Every week I sit down to watch Boston Legal (well, every week there is a new episode, anyway). Sometimes I love the soapbox they choose to stand on, and other times I'm miffed by it. Sometimes I think the extraneous shenanigans are great, and other times I'm hugely disturbed and disappointed by them.
Last night was one of those nights where the show seemed, to me, to work wonderfully. Probably that's because I lean more to the left than the right. The show doesn't just lean to the left, it tends to fall over to that side, but last night Boston Legal and I had a meeting of the minds.
Alan was arguing a case before the Supreme Court, trying to defend a man who had been sentenced to death in Louisiana for raping (but not murdering) a 7-year-old. It was a heinous crime to be sure, one that the individual, whose IQ was a mere 70, claimed not to have done.
Standing before the nine Justices, Alan, who had been prepped not to, flew off the handle, ranting and raving against the Justices and their insanely political bent. He argued that it wasn't the history of the court to be quite as political as they have been recently, and whether or not that's accurate, they certainly shouldn't be.
Alan's tirade was mainly focused on the conservative Justices and the fact that they, in his mind, have not only acted almost solely on ideological grounds over the past few years, but that they have refused to recuse themselves when they face a clear conflict of interest in a case. Here they almost lost me as I'm quite sure that the liberal Justices have equally strong failings, but, it was still great to watch him rip into the highest court in the land.
It was, in fact, more fun than watching Gordon Ramsay rip into the contestants on Hell's Kitchen. I feel as though he needs to come up with new and different ways to humiliate his contestants in order for the show to remain interesting, and so far he just hasn't done that this season. Week in and week out the show relies on virtually the exact same epithets, complaints, and challenges that appeared last year and the year before. I'm still enjoying it, but I'd like to see something more, too.
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Article comments
1 - Jesse Holmes
I caught this episode last night and I thought it was interesting enough to google it! I just wanted to comment about the show's left-leaning slant. I agree with a lot of what they say, but I find it funny, as you mentioned, that although they lean to the left, they don't even pay attention to opposing views, often times disregarding very obvious opposing arguments. An example of this is one eposode when Alan said "I don't understand how conservatives can be for the death penalty, but against abortion." Well according to Alan's logic and values being drawn from this comment, how can a liberal be for abortion, but against the death penalty?! Definitely an interesting show!