Even more eccentric than Samuel T. Cogley

I stand before you today with a shocking confession. And that dark and terrible secret is this: I’ve become a big fan of Boston Legal (Tuesday nights at 9pm CT on ABC). Starring the dynamic duo of William Shatner and James Spader, with an all-star supporting cast that includes Rene Auberjonois (Deep Space Nine‘s Odo) and Candice Bergen, there’s no denying this show has some serious star power. I don’t think Shatner has ever been so entertaining in a role – nope, not even that role. And I don’t think there’s even been a part so well suited to Spader. Both of their characters originated in the final season of The Practice, with Spader not really finding much approval as the replacement for Dylan McDermott. Spader and Shatner are a one-two punch of surreal comedy simply because their characters are so serious (and so seriously flawed). Denny Crane (Shatner) is an eccentric but legendary trial lawyer who may be losing his marbles – and what little is left of his scruples – to the early stages of Alzheimer’s (or is it all a ploy?). Alan Shore (Spader) is an ethically-challenged lawyer who idolizes and befriends Crane (who seems more than happy to now have a disciple), but also realizes that his idol is on a slow downward spiral.
That description probably sounds much more depressing than it is. Where it simply didn’t work to insert the colorful characters of Shore and Crane into the straight-laced world of The Practice, they are the foundation of, and set the tone for, Boston Legal. This show is fall-down funny. Completely strange cases land in the characters’ laps, and they react unpredictably and unconventionally. Two other senior partners in Crane’s firm, played by Candice Bergen and Rene Auberjonois (who amazes me with how many colors of “perpetually flabbergasted” he finds with which to imbue his character), are constantly trying to keep Crane and Shore’s eccentricities in check (and sometimes they fail). To put it simply, Boston Legal is a return to the off-the-wall storytelling that used to occasionally endear me to L.A. Law, but even wackier.
I don’t know what it is about this show that I like. The performances are top-notch, the scripts are a tightly-revolving whirlwind of pure surrealism, and nearly every episode ends with Crane and Shore sitting on the office balcony, sucking down cigars, drinking scotch, and reflecting proudly not so much on what they’ve accomplished today, but what they’ve gotten away with today. I wouldn’t want to actually hang around people like that in a million years. But somehow it’s evolved into a peculiarly entertaining show that I watch as faithfully as I do any of the science fiction series we cover. (This doesn’t mean you need to be on the lookout for the Boston Legal LogBook, though.) If you’re up for a laugh, and yeah, maybe you just want to check in on what a few SF icons are doing these days, I highly recommend Boston Legal. Its stories get downright weird, its lead characters are reprehensible or at the very least irrepressible (and that’s on a good day), and it sometimes goes places that make you squirm in your seat, but it also makes you laugh. Or it least it makes me laugh.