TV REVIEW : ‘Antagonists’ Fails to Make a Strong Case

How’s this for enervatingly original high-concept programming: A handsome man and a gorgeous woman. Hardened, tough-talking professionals in the same line of work who bicker like crazy. Only there’s a wee little bit of sexual tension there. They get on each other’s nerves, but maybe, just maybe, if enough episodes get on the air, those fireworks will turn into sparks of passion.

Innovative, sure, but will the viewing public ever buy such an outlandish concept?

The formula--er, premise--gets a spin with the new mystery/drama series “The Antagonists,” which debuts with a 90-minute episode tonight at 9:30 on Channels 2 and 8. (Its regular run begins Thursday at 9 p.m. in the suicide slot against “Cheers,” to which this show and its antagonizing protagonists bear, of course, absolutely no resemblance.)

In this battle of the sexes, Jack Scarlett (David Andrews) is a cynical defense attorney given to saying pithy stuff like “guilt and innocence are completely relative in a legal sense” and “there’s no such thing as justice.” His antagonist, Kate Ward (Lauren Holly), is an idealistic, up-and-coming prosecutor who inevitably sees justice in black-and-white terms. Do these two belong together or what?

In tonight’s premiere, they’re on opposite sides of a murder case for which Scarlett’s client, Gretchen (Belinda Bauer), is taking the rap--apparently to cover for her brutal, adulterous lover. Many twists lie ahead.

Of course, justice-deriding attorney Scarlett isn’t quite as hardened as he seems. Real-life lawyers are sure to have a chuckle over scenes like the one in which he angrily confronts Gretchen in a tastefully blue-lit, antiseptic jail, demanding, “You killed her, didn’t you? . . . I fell for your little sucker story like a wide-mouth bass!”

Coercing confessions out of your own client? “Reversal of Fortune” this isn’t; it makes “L.A. Law” look like the very paragon of legal credibility. Nor is it “Moonlighting”; if you spend even a moment caring whether Jack and Kate will ever get together, you probably have too much leisure time on your hands. As TV mystery plotting and dialogue go, this one does have more successful wit than is par. But isn’t anyone looking for wit on Thursdays at 9 already going to be tuned in elsewhere?