David E. Kelley is guilty of 'Harry's Law'

We meet Kathy Bates, the star of "Harry's Law," smoking weed and watching TV cartoons in her office, which of course means she's a top-notch litigator, just bored with patent law after practicing 32 years. Summarily canned, she, of course, winds up defending the downtrodden from a storefront ex-shoe shop while her glitzy assistant (Brittany Snow) sells leftover Choos and Pradas.

Add a motormouth former opponent/admirer (Nate Corddry) and a suicidal defendant with street smarts (Aml Ameen). One white, one black, one blonde - it's practically her own "Mod Squad"! Did we mention Bates packs a gun?

MY SAY Ow, how it hurts when a master loses his touch. Whether it's the movies' George Lucas or TV's Aaron Sorkin, we learn to expect the best and then, oops, they're not so hot anymore. It's worse when their initial mastery was delivered as sparkling, trenchant wit. Suddenly the timing's off, the quirks feel perfunctory, the provocative becomes preachy.

A decade has passed since Kelley's whimsical "Ally McBeal" whipped up cultural buzz and Emmy gold. Now every other show has weird character traits, nutty happenings, eccentric dialogue.

So Kelley piles on more peculiarities until "Harry's Law" needs to be cited for contempt, of audience. The pilot's accumulation of cute - oh, for the straightforward simplicity of bowling alley lawyer "Ed" - feels overbearing long before Kelley's courtroom summation turns societal sermon.

BOTTOM LINE "Harry's Law" seems to take place in some parallel universe. Has Kelley tried science fiction?

GRADE C-