I’ve just watched 27 episodes of **Boston Legal ** back to back. Shatner didn’t get his Emmy as a consolation price - he simply has never been better and he shines. Many times because it’s not totally clear if Crane is actually slipping or if it’s all an act. And if maybe Shatner himself might be slipping a bit too.
I remember when Ally McBeal was new on the air, there where websites that collected Fishisms. There should be Craneisms, too: I came here to enjoy nature, not be bothered with environment. James Spader is of course glorious too, cultivating the mannerisms of Alan Shore. I understand that the viewing audience is a bit tired of David E. Kelley’s storytelling and lawyers in Boston. And while the oversentimental touches and way to tell a story are a bit too predictable, the tour de force that Spader and Shatner display still makes it worth while. The women are enough eye candy too, to keep me interested when Shatner or Spader are off stage: Rhona Mitra, Monica Potter… hubba, hubba.
Are there any more fans of the show or will it get cancelled after this season?
Well, my wife and I are fans. Have been since the beginning of this incarnation of the concept. We missed forerunner shows. That includes any Shatner since the original Star Trek for me.
But this is a winner for us. Must see TV. Only other shows we have in that category are The West Wing, Bones, House, Medium, Survivor, Big Brother and others that we don’t share interest in except for the HBO series. I also like 24, The Shield, and college football.
As long as they keep tweaking the cast and the story lines, Boston Legal is a winner in our book.
We (VeryCoolSpouse and I) are huge fans. In our opinion the 2 funniest shows on TV are BostonLegal and MythBusters. There are other things we watch, but these two are required.
My family, boyfriend, and I are all avid fans of Bostol Legal. Both parents started watching once Judging Amy was cancelled, and have decided that Boston Legal is even better than JA.
Ive always been a big fan of James Spader, so seeing him once a week is perfect! Shatner is wonderful too, making the show worth putting away homework for an hour or so. (not that putting away homework is all that difficult anyways…)
ABC would be hard-pressed to top Boston Legal, no matter what they put on.
I haven’t seen Boston Legal all season, but I enjoyed it whenever I watched it. While some aspects of the show would leave me cold, Spader and Shatner were absolutely riveting in every scene they were in, either separately or especially together. The Alan Shore and Denny Crane characters are fascinating to watch, and they get the best dialogue. They’re both narcissistic, pompous, sleazy, and a little creepy, but also very cool and occasionally heroic. I just got bored during the other plotlines not featuring them (although Rhona Mitra is a knockout).
I could watch PSader and Shatner sit on that balcony, drinking scotch and smoking cigars and discussing life for a whole episode. Seeing them doing that as two giant pink flamingos (flamingoes?) was a surrealistic and wonderful moment.
And they’re both letting out what almost all men manage to hide - that in our harts, we’re all just 14 year old boys.
What appeals to me about these balcony scenes is how they run from self-parody and inside jokes to little bits of philosophy, often within the same few sentences. I love it that they’ll be on that balcony regardless of weather.
I started watching The Practice a little before James Spader joined, or maybe I started watching it because of James Spader, hmm. Anyway, I was thrilled that Boston Legal picked up the characters and storyline that Practice had laid out, and now I’ve got my roommates hooked, too. (They used to think it was just a trashy legal drama. Which it is, but it’s a self-aware trashy legal drama.) It lacks The Practice’s moral ambiguity, but I love the outrageous characters and stories. It does a great job of parodying serious legal dramas. I do wish it were less didactic, though. Alan Shore’s character was better in The Practice and earlier episodes of Boston Legal, when the character was more complex and continually switching between “good guy” and “bad guy.”
This is one of the only shows that Only Mostly Missus and I will not miss for anything (and we still tivo it as we watch live. Then archive it on my computer.) It’s absolute gold. I was afraid that ABC was killing it after its first season, when they found out “we have a giant hit with Desperate Housewives. This show right after it, Boston Legal, is doing okay, but not stellar. We have a new show, Gray’s Anatomy, that we really want to succeed. Let’s just drop Boston Legal altogether for nearly a full season to devote the dynamite post-DH timeslot to GA.” Turns out part of it was genuine cast retooling, and as I understand, they hadn’t initially ordered a full Boston Legal first season anyway. But it’s back, it’s hilarious, and I really really like that they created and have emphasized Shirley Schmidt as being almost as integral as Denny and Alan. Candance Bergin is just too good to not utilize.
I agree. Somehow he’s lost his edge, and become Denny’s second fiddle a bit this season. First season Alan was mindbogglingly complex, though I wouldn’t say he swapped between “good guy” and “bad guy” so much as “good guy (whether or not what he’s doing actually appears good)” and “selfish child.”
They’ve just started showing the second season in the UK and, while Rhona Mitra was in the first episode, I was sad to see she wasn’t in the opening credits and it seems she’s being dropped from the show. Monica Potter’s gone too and I liked her far better than Julie Bowen.
Still, Shatner and Spader are unmissable.
Damn, I will miss Rhona though! (She was the model for Lara Croft in the game Tomb Raider and used to appear at E3 shows.)
I missed too much of this show, but I love it so much I just might consider buying it on DVD, something I haven’t done for any show but The Prisoner and, soon, Firefly.
Ditto. She was a much more complex carachter. Bowen is just a younger version of Bergen, and I get the impression that the two younger lawyers in the opening credits is an attempt by the network to broaden the potential adience. The same goes for Alan Shore being less ambiguous this year: “Hey - you need to make the show’s star more likeable.”
I certainly hope ABC doesn’t cancel it; it’s simply the most imaginative show on TV (and the weirdest!). Shatner and Spader are the best buddy pairing in years!
I agree about Julie Bowen, though. I found her annoying in Ed , even more so here. I miss Tara terribly!
Does anyone else see Alan starting to drift away from Denny? I’m beginning to notice him getting almost disillusioned with Denny.
One change I definitely do not like is the overt political message that the show is moving towards. Denny Crane is given the job of being the token Republican, in a very unflattering way, while Alan Shore is becoming the ‘voice of sanity’ as an extreme liberal, when his character started out as simply being amoral. It’s trending more and more towards the kind of heavy-handed cliche’ ridden liberal lovefest that Candace Bergin created on her last show. I hope it doesn’t continue down that path.
Why do you say he is “The voice of sanity”? Could it not also be seen as a condemnation of extreme liberalism that a nut like Shore is coming to their causes?
However, I will agree that it should not be a central part of the show which, as others have said, rocks. I usually find the storylines of all characters pretty entertaining. I like it when they throw the clean cut blonde guy a nice show or two, as it brings out more depth to his otherwise ignored character. Kinda shakes up our impression of the firm’s dynamics.
But really, it’s all about Denny Crane. The character Shatner was born to play.
Believe it or not - this liberal kinda agrees with you. I see the Alan Shore charatcer as a man who once entered law for left-wing, idealistic reasons, but got jaded and cynical. There’s nothing left to fight for, he makes a lot of money and decides to give up any pretence of serving some higher cause: he’s in it to have fun. Maybe once in a blue moon part of his old self tugs on him and makes him do something that might (or might not) be unselfish. It might also be that he’s doing it for kicks.
The change came with the second season, and I’m sure that it’s part of what I wrote above. The network wanted a more likeable and less ambiguous main character, in a hope of boosting rating. Why they decided to have a political speech in every 2nd episode, I dunno. Alan Shore was more fun when he was unpredictable.
And while Denny Crane is crazy as an asylum full of monkeys on LSD, having him ballancing the liberal message by being a card carrying Republican rings false too.