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RSSFinaleWatch: 'Boston Legal'
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.
The first of the final two episodes began with Denny attending a merger meeting with people from the Chinese law firm which was trying to buy Crane, Poole, and Schmidt. Paul Lewiston had set the whole thing up, but both Denny and Shirley were completely against it. Shirley was against it because of China's record on human rights and Denny was against it because... he's Denny.
Denny's opinion seemed perfectly logical and reasonable for Denny, but Shirley's confused me. She was actually willing to have her name taken off the door at the firm (something Paul said she couldn't do as the firm owned her name) rather than have the Chinese buy her firm. Frankly, while the human rights argument made some sense, Shirley's anger did seem wholly out of proportion, and her actions out of character.
When it came down to a vote amongst the partners, they voted, overwhelmingly, to sell. Shirley was livid and tried to stop the sale in court (don't worry, it's not like she was devoting all her time to that though, she was having her wedding dress tailored in the office). Denny and Carl stood by her side. Denny because he agreed with her and Carl because he loves Shirley. It really showed how great a guy Carl is.
Carl's support may have helped Shirley emotionally, but it didn't give her a legal leg to stand on. The judge denied her request for an injunction and the merger went through.
Shirley then had a sit down with the Chinese partners which didn't go particularly well. She agreed to tender her resignation and asked that the new owners take her name off the door. The new owners responded by firing the entire litigation department, including Denny (whom, Carl said, they fired twice). Responding to that response, Alan came up with an insane scheme that had the litigation department firing the new Chinese owners. He should have been prepping for his upcoming Supreme Court battle (and he was), but he did take some time out to try and save the firm.
He did in fact go before the new partners and fire them. Brilliant! It was terribly fun to watch, Alan was in top form. By the end of his harangue he told the Chinese partners that he would allow them to stay if they agreed to stay out of the way of the litigation department. The Chinese thought he was joking, they all laughed and applauded. They later agreed to reinstate the department with Paul Lewiston running the show. They also opted to change the name of the firm to Chang, Poole, and Schmidt, and still wanted to show Denny the door.
While that storyline was, quite obviously, crucial to the ending of the series, other issues actually took center stage. Towards the beginning of tonight's finale, Denny found himself arrested at 1:00am. He had broken into a house and crawled into a woman's bed. He claimed he thought they had a thing, she apparently disagreed. The lady, Penelope Kimble, explained to Carl and Shirley the next day that it didn't seem as much an assault as Denny being completely confused about where he was.
Poor Denny, he actually did have no idea what was going on at the time. He came clean and told Alan and Shirley the truth. Kimble didn't want to press charges and Alan was even more raring to go to the Supreme Court and get Denny his experimental drugs.
Denny was so down and worried about his future that he actually proposed marriage to Alan. He wanted Alan to not only be able to make medical decisions for him, but to be able to tell Alan things that could then be covered under spousal privilege. The man was clearly hurting. On the balcony scene at the end of the first episode tonight Alan actually agreed. Wow. Fitting and funny. The only problem, they quickly learned, was that a Massachusetts gay and lesbian group didn't want them to get married (something about their not being homosexual) and wanted an injunction. It was denied.
I think it's great that after all his foolishness, mocking, and joking, they made Denny and his problem the real heart and soul of these final episodes. He has repeatedly made ridiculous comment after ridiculous comment, put forth ludicrous notion after ludicrous notion, but the show has still managed to find some of its deepest storylines with him. Having the main case tonight be Alan fighting for Denny in front of the Supreme Court was the right way to go out.
Their opposition in court argued well, and I'm not sure that she wasn't right, but (probably like you) I was still pulling for Alan and Denny. For his part, Alan, didn't argue well. He pulled the same anti-Supreme Court thing he did last time, going directly after court decisions with which he disagreed and which had no bearing on Denny's case. His statements were quite possibly valid, they just had little relevance. But, as Alan said, case law here wasn't so much with him. Alan finished by stating that the justices were Denny's "last, best hope." That was very true, but it made it less obvious why Alan would rip the justices and their decisions first.
Before that decision came down, Alan, Denny, Shirley, and Carl headed off to a beautiful double wedding in Nimmo Bay. There they met up with Justice Antonin Scalia. Not only did Scalia inform them (even though he shouldn't have) that Denny would get the drug, he married both couples.
In the second episode tonight, the show gave us two balcony scenes. The first was with two of the Chinese partners and played strictly for laughs. The final had Alan and Denny back on those incredibly uncomfortable looking chairs (I imagine them to be stone and rather unforgiving) one last time. Their final discussion was the same sort of foolish chat they usually engage in and ended with the two men having their wedding dance.
The show ended there, with Denny Crane and Alan Shore on the balcony dancing. I only wish that they'd sealed it with a kiss.
Farewell Boston Legal, we hardly knew ye.
The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - you hardly know it.
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I will so miss Boston Legal.. It was possibly the one show on TV that made you think while making you laugh... It is a shame like Carl said last week that TV Networks don't try and cater more to TV viewers who like to think and have shows that older people who actually have some money to spend on advertisers products watch and enjoy... I have been watching and enjoying David E Kelley shows for 20 years... all but Ally McBeal... From Picket Fences to Chicago Hope to The Practice to now Boston Legal.. I hope his next shows live up to his past ones..
