams (a terrific Terry Kinney). This guy's crest may fall every week in the style of Perry's perennial punching bag, Hamilton Burger, but outside the courtroom he gets revenge with the full mad-dog attack, complete with an indictment.

She's already in hell in the second arc, her marriage. She and husband Matt (played by Aidan Quinn, and that's not chopped liver, either) do a waltz of love and death that would win first prize every time on Dancing with the Stars.

That show returns March 17, and it probably will stomp the ratings daylights out of Fox on Monday nights. Let's hope the network hangs in, though, offering two solid dramas as an alternative for those viewers whose brains have not been turned to mush in this winter of reruns and "reality."