Boston Legal - Series 1 - Complete (Box Set) (DVD)

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Yes, it’s Boston Legal, the giving James Spader the recognition he deserves, Modern America questioning, legal lawyer show with lawyers in it; from America. I’ve been wanting to write some new DVD reviews for a while, if only so I get to play around with those funky little arrows Christianfilmcritic gets, and I’ve chosen for my subject this, the latest TV offering from the maker of Ally McBeal, David E. Kelley. Set in the fictional legal ...
...to a law firm, obviously. Boston Legal is firmly comedic, although the humour always flows from the characters rather than crazy situations (although there is one hostage scene, played half seriously, but with a brilliant comic conclusion.)

The character of Alan Shore is a brilliant one ► played to perfection by the Award-Winning James Spader. He is incredibly funny and witty, even though he can be a total bastard at times. Incredibly ... more

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Yes, it’s Boston Legal, the giving James Spader the recognition he deserves, Modern America questioning, legal lawyer show with lawyers in it; from America. I’ve been wanting to write some new DVD reviews for a while, if only so I get to play around with those funky little arrows Christianfilmcritic gets, and I’ve chosen for my subject this, the latest TV offering from the maker of Ally McBeal, David E. Kelley. Set in the fictional legal firm of Crane, Poole and Schmidt, it focuses on several of the key lawyers, but mainly on the shoulders of newcomer Alan Shore (James Spader), an experienced lawyer fresh from his last firm, who he bankrupted after they fired him unfairly. The lawyer who helped him sue? The first founder of the company, Denny Crane (William Shatner), a once-brilliant lawyer who is starting to experience slips in memory, which isn’t the most useful thing when you’re a lawyer. There are several other characters, such as Alan’s girlfriend Sally Heep (Lake Bell), his fellow lawyers Brad Chase (Mark Valley), Lori Allan (Monica Potter), and Tara Wilson (Rhona Mitra), who happens to be an old flame of Alan.

►► It’s simple enough, much like House in a way, with plotlines each week that feature two or so cases featuring four of five of the lawyers, the court cases go up and down and all manner of things happen in them, as you’d expect, and towards the end of the episode we see if the lawyers were victorious or not. But this is by no means a predictable show. The cases brought forward tend to be dubious – take for example the first episode, where Alan has to represent a black girl who was refused the role of Annie (that bouncy orange-haired ball of annoyance) and has a mother who refuses to allow this... In later cases we see the lawyers get placed in several situations, which they squirm around and generally get out of. However they do tend to lose on occasion, which provides an interesting twist for the series.

There are two or three plotlines that continue through the series, however. Alan and Denny are the two main characters, and both have problems in their lives. Alan, a womanising self hating narcissist with a great turn of phrase and sense of moral righteousness (you thought you had issues?) struggles to enjoy normal relationships, and prefers to not be tied down by women. He moves with alarming casualness from Sally to Tara, and continually makes naughty remarks towards the other female employees, not to mention his put-upon secretary.
Denny, in the meantime, is getting old, starting to miss things, and he is no longer the great lawyer he once was. Although he still has an undefeated record, he has to rely slightly on other lawyers, generally Alan, to help him get through cases. He is also very forward with women, though much less successful, and he has a habit of saying his name over and over again to inspire awe. “Denny Crane!” becomes a recurring joke for the series.
►Halfway through the series comes a big shake-up when Schmidt returns to the firm, played with blasting wit by Candice Bergen. She immediately causes a huge stir by firing several lawyers, including some familiar faces, and gets on the wrong side of Denny. In fact, although they bicker endlessly, Denny and Shirley Schmidt do have a certain admiration and respect for each other, and Alan and Denny spend a lot of time trying to sleep with her as the series goes on.

Now, all that I’ve said may make this sound like a drama, something like LA Law or (and I shudder as I write this) Judge John Deed. But you’d be wrong! This is a comedy, a mad comedy. It’s got the same attitude that Scrubs does, although take out JD’s childish wanderings and flashes, and stick in incredibly clever banter and witty remarks instead. Oh, and move the setting from a hospital to a law firm, obviously. Boston Legal is firmly comedic, although the humour always flows from the characters rather than crazy situations (although there is one hostage scene, played half seriously, but with a brilliant comic conclusion.)

The character of Alan Shore is a brilliant one ► played to perfection by the Award-Winning James Spader. He is incredibly funny and witty, even though he can be a total bastard at times. Incredibly moral, when he is hit by a man in a bar, he doesn’t retaliate himself, instead going over to a group of burly men and saying “Hello, big people. Sorry to intrude, but you seem rather strapping. Here's three hundred dollars. Would you be so kind as to go hit that man down there?” - and with the way Spader delivers each line, it’s impossible not to be on his side when he does this. Likewise William Shatner provides an incredible performance as crude, lascivious Denny Crane, the man who can’t stop saying his own name. Every time you see him, you’re happy, because you know something good is about to happen. Especially fun are the scenes he shares with Alan, with their verbal sparring a joy to watch unfold.

And the rest of the cast are brilliant too. Valley and Potter don’t appear much a the start, but are focused on more heavily towards the end of the series, with stuffy ex-military man Brad and clever and kinda wily Lori come to the fore. And Candice Bergen – well, she’s brilliant, duh. Her addition to the show makes an already enjoyable series that much more fun. There are several guest stars, such as Freddie Prinze Jr as Denny’s son, Donny (“Denny Crane!” “Donny Crane!” “Denny Crane!” etc), Carl Reiner – and strangely enough, Al Sharpton; as himself.

The series is 17 episodes long, each episode being around 40 minutes long, and there honestly isn’t one episode that dips in quality from the rest of them. It’s a consistently brilliant show, well directed and excellently edited. And to cap it all of, it has an outrageously funky theme-tune, which pretty much demands you get down with yo’ bad self. The one downside is the fact that you won’t get any audio commentaries for any of the episodes, and the extras are disappointingly lacklustre, the featurettes relying too much on extracts from the episodes YOU’VE JUST SEEN. The box-set contains five DVD’s, with four or five episodes on each one, except for that final DVD which has the finale of the first season and all the extras on it. ►The first featurette explores the dynamic between the eccentric pairing of James Spader and William Shatner, but doesn’t have enough from the actors themselves. The second, more interesting featurette, traces the history of the show. It’s essentially a spin-off of ‘The Practise’, and we get to see David E. Kelley describe how the show came to be. Finally, there’s an extended version of the Pilot episode, which is all very well and good, but I’d rather get a blooper reel or something like that instead, really.

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Hee! Love them arrows. Sorry, I can't stop using them... Now, I always find it hard to get across the essence of a TV programme. I think all I can really say is; Boston Legal has some of the best writing on TV at the moment, some of the best and most likeable characters, and it will make you laugh. It will. So on that alone, wouldn’t you say it’s worth it?

►http://www.abc.go.com/primetime/bostonlegal/index.html ► 

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