Boston Legal (2004)

Watchseries; Programs like Boston Legal are competing for some very coveted viewers. Dangerous Housewives may be more the taste for those looking for "the edgey dramedy" on prime time and Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me have also found a loyal following with some pretty important demographics.* The kind of viewers that can keep a show like Boston Legal alive for a few seasons.

I'm a huge fan of the show...and was one of those people who only began to watch The Practice when Spader appeared. The moral ambiguity of the show's primary characters and the splash of David Kelly made for a wonderful show. That it found the viewers it did is a tribute to the inspired casting and originality of it's story lines. I think Shatner is a wonderful comeback story and the inclusion of Mark Valley may prove to be a superb choice...introducing a fellow who is much more than a pretty face. His character will go nose to nose with Alan Shore and not in the fluttery Major Burns manner. This is a guy who's gonna a win a few...and that in itself bodes well for the show. I look forward to reading everyone's comments on this terrific show.

*This year the Sopranos will return with first run episodes again and it's the farewell season. The show will runs opposite Boston Legal as will Nip/Tuck.

Programs like Boston Legal are competing for some very coveted viewers. Dangerous Housewives may be more the taste for those looking for "the edgey dramedy" on prime time and Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me have also found a loyal following with some pretty important demographics.* The kind of viewers that can keep a show like Boston Legal alive for a few seasons.

I'm a huge fan of the show...and was one of those people who only began to watch The Practice when Spader appeared. The moral ambiguity of the show's primary characters and the splash of David Kelly made for a wonderful show. That it found the viewers it did is a tribute to the inspired casting and originality of it's story lines. I think Shatner is a wonderful comeback story and the inclusion of Mark Valley may prove to be a superb choice...introducing a fellow who is much more than a pretty face. His character will go nose to nose with Alan Shore and not in the fluttery Major Burns manner. This is a guy who's gonna a win a few...and that in itself bodes well for the show. I look forward to reading everyone's comments on this terrific show.

*This year the Sopranos will return with first run episodes again and it's the farewell season. The show will runs opposite Boston Legal as will Nip/Tuck.

Boston Legal watchseries. Just started watching this show for the third time now and it still amazes me. This once in a life time -hopefully not- magic formula of thin delicious crust of original hummer topped with a dash of harmless silliness at times, wrapping a thick stuffing of all kind of serious and contemporary issue that relate to all of us on so many levels. Religion, politics, drugs, homosexuality, crime, mirage, family and the list goes on. I honestly can't think of any subject that is generally considered worth examining that is not present in this show in a wonderful formula of an unbiased and simplified manner. Where it gets truly genius is, at the platform of a court, where all sides present their best demonstration to support their views and leave it to us to form our own judgment. This show respects us, and it does that brilliantly while tackling subjects that matters to our own life.

I think you should watch this show.

It's delightfully weird.

Totally unrealistic, it has just enough I-don't-know-what to enable the all important willing suspension, and once you got that, you're golden.

Here's the little stuff, the stuff that you'll enjoy but don't need to go out of your way for:

1) It has Candice Bergen! Bergen fulfills her role (uber-classy uber-MILF) perfectly. (Plus, she's Candice Bergen. To this date, no one does Bergen as well as Bergen.)

2) Clemenson/Espenson is likable and offbeat. One of the best "spice" characters since, oh, I dunno, Hill Street Blues.

3) Sometimes John Larroquette shows up, and he's so tall! He doesn't have to actually say anything funny. He's John Larroquette. It's a grin just for him to show up. (That sounds dismissive and snarky, but it's not meant to be. I honestly believe this is Larroquette's great comic gift: he shows up. That's all he needs to do. That's what he does. It doesn't matter what he says, because all the humor is in the wry, sardonic (and tall) presence. On Night Court, he had some funny lines, but that was actually a distraction. Remember The West Wing and The Practice... he had no funny lines there, but the effect was the same: Larroquette's wry, sardonic (and tall) presence = a grin. (Although, to be fair, in The Practice he did actually play a character in addition to showing up.))

4) It has William Shatner!

And here's the big stuff, the stuff you'll never experience if you don't go out of your way to watch a few episodes:

1) It has William Shatner! Star Trek gave us William Shatner giving us Captain James T. Kirk. Boston Legal gives us William Shatner giving us William Shatner (as Denny Crane)... the intelligent goof we always suspected was playing Captain Kirk. Even if you weren't a Trekkie, it's such a cool feeling to feel like you're getting to hang out with the *real* Captain Kirk, the (intelligent, goofy) man behind the myth.

