If you remember "The Fugitive," either the 1960s American television series or its 1993 movie version starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, you'll have a good idea of the appeal of "Tobo Bengoshi" (Fugitive Lawyer; Fuji TV, Tues., 10 p.m.), a new drama series that starts this week. In the original TV series, main character Dr. Richard Kimball was fleeing from a false murder conviction and every week would end up in a new town where he became involved with some local situation that required his skills as a physician. In the Fuji TV series, based on a comic, the hero Makoto Narita (Yusuke Kamiji) does the same thing except in this series he utilizes his legal knowhow to help people.

In the first episode, the young Narita comes to the office to find his mentor dead, and is then attacked. He wakes up in the hospital, where the local prosecutor (Kazuki Kitamura) interrogates him and later charges him with murder, arson and breach of trust. Knowing he cannot fight the charges without finding the real murderer, Narita escapes.

Another fugitive is the hero of another comic book spinoff, "Hammer Session" (TBS, Sat., 7:56 p.m.), which also starts this week. Yongo Otowa (Mokomichi Hayami) is a "genius con man" caught by the police, but en route to the police station he manages to escape from the paddy wagon and hides out in the nearest building, a high school.