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My initial reaction to CBS' new legal drama "Doubt" was not exactly enthusiastic. Maybe it was just too easy to mock.

Sadie Ellis (Katherine Heigl) stars as a "brilliant attorney" who falls for her client, "altruistic pediatric surgeon" Bill Brennan (Steven Pasquale) — who is charged with murdering his girlfriend 24 years ago.

Yes, Heigl ("Grey's Anatomy") is more believable as an attorney than she was as a CIA operative in the short-lived "State of Affairs" (2014-15) — but that's a very low bar.

And one of my TV critic pals convinced me I was looking at "Doubt" all wrong. It doesn't matter that real lawyers will cringe and/or laugh at much of what happens.

"Doubt," premiering Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Ch. 2, is to legal drama what "Grey's Anatomy" is to medical drama — it's actually a big soap opera.

And, as a soap opera, "Doubt" is pretty good. It's filled with likable characters played by a nice cast and features relatively interesting cases handled by a boutique New York law firm.

"These are people who believe that everybody has a right to a vigorous defense and that we stand by our fellow man in his darkest hour," said executive producer Jill Rater. "We have a whole host of cases where they may or may not be guilty."

Sadie works alongside Albert Cobb (Dulé Hill, "The West Wing"), whose job is ruining his relationship, and Cameron Wirth (Laverne Cox, "Orange Is the New Black"), who fights for underdogs because, as a transgender woman, she know what that's like.

There's naive Tiffany Smith (Dreama Walker), and newcomer Nick Brady (Kobi Libii), who is desperate for a job — because he's a felon who got his law degree in prison.

Fortunately, this firm is headed by liberal legal lion Isaiah Roth (Elliott Gould), who's a father figure to everyone and particularly to Sadie. Because he was involved with her mother (Judith Light). Who's been in jail for a very long time.

The "Doubt" format doesn't break the network TV mode. The murder case against Bill Brennan — clearly inspired by Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel being charged with and convicted of the murder of Martha Moxley — will arc across the season. Each episode will also include cases that play out in an hour.

The best part of the premiere is another ripped-from-the-headlines case: Cameron and Tiffany defend a schizophrenic man who pushed a young woman in front of a subway train. It's a glimpse of how good "Doubt" can be, raising ethical and legal questions for which there are no clear answers.

Where "Doubt" does break out of the network TV mold is by casting a transgender actor as a transgender lawyer. And it's close to the hearts of Rater and her husband and fellow showrunner, Tony Phelan, who are the parents of a transgender son. (They're former writer/producers on "Grey's Anatomy.")

"We wanted to show a transgender person who is a bad-ass lawyer, really smart. And it wasn't about their transgender identity," said Rater. "That's a part of who Cameron is, but there are a lot of other parts."

Cox said she's excited that while, clearly, a big part of the character is that she's transgender, that "is not the thing that we lead with or the thing that's the most interesting about her. We understand that she's a really competent attorney who cares deeply about the clients that she represents, and that is what we lead with."

That may well be the best part of "Doubt." I'm not telling you it's a great show, but it is better than I originally thought.

Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.