Boston Legal

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

You know, when Spader’s character made its debut on The Practice, it was brilliant. A fantasticly dark creature in a roomful of tired people. It made the practice into almost a dark comedy. I thought it saved the show, and then bam. They cancelled the show.

No problem, I thought, since this great character was going to be resurrected in a new law firm drama. Great. Only, it isn’t. The whole show is a badly done Ally McBeal farce, and ALL the characters are crazy. The whole concept — concept!? — is asinine. More pretentious photography and editing. Horrible writing. Bad acting. I hope it dies quickly.

Damn. Just plain damn.

Oh, yeah. Open spoilers. As if it matters.

Sorry, Liberal I couldn’t disagree more! I thought the show quite refreshing from the “CSI’s” and “Law and Order’s” of the world, not to mention all the reality show trash we have to put up with (I can’t even stand commercials for those!).

It was nice to watch a show that didn’t deal with corpses or how someone died for a change!! It really reminded me of the early years of “LA Law”, “West Wing” or, yes, even “Ally McBeal”…there’s nothing wrong with a quirky character here or there throughout the TV landscape.

Since I actually like it, though I’m sure it is a doomed production…

I’m undecided. The plot was a bit thin and underdeveloped, but I felt it was more than made up for by William Shatner spoofing himself. He seems to have accepted that he’s considered one of the most over the top actors of our day & is embracing that for all it’s worth.
James Spader as an attorney always brings up visions of The Secretary for me, and he was very much in that role last night, aside from the few times he slipped into William Shatner, Jr. mode.

I liked it, except for the soundtrack. Get rid of that distracting bark/scream/yelp thing!! It’s annoying as all hell.

I was also somewhat disappointed that Lake Bell wasn’t wearing a more revealing outfit. :smiley:

I thought it really sucked.

It was a lame attempt at an Ally McBeal “look at all these successful but quirky characters” vibe.

The problem is that not a single character is likeable. Ally doesn’t work if every character is like Fish. I simply can’t watch a show where I have urge to smack every single one of the characters.

A love of trivia forces me to point out that the “L.A. Law” pilot dealt with a corpse: named partner Norm Cheney dies in his office over the weekend; Roxanne finds the body and Arnie immediately lays claim to the office, which is bigger than his.

  • Rick

No need to apologize; he hears that all the time.

I thought it was pretty good! Shatner did a great job. I loved that bit near the end where the client is holding the gun on him and Shatner goes into this big hammy “End my life for me! Make me a legend!” thing, then matter of factly says, “By the way, remember I gave you that gun? It’s a starter pistol.”

And James Spader just chews up the scenery. “Hate to extort and run, but I’ve gotta go!”

It has potential.

I’m wondering whether there is any difference in perception depending on whether you’d seen The Practice, where Spader’s character was launched. I guess if I came into Boston Legal cold turkey, without benefit of that prior experience, I could interpret the thing as some sort of Airplane spoof of itself and perhaps enjoy it that way. But knowing how powerful the thing was with Spader set in a melodrama probably taints my views.

Could be. I never saw the last year of The Practice so this was all new to me.

I thought that the show worked as a pilot. Set up the characters and the milieu well, moved fast, handled the various plotlines without confusion. Spader and Shatner were great fun to watch, and Ken and Barbie were perfectly plastic.

But I’m not sure yet that I’m going to watch it regularly. So the ultimate sleazeball got his comeuppance by blackmail. Well, all clients on lawyer shows are sympathetic to the nth. How many times can they do something like that without turning the show into farce?

And if I want farce, then Desperate Housewives is a hundred times better.

I liked The Practice but thought it was coding when Spader came in to shock it back to life. Here, his role is different, and it’ll be interesting to see how the dynamics play themselves out. My major issues with BL’s premiere:[ul][li]Monica Potter is (and always has been) bland and boring.[]The Annie case wasn’t worth Shore’s efforts, plus the Sharpton angle was way too gimmicky. Hopefully, they’ll pull that kind of crap less often.[]Not enough Lake BellThe Shatner-sleeps-with-the-client’s-wife thread was fine, but shouldn’t have been played in the opener. Later in the season, it would’ve colored his character, but here it seemed a too blatant attempt to make him scandalous and amoral.[/ul][/li]The extortion was right up Spader’s alley, and hopefully, we’ll find him acting duplicitous in a variety of creative ways, locking heads with Keen Eddie so that things are evenly balanced (and it’s not too much a Good Guy/Bad Guy vibe).

Shatner was hilarious, though—it’ll be interesting to see how expansive they create the role for such a limited actor, but so far, he has the part nailed. I’ll be tuning in.

I wanted to like it. The preview made it look interesting and I did enjoy the few episodes of The Practice I’d seen when it was on the air. I liked the acting and the fact that the show is different enough to stand out, but as has been noted, no one is likeable. There’s no one to root for in this firm of scummy lawyers.

Besides which I think the judge caved too easily to popular consensus rather than sticking by her original ruling.