‘Kate Brasher’ Stands Firmly on the Sentimental Side

Although everyone likes to be uplifted, if “Kate Brasher” gets any warmer it will set off smoke alarms.

Thick with schmaltz, this new weekly drama from CBS is about a struggling single mother whose life takes a positive turn when she signs on as caseworker for a community legal clinic.

Mary Stuart Masterson is 34-year-old Kate, a cash-strapped waitress whose sons, ages 15 and 17, are sweet and pliant. The comparison coming to mind is the WB’s vastly better “Gilmore Girls,” whose parent-teen closeness and affection project at least some degree of reality.

You know Kate needs to get a life when she wakes her sons late one night because “someone didn’t brush their teeth.” And they hardly object. Fans of old-fashioned values will applaud this. Others will wonder what the show’s writers were drinking.

The life Kate does acquire, deep in tonight’s premiere, evolves from her encounter with Brothers Keepers, where she seeks legal help after she and other women are stiffed by a bowling alley proprietor who owes them money for cleaning the place. The problem’s resolution is the very definition of perfunctory writing.

Brothers Keepers is a bustling advocacy center where toughness and cynicism really hit the fan. Not to worry, though, for beneath each brusque exterior beats a 24-carat heart. That includes Hector Elizondo as the tough, street-smart director, and Rhea Pearlman (whose husband, Danny DeVito is an executive producer) as a feisty, street-smart attorney.

These good actors deserve better than these stock characters, as does the very able Masterson. On the other hand, look, Ma: No cavities.

* “Kate Brasher” can be seen tonight at 9 on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PG-L (may be unsuitable for young children, with a special advisory for suggestive language).