With The Defenders (Wednesdays, 10 p.m.) CBS follows the pattern of last year’s critical success, the Emmy-winning legal drama The Good Wife, which featured strong performances from two popular TV stars in the lead roles, by Juliana Margulies and Christopher Noth, and a solid supporting cast. The Defenders follows that formula but takes a rather lighter tone, telling the story of two raffish but dedicated defense lawyers in Las Vegas.

Nick Kaczmarek (Jerry O’Donnell) is a young, personable, professionally daring  swinger, and Pete Morelli (Jim Belushi) is his cautious,  anxiety-prone, middle-aged partner who’s a wiz in the courtroom, particularly brilliant at cross-examination.  Pete craves bourgeois normality but is separated from his wife, while Nick loves the high life but doesn’t let it interfere with his work. In the pilot episode, the two take on the case of a young man who shot someone during a multi-person fistfight.

The story plays out as a murder mystery with the defense lawyers functioning as the detective characters. There’s not much work with physical clues or brilliant intuitions on the part of the detective characters; instead, the story is in the private investigator format, with the questioning of witnesses constituting the major part of the investigation.

Nick and Pete are both very sympathetic and kindly toward their client and other people they believe to be innocent. The story of the pilot episode has some very clever turns, and the two defense lawyers of the show’s title are bold, manipulative, and resourceful in working in their client’s interest. And they like Frank Sinatra Jr., which I found rather amusing.  O’Donnell and Belushi are both very popular actors who have had much prior TV success, and they make a highly likable team, especially given that the characters they portray really want to do some good, though they are far from perfect in their personal lives, especially their romantic relationships, which are in rather pitiable condition.

Episode 3, “Nevada vs. Carter,” lacks the mystery element that was so strong in the pilot, but it introduces a couple of interesting themes. The story deals with a pair of criminal cases brought about by false accusations, in which the defendants are a young, black male and a white, female, gentlemen’s-club dancer. What’s more, the prosecutor in one of the cases knows that the accused is innocent, but she continues to pursue the case aggressively.  The story includes a couple of very good plot twists and some excellent courtroom work by Morelli, superbly portrayed by Belushi. The dire potential consequences of these cases make the viewer acutely aware of the power that government has over individuals and how important it is that public servants be above reproach in their official conduct.

With a strong lead-in from top-20 rated crime drama Criminal Minds, interesting stories, laudable but not priggish protagonists, and two popular actors in the lead roles, The Defenders has made a good impression on audiences so far: it received a B+ in USA Today‘s audience poll and has done well in the ratings. It’s another case of doing well by doing good.