'Boston Legal': That's quite the Piccadilly
Tonight on Boston Legal, Alan decided to sue the National Guard. That has to make at least a dozen different governmental organizations that Alan has taken to court. Shirley Schmidt instantly called him on what much of the audience, myself included, must have been thinking (not that it matters) -- he can't sue the National Guard. Alan pointed out that Crane, Poole, & Schmidt do sue people they can't all the time (true), with cases that could never stand up in court (also true). He said that they somehow manage to take these cases and make them "watchable, fun, and informative." He was definitely right, tonight's episode was "watchable, fun, and informative."
At Alan's hearing against the National Guard, he attacked the Guard for not being present to help flood victims in Massachusetts. The National Guard, according to Alan, was not there to help because the majority of their manpower and resources were in Iraq. Somehow, Alan managed to turn the entire hearing into a rant against the war. While his points were valid, it felt like a backdoor, sneaky, way to get in a few shots about our nation's problems in the Middle East.
Then, for reasons that were a little murky, they had something to do with his wanting to help on the homefront, Alan decided to try and join the National Guard. He eventually found out that he was too old (apparently 42 is the age limit to enter the Guard for those that have not served in another branch of the military), and went to try out for the Coast Guard instead. It all got very preachy, very quickly.
The best case tonight was Shirley and her granddaughter taking on the granddaughter's public school, which had expelled the girl. The case became tonight's second soapbox piece -- the granddaughter was expelled for shredding tests, which she did as a protest about public education's inadequacies. During the hearing even the principal of the school railed against the public education system's method of standard testing.
Much more than Alan's rants against the war in Iraq, this case really hit home tonight. Alan's foreign policy criticisms may or may not be true, but unquestionably public education in our country ought to be stronger.
Moving away from soapboxes and into characters, Carl Sack talked to Shirley about leaving the Boston branch of the firm in order to go back to New York. He said to her that he couldn't take the sort of insane lawsuits (like suing the National Guard) the Boston branch of the firm regularly gets embroiled in. He argued to Shirley that he has done little to curtail the nonsense in the firm, which was the reason for his being brought to Boston place and that if he couldn't help he should go back.
Carl wasn't wrong in his assertion, he has in fact done very little to curb the insanities of the firm. But, if he was successful, where would Boston Legal be? Without the insane cases, without the soapbox pieces, there really is little to no show. I may get tired of some of the rants and raves, but they are what the show is almost entirely built on. And, having the Sack character (or Paul Lewiston) there to call shenanigans is important.
By the end of the episode, Sack decided to stay in Boston a little while longer, much to Shirley, and my, happiness.
The other bit of character development tonight happened with our good friend Lorraine, with a progression of the story of the alleged fatwa against her. Katie and Whitney took a moment tonight to call Lorraine on the inconsistencies between her story and her actions. One of their main points, that anyone with a fatwa against them that was trying to remain hidden would not take high profile cases, as Lorraine has, was completely valid (personally, I wonder why Lorraine came up with such a lame excuse for lying about who she is, surely stronger cover stories were available).
As it turned out, Lorraine thought it was better to give Katie the notion of the fatwa instead of copping to having run an escort service in London and which resulted in Lorraine's being dubbed the "Piccadilly Madam." Lorraine's fear was that if Shirley knew the truth she would have fired Lorraine. Shirley did find out by the end of the episode (it became necessary to divulge the truth as Katie and Whitney kept pressing), and Lorraine has yet to be fired. I may actually be okay with that if it means that Lorraine keeps speaking with a British accent.
Other thoughts I had:
- Wasn't it great to see Denny and Alan playing tennis on a Nintendo Wii at the beginning of the episode? I don't know why it warms my heart to see people playing on a Wii, but it does.
- I guess Shirley is old enough to be a grandmother, I just never thought of her that way. To see a girl call her "Grammy" early on in the show was jarring. Not in a bad way, it was completely logical and believable, but it was jarring nonetheless, I don't see Candice Bergin that way.
- Denny slept with Queen Elizabeth II on a photocopier and carries the photocopy of the Queen's face against the glass to prove it? Go Denny!
As for me, I like kicking back and watching the crazy unfold. Speaking of crazy unfolding, have you visited The TV and Film Guy's Reviews lately?
