TV Review: Boston Legal

Denny Crane.

It strikes me that I never really discuss Boston Legal, and I have no idea why that is, so I thought I’d explore the issue.

Is Boston Legal purely disposable television?   Is it a show I just watch because -- let’s face it -- I’m completely and totally obsessed with television and the idea of going without a show for a single hour of primetime breaks my heart? 

No, that can’t be it.  So then, to defend Boston Legal…

How about starting it off this way, it’s like Ally McBeal, but good.  Obviously it’s similar because it’s another legal dramedy show produced and created by David E. Kelley.  But, where the quirks and foibles of the main characters on McBeal were grating after the first five minutes, Legal has been able to avoid that trap.  Additionally, McBeal’s entire raison d’être was to try and get McBeal back with her old boyfriend, played by Gil Bellows, who left in the second season of the series.  At that moment, the show promptly lost its way.  Though the show (unbelievably) would continue to air for a few more seasons, it was only trading on the good will it earned during the time Gil Bellows was present.

As with McBeal, Legal has a large cast of eccentrics and whackos, but McBeal fell into the trap of putting the characters’ eccentricities at the center of everything, whereas Legal has them to the side.  The eccentricities exist in Legal, but they inform the characters’ actions rather than having them entirely take over the character. 

Okay, so it’s better than McBeal, that doesn’t make it good.  To add to it, the legal cases are interesting (if sometimes unbelievable).  Last night, two related-to-the-headlines stories took center stage:  unattractive, socially awkward girls being booted from a sorority; and the patenting of one person’s genetic information by another.  Though the show always deals with these cases in a humorous fashion, there is unquestionably a heart underneath it all.  Even if the lawyers lose their cases (as was seen last night), the show highlights the difference between legal reality and right versus wrong.  It’s an important distinction, and one that Legal (more so recently) is willing to make.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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