I am and always will be a huge fan of "Boston Legal." That being said, I am somewhat disspointed at how many storylines mirrored David E. Kelley's other series, particularly "Picket Fences." PF had scenes with its two lawyers going to the supreme court, even arguing in front of cardboard cutouts of the justices---as happened twice on BL. On PF, the town's mayor suffered from alzheimers,and was looking to use experimental drugs to slow the progression--as happened on BL. These are but a few examples. I think Kelley is a brilliant writer. I just wish he could put an individual stamp on each show. But something tells me his next will be about Boston laywers(The Practice, Boston Legal, Boston Public, Ally McBeal, etc etc etc)
I liked how tonight's finale wrapped up storylines without making it seem so final. It was nice to think that Chang, Poole and Schmidt will live on. "Denny Crane".
I'll really miss Boston Legal. It was the only weekly show I watched. I loved the election night show. Cast and writers did a great job these last five years.
Help!!! I missed the last hour of BL's last 2 episodes. As much as I appreciate the recap above, does anyone know if, by chance, there will be a repeat, anytime soon, so I can actually see it, rather than read it above? I hope I don't have to wait for all the episodes to be replayed--or if they will even do that, since the show has ended.
Thanks for your help!
--Carolyn
Roleplaying is common in legal circles. I suspect the cardboard cutouts are truuth stranger than fiction.
Similar settings showed up in Shark.
Alzheimers could be a case of write what you know.
CBS next fall depending on contracts all around?
carolyn,
abc won't be repeating or replaying any episodes, so it's over on tv. however, you can watch it on abc.com tomorrow. who knows how long it'll be available online, so you should watch it asap.
Where is Nimmo Bay?
The woman lawyer's Supreme Court argument rested on the idea that people using unapproved drugs would somehow screw the chances for blind trials and testing - however most meds are not tested out in the US anymore - India is where they do it these days. Her argument makes sense in an American vacuum. Not that unusual for TV.
And another thing.
Boston is the last place to find wacky lawyers...
The Hartford Courant said this...
'Boston Legal's Unsentimental Farewell
By Roger Catlin on December 8, 2008 11:33 PM
For a show that's been on for so long -- five seasons; 13 if you count "The Practice," from which it morphed in 2004, "Boston Legal" got the worst possible sendoff from ABC Monday.
It's common for networks to devote two hours to conclude a show of such a pedigree -- a one hour retrospective and salute followed by the series finale episode. But the two hours devoted to the end of "Boston Legal" were just the last two episodes run back to back and nary a tip of the hat goodbye.
There was plenty of snarling dialogue in David E. Kelley's final scripts. But there was also the kind of outrageousness that had at its core a kind of humanity. How else to describe the marriage of Denny Crane and Alan Shore?
It was for money reasons -- they were all being thrown out of the firm, which had been bought by a Chinese outfit; Poole Shore, singularly played by James Spader, was toying with starting a legal aid firm, odd as that may seem; Crane, the wacky creation of William Shatner, was in the throes of early Alzheimer's, and was offering to put up the money, saying he'd get more of it if he could just transfer it as a spouse.
So it was a double ceremony up at their favorite fishing cabin -- Candice Bergen's Shirley Schmidt and John Larroquette's Carl Sack finally tied the knot as well. And doing the honor was Supreme Court Justice Scalia or his facsimilie, up there fishing and hunting at the same cabin with **** Cheney we are led to believe.
Shore had just been arguing before Scalia and the Supremes, as it happened, so that his friend (and fiance) Crane could obtain a drug to battle the Alzheimer's. It was one of those grand speeches, on which the series had been built, full of bluster and outrage and meaty issues and hilarious asides (in this case, poking fun at the ever-silent Clarence Thomas), so well delivered by Spader, he's won an Emmy or two doing them.
The action ended on the porch with cigars and whiskey as usual, where Shore and Crane were bickering like an old married couple before they had a dance together. Earlier it seemed they wouldn't have that chance, since the Chinese had already taken over the chairs and the cigars in a previous scene. But how could the series end otherwise?
It had less the heft of a series finale than a better than average season end. But I guess it was lucky ABC gave them even that.
I SAY THIS TO ROGER CATLIN...
It seems to me that your retrospective on this shows series finale is extremely biased... an irony only a fan of Boston Legal can appreciate.
The one thing you can count on with this show is that you can always count on it.
With the deplorable state of television programming these days (Izzie sleeping with a long dead lover; those brothers and sisters recycling their first season plot; Betty choosing herself and yet STILL not having an iota of confidence - all ABC shows I may add), where can one turn to a show that is not only informative on topical issues, but also discusses non-discussed and unpopular isses all while being irreverent at one fell swoop?
The "silliness" of two heterosexual men marrying because they actually love each other... the fact that the Chinese may (are) taking over our country's businesses... the belief that a person with a disability can find true love... the fact that an Alzheimer's patient can presumably live a happy life...
That's not only a great series finally... that's a finally of unwavering and fulfilling sentimentality for any loyal viewer.
I don't mean to give an Alan Shore-type closing argument, but quite frankly, anyone who believes that this show should have ended any differently and as respectably as it did is nothing short of a nansy-pansy.
And you can quote Denny Crane on that.
Dave, I couldn't agree more. The series finale was perfect for any Boston Legal fan. Nobody respects his viewers more than David E. Kelley. ABC royally screwed up letting this show go, but at least we got a fantastic final 13. Last night was pure perfection. I admit I shed a few tears at losing what I consider to be one of the best -if not the best- show of all time.