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I distinctly remember sitting down to watch the first episode of Boston Legal five seasons ago. I had given up on The Practice two seasons before that show put out its final episode, but something about Boston Legal piqued my interest. The show's had ups and downs during its five years, but for me it's always been appointment television. My final two appointments were back-to-back ones tonight. It was sad, but the show does seem to have run its course.
Nothing makes me happier (as I think I've said before) than seeing dear old Catherine Piper on Boston Legal and in the offices of Crane, Poole, and Schmidt. Tonight that fantastic, fantastic woman was back, but rather than having killed someone, she was working at the firm once more. Or, that's what she claimed anyway.
You know what I think of when I think of Boston Legal? I think of courts and trials. I think of judges and juries. However, there was no court case tonight. There may have been a bunch of judges and a jury, but that's only because there was a friend-filled Thanksgiving dinner at Shirley Schmidt's.
Tonight, Boston Legal began just like the start of a bad joke -- an attractive woman walks into Crane, Poole, and Schmidt (it's kind of like "a man walks into a bar"). I think in its last season the show should try to do a complete joke episode, an episode that is filled with nothing but stale lines from old jokes. However, that wasn't what tonight's episode was.
With all of the show's soapbox arguments, I was a little worried heading into tonight's Boston Legal. I knew that the primary case tonight dealt with parental consent for abortion, and whatever my personal feelings on the issue, it was definitely something the show would do better to handle gingerly. They did, but only because they managed to confuse it with other issues.
Tonight's episode of Boston Legal started out where most episodes usually end -- on the balcony. The show always talks politics, so you knew they were going to discuss tomorrow's election and this was how it began. Denny and Alan were discussing the race for president and Denny gave Alan two reasons why he was voting McCain -- salmon and women. The man's logic was incredible and perhaps right, but would take hundreds and hundreds of words to try to explain in a way that would make any sense. As the discussion wasn't really germane to the episode, I will not expend those words, so let's just move on.
Out of all the recurring characters Boston Legal has brought forth over the years, the best is Betty White's Catherine Piper. The woman is truly hysterical, a murderer, but hysterical. How that woman has avoided jail for all these years simply amazes me. I know that a large part of the reason she's not in jail is because this is a TV show, but it still amazes me. The woman is a stone cold killer.
For better or worse, Alan Shore is the heart of Crane, Poole & Schmidt, over innumerable episodes of Boston Legal we've seen as much. Alan fights with everything he has for all his clients, but does not always walk the straight and narrow quite as much as he should. Tonight's episode told us that some of Alan's tactics may come back to bite him, and the firm, one day soon.
As this final season of Boston Legal progresses, I can't help but wonder how the series finds its end. The show is a fan of bringing back old lawyers and flames on such a regular basis that I imagine that the end will come with the return of some character, but I can't quite figure out who yet. I do not however believe that it will be Phoebe, the woman we met a while back whom Alan confessed quite possibly could have been the one and who reappeared tonight.
I don't think that any episode of Boston Legal has started quite as awkwardly as tonight's did. It featured Denny and Jerry out for a drink. Denny has never been, as you may recall, a fan of Jerry. However, he and Jerry were out having a drink because Jerry wanted Denny's support when he next came up for partner. Denny wasn't quite sure he wanted to support Jerry in the bid, but never got to give a definitive answer before being "forced" to fire his gun three times into the man who tried to mug them.
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