# Is the Alan Shore character on "The Practice" supposed to be kind of nuts.. or what?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-alan-shore-character-on-the-practice-supposed-to-be-kind-of-nuts-or-what/242363>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 27, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-alan-shore-character-on-the-practice-supposed-to-be-kind-of-nuts-or-what/242363 "2004-04-27T22:08:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-alan-shore-character-on-the-practice-supposed-to-be-kind-of-nuts-or-what/242363/1 "2004-04-27T22:08:54Z")

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I never cared much for “The Practice” until the last few months. I don’t know why exactly. I guess it always seemed a little too smug and preachy but when the “Allen Shore” came onboard I’ve converted to a regular watcher.

Re the “Alan Shore” character played by James Spader. What precisely is supposed to be his malfunction? He’s obviously brillant and seems to weave between being uber sensitive and caring, and being a fearless, self destructive, borderline sociopath. Is he supposed to be nuts or just very odd, or super honest, or… what exactly?

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-alan-shore-character-on-the-practice-supposed-to-be-kind-of-nuts-or-what/242363/2 "2004-04-27T22:14:35Z")

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I think he’s a sensitive, caring, self destructive, borderline sociopath. 🙂