2) Despite -- or rather, alongside -- the show's unabashed unrealistic stance, it takes an honest stab at depicting honest emotions, especially (but not only) in the traditional closing scene, where Spader/Shore and Shatner/Crane share a Scotch, a cigar, a presumably rather nippy Boston evening, and a friendship.

3) It has James Spader! Who? James Spader! Who's Jame's Spader? I don't know, I never heard of him before I saw this show, but he's incredible. His character (Alan Shore) brings something unlike anything I've ever seen on television... a character that is, I think, truly Shakesperean in its immediacy and otherness.

In fact, I believe this is the secret ingredient of Boston Legal's success. Spader's Shore has a Shakesperean otherness, and once we accept this otherness (as we are compelled to do), it doesn't matter how unrealistic (or compressed or reductive) the rest of the show is. Once we (the audience) have signed up for this otherness, once the writers have that signature on the dotted line, they're free play around and cut corners as they like. Thankfully, they often (though not always) do so to good effect.

It's no big secret that down through the years,William Shatner was made fun of "a lot". From his,"Gremlin On The Airplane" appearance on Twilight Zone,what some say was "wooden" acting on "Star Trek" (except all those Trekkies)to "T.J. Hooker" & his laughable,tongue in cheek,renditions of popular songs. Not to mention a few bad films here & there.

I couldn't help but not take him seriously. ...but now,Shatner's won an Emmy or two and I can't believe I'm saying this... he deserves it. As Denny Crane he is hilarious and at the same time kind of sad. Sad because we know his character's mind is slowly drifting into Alzheimer's Disease.

It's also amazing to see this character,that is everything the feminist movement ever complained about in men. He smokes,drinks,sleeps with many women and is an ego-maniac with too much power. ...but at least hes lovable,sort of.

James Spader's dry style is terrific and his courtroom speeches are not just powerful & true but they also seem genuinely heartfelt. Which is amazing considering his character can be quite the cynic and seemingly part time womanizer like Denny. Except,he tends to be a bit more respectful of females. (Look for Spader in the classic episode of Seinfeld,as the guy who wont tell george Costanza he's sorry.)

I'm happy to see the likes of Candice Bergen,Rene Aubenjenois & Betty White on the show as well. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Bety White "take-out" a guy with a heavy black frying pan! I mean,dang! She's (for a time) reminded me of my Grandmother!

Candice Bergen has successfully put a "Grand Canyon" between her Murphy Brown character and Shirley. The difference? Murphy Brown is sarcastic but truly cares about people. On B.L. ,Shirley does stand up for human rights in the courtroom. At the firm,she can be insensitive and a bit callous twords the feelings of others.

Case in point,not promoting one lawyer to partner because he doesn't make enough money for the firm,as well as the fact he has a personality quirk that makes him imperfect for the image of the firm.

Usually I don't go for "law" or "court" shows but since this one has an almost M*A*S*H like combo of humor and drama (without being heavy handed) I finally have a dramatic show that I can also laugh at.

Ten stars easily!!

I'm going to make this as short as possible short, as I have little to say. As far as "pure" drama series' go, Boston Legal is the one that had it all right.

Fabulous actors, writers with imagination and a sense of humor, and most of all, the series had a soul. It had an opinion, and the nerve to bring it forth. Entertainment that is afraid of making a statement can be relaxing, but relaxing entertainment that manages to make a statement, whether the viewer agrees with the statement or not, is something much greater.

5 seasons is a lot better than a lot of worthy series have done, but still, the cancellation is a huge injustice and I will sorely miss the wits that this series had to offer. It is a shame that a series such as Boston Legal does not reach the grand audience that it well deserves.

I'm a lawyer, and I normally avoid law shows. I like science fiction. But this has . . . Denny Crane. Or rather, this has Captain Kirk, William Shatner, as an old, demented, republican, gun totting, ego-maniacal unenlightened, philandering, unethical, sexist, homophobic anti- environmentalist powerful attorney, and it is absolutely frelling hysterical. When they let Shatner, Candice Bergman, and James Spader do their thing, this show is gold. The rest of the regularly appearing cast is fairly good.

Sure not modeling good behavior, mind, and sometimes the legal errors go far beyond what is necessary for the plot. I think they could loose some of the younger lawyers, who really don't add anything to the mix that I can tell but seem to be regarded as necessary for demographic reasons. Once in a while it falls flat. But for the most part, this show is great.