After having watched all episodes of Sex and the City and Friends at least twice I had to find a new "addiction". I had watched a few random episodes from Ally McBeal on TV before and quite enjoyed it so when I saw the HMV offer for the complete first season of Ally McBeal for 9.99 I thought it was time to give it a go.

The first season has 22 episodes plus the trailer, all of which you will find on the 6 discs that make up the box set.

*DISC 1*
0. Pilot
1. Compromising positions
2. The kiss
3. The affair

*DISC 2*
4. One hundred tears away
5. The promise
6. The attitude
7. Drawing the lines

*DISC 3*
8. The dirty joke
9. Boy to the world
10. Silver bells
11. Cro-Magnon

*DISC 4*
12. The blame game
13. Body language
14. Once in a lifetime
15. Forbidden fruits

*DISC 5*
16. Theme of life
17. The playing field
18. Happy birthday Baby
19. The inmates

*DISC 6*
20. Being there
21. Alone again
22. These are the days

I will try to introduce you to the main characters of the show, but I won't elaborate every single episode in detail, since I believe that's not what this review is about. If you want to know more details about any individual episode there are several sources on the Internet that will describe it in minute detail. However, from my point of view this will only spoil the fun when actually watching the DVDs because you will already anticipate what's going to happen and one of the many things I like about Ally McBeal is that you could have never guessed what they do or how they'll handle a situation.

*The Characters*

ALLY - our protagonist. She is probably best described as nuts. And don't tell me I'm politically incorrect - here's what she said herself: "I like being a mess. It's who I am."

When we meet Ally she's just left law school and has taken on her first job in a law firm in Boston. After a sexual harassment incident she decides to leave and, still carrying her belongings in a box, she bumbs into Richard Fish, a class mate from law school who convinces her to work in his firm. This is where Ally meets Billy Thompson, whom she once had a very serious and long relationship with in high school and law school. It turns out that Billy got married in the mean time, which basically throws us into Ally's world of chaos and melodrama.

Ally herself is a highly unstable character with "first class" mood swings and a very vivid fantasy. She is single when we meet her and will spend most of season 1 looking for and going on dates.

BILLY - Handsome but married would be quite an accurate summary. He knows Ally since they were 8 and was in a relationship with her until he decided to leave Harvard and advance his career in Massachusetts. Since then, he and Ally have lost touch and it's only when Ally joins Richard's firm that they are to meet again. Meanwhile Billy has married Georgia, who is a lawyer herself. Billy's friendship with Ally will - not surprisingly - cause problems, but these problems are not just related to his marriage but also to his relationship with Ally.

GEORGIA - gorgeous, blond, long legs. But you wouldnt wanna be in her shoes when Billy and Ally meet again. Her character is not really developed in the first season, which changes when she and Ally decide that is probably best to become friends instead of secretly hating each other.

RICHARD - Like Billy and Ally, Richard went to Harvard Law School which is how they know each other. He is depicted as a person with low morale who is only concerned about money. During the whole season you still never have any negative feelings against him and his reactions will usually just cause a "so typical Richard".

JOHN - nicknamed the biscuit (because of his height), John is probably - next to Ally - the most peculiar character of the show. He is co-founder of the law firm and a very successful litigator. John is one of the characters that you will frequently see in court defending the most bizarre cases. He has a thing about Barry White and is nose never stops whistling.

RENEE - Ally's room mate is a district attorney and also single. Contrary to Ally though she usually uses her sexuality to make herself noticed. She is confident and outgoing and usually the one Ally runs to when she's in trouble.

ELAINE - Ally's assistant. She knows all the gossip in the office and is quite happy to call herself a slut. A very insecure woman underneath, she usually tries to draw attention to herself to cover those deficiencies.

Now that you know the characters, I would like to briefly outline a few situations that you will encounter during the season. These don't claim to be complete, and shall only spark your curiosity:

- Ally is asked to be pallbearer at the funeral of her ex-law professor when it is revealed that they had an affair when Ally was a student
- Ally fights over a last pack of crisps in a supermarket and gets arrested
- Ally insults a rabbi while trying to get spiritual release for her client
- Elaine starts a sexual harassment case against the law firm
- Ally tries to tell a dirty joke in the bar
- when his uncle dies, Richard hires a gospel singer to belt out a song about short people after the eulogy in order to commemorate his relative
- Ally and John handle the case of three adults seeking legal marriage
- Ally, Renee and Georgia sculpt nude males in an art class
- Ally sees dancing babies
- Ally, following advice from her new therapist, is picking a theme song to help her deal with problems
- Ally faces a 10-year old lawyer and makes him cry
- Renee is arrested on assault and battery

I hope this gives a good enough insight into how turbulent the first season really is. I found every single episode capturing and often watched a second one straight away to see how situations develop.

The episodes of the DVD first appeared on TV in 1997 and won 4 Golden Globes over time. It's definitely the right show for you if you want to convince yourself that there isn't such a thing as a "normal person" and you can bear Ally's emotional highs and lows and especially the frequently changing nature of these - which, I have to admit, some people could probably describe as annoying. The show isn't for you if you prefer serious and straightforward law shows that focus on cases rather than on the people involved - but even then you might enjoy the change :-)

Except for the option to view the episodes in French (which I never did because I don't speak French) and subtitles in French, Dutch and English for the hearing impaired, you won't find any special features on the DVDs. One reason for this might be the fact that it is a rather old release (1997 as I mentioned) and special features just became somewhat fashionable much later.

Since I'm reviewing the DVD and not just the series, I will only give 4 stars overall - for the lack of extra features. However, if I would only rate the episodes of the first season, I'd definitely award 5 stars!

Thanks for reading, rating and commenting!