‘Guardian’ Makes a Predictable Case

When brash, arrogant, condescending young corporate lawyer Nick Fallin (Simon Baker) gets busted for drugs in Pittsburgh, he’s ordered by the court to perform 1,500 hours of community service at a child advocacy office to avoid disbarment.

Get real. This self-centered hotshot slumming with mortals on the pavement, brushing his beautifully tailored shoulders against the very scum he expects to kiss his ring? Bummer. Why, he wears suits that cost more than the entire wardrobe of his no-nonsense new boss, Alvin Masterson (Alan Rosenberg). What’s more, he’s got a big-bucks day job and a partnership with a corner office in his sights at the posh law firm of his demanding father (Dabney Coleman). Can he juggle these two diverse worlds?

This is just a wild guess, but the answer could be yes.

Which is why the new CBS legal series, “The Guardian,” despite having some promise, wears prominently on its forehead the scarlet “P” of predictability. You can be fairly certain that not only will Fallin make this difficult situation work, but that he’ll be a better man for it. A Geiger counter isn’t needed to detect the goodness waiting to be tapped beneath that tough exterior.

Planted tonight, the seeds of this evolution yield results too swiftly, Fallin U-turning right on cue not long after he is handed a case involving a vulnerable young boy who witnessed a violent tragedy at home. Before the final credits roll, he manages to cut through to the heart of the problem while also assuaging his father at the office.

The writing is uneven, the best of it having Fallin go angrily nose to nose with a caseworker and also Masterson, while leaving a loose end or two instead of knotting the episode tidily. Making “The Guardian” watchable, though, is the quiet charisma and measured work of Baker (another of those Aussie actors impersonating Americans). Menace he has in his hip pocket. Yet even when softening, he never breaks somber character or does too much, his inevitable compassion surfacing in shades rather than explosions.

Fallin is someone you might want to track for awhile. Does this guy want to make money or make a difference? Another wild guess: He’ll do both.

*

“The Guardian” premieres tonight at 9 on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PG-L (may be unsuitable for young children with a special advisory for coarse language).