Great write-up! I thought this was the best Boston Legal of the season and one of my all-time favs. It was firing on all cylandars last night. Breaking the "4th wall", the soapbox, the hilarious gags (that picture of the queen was hyterical!), Denny and Alan playing dress-up, and Shirley's wonderful defense of the firm (and thus, the actual show) to Carl. I loved it from start to finish. Sometimes I don't agree with their politics, but they can sure make a great argument. And they were spot-on about the No Child Left Behind Act. I loved when the principal started going off while on the stand! Cl***ic! I love this show. I sure wish more people watched it!
I thought the best part was when Alan and Denny were trying to join the National Guard: one of the things they could offer was that they got lots of fiber (see Shatner's ads for All-Bran). I loved it!! Also, when they were leaving and Denny said "Let's go to Canada" or something like that. As a Canadian, I thought that was hilarious.
Quick question...I missed last weeks ep and the recap, but if it's now revealed that Lorraine is from England, where was she supposed to have been from before? Was nobody supposed to have noticed her accent previously, or did she say she was from a different country?
So, Lorraine was a Madam and now she's a lawyer? Just when did she get her law degree? In between servicing clients? And it still doesn't exlain how it was that Katie recognised her - did Katie apply to the Brothel perhaps? If Lorraine was the Picadilly Madam surely she should have picked up much better skills for getting Alan going!
Shirley being a granny kind of threw me too. She's never mentioned any children so I just presumed she didn't have any. I wouldn't be surprised if Denny
Crane turned out to be the father...
Who won the Wii tennis tournament? Prob Alan, of course, or he would have gotten on his soapbox, again, and railed against the "unjust" Iraq War-oy vey! Except for his left-winged ramblings, this is one funny show! And,,DENNY CRANE, DENNY CRANE!
Shirley did say she had grandchildren when that photographer's widow tried to blackmail her with those nude pictures, so that wasn't a real shock to me, but I know what you're saying. I know Candice Bergen is old enough to be a grandmother, but I remember when her daughter was born and she's still really young (well, she's younger than ME), so I have trouble picturing her as grammy.
On a related note, I wonder if she had a second husband after Ivan.
Sirius, I guess you just didn't listen when Alan told Denny Lorraine's story (and I wonder HOW did Alan KNOW this story? Did I mis something in past episodes?), that she ran an escort service, but was not an actor in the service (Lorraine RAN the service, but did NOT service the clients). It was part of a plea deal (her book had names of some royals and high government officials) that she leave England and then she resurfaced in Chicago at law school with a legal new name, which the ***ociates found out, when her past literally stopped, or started as the case may be, which was one of several things which raised su****ion about her story of the fatwa of her past. Still, I love this program. I am always amazed at the legal arguments in the court scenes. OK, so I know they are climbing onto a soapbox politically, but I find I AGREE with a LOT of what is being said! I still am fascinated by the relationship between Denny and Alan. I have this same kind of relationship with a very good friend. We have sleepovers. We holiday together. We travel together. We pal up in a number of things that we do, together. All we do is very similar to what Alan and Denny do. I love the man, but there is no romantic component, it is more like my brother and we just pal around a lot more than most other people seem to do. Grammy or not, Candice Bergen is HOT! Just like Jane Seymour and Joan Collins are HOT!
Funny hearing Shirley being referred to as "Grammy"..... does Shirley have a son or daughter? And where were the granddaughter's parents during the trial? Wouldn't it make sense for them to be there? There was an episode earlier that showed Shirley taking care of a parent, think it was her dad, that has Alziemer's, that has never been mentioned again.
rowlfe - thanks for enlightening me I didn't hear Alan explaining Lorraine's past on account that I do not have a TV and listen to this show via my radio/tv walkman which was acting a bit scratchy during that part. For some reason ABC doesn't have Boston Legal on its internet player but it does have obscure shows that no-one watches - go figure.
I think there are many more men out there like you and your friend in fact Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are known to be that close too. Stephen even has a room in Hugh's house now that Hugh's married. Hugh's wife just aceepted that was the deal. I think it's nice. We women are always complaining that men don't express their feelings enough so if straight guys can say I love you to each other it can only be good for the women in their lives!!
So, it's really late for me to make this comment, but I thought I'd share it anyway. The great irony of the episode (in my opinion) is that the American-taught student couldn't think of a better way to address her frustration with the school system than vandalism. It wasn't until halfway through the episode that she could actually articulate why she tore up the test. I'm surprised that Shirley didn't comment about this in the closing statement (or, for that matter, let her granddaughter do the closing on her own to share with us all how much she'd learned during the case).
PS - As a product of the US school system, I share the poor girl's frustration.