And more Boston Legal..

[growyourwings]

(fickleone   look what you did!)

So fickleone   and I were talking here. And then I went off the deep end again as she reminded me of the intensity of my love of BL and Denny and Alan.

So here's some more BL love:



A great blog entry about the "intense guy friendship" of Denny & Alan can be found here.

Denny Crane and Alan Shore, the lusty, skirt-chasing guys on "Boston Legal," are in love. Theirs is a deep, yet platonic love.
They have slept together, although not in the biblical sense, dressed as flamingos together and shared their innermost thoughts and insecurities.

The various women in their lives have never scratched this deep. It's as if Denny and Alan are married but having sex with other women.

read more...

Another blog about how Boston Legal is the unsung hero of US television.

The real genius of the series, though, consists in the use of Spader's character to present what are in effect a series of highly critical, nuanced love letters to the idea of America. Hard on Bush, harder on the causes of Bush, the series draws its principally stateside viewers gently back into contact with the dreamlike vision in which their nation was originally conceived. Watching each episode, whether it concerns the death penalty, human body part trafficking, or simply Spader and Shatner's unconsummated love, is to remember what we, as Britons, lack. And I don't mean good television.

One of the great things about Boston Legal, besides the Denny & Alan relationship, is the way the courtroom cases are often used to enable Alan Shore to deliver very memorable closing arguments. Often commenting in a very effective way, on current events. This blog entry gives an example of that:

Last week, the arrogant liberal lawyer Alan Shore played by James Spader, delivered a brilliant closing argument and won the case of a woman who had protested the Iraq War and the Bush administration by refusing to pay her taxes. On a sticky note attached to her tax form, she wrote "stick it."

And talking about Alan's argument about the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Stick It:

Alan Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected
the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.

Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government
participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who
specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.

Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up
without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would
never stand for that. We did.

And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal,
domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that
finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.

In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all.
Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial - or
any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.

There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that
young people seem to notice.

Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could
have protested the old fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or
Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can
now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.

Stop for a second and try to fathom that.

At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be
there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.

This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America. Is Melissa Hughes
the only one embarrassed?

*Alan sits down abruptly in the witness chair next to the judge*

read more...

But it's Alan Shore and Denny Crane that just do it for me. I love all the other many characters & actors. I love that the show very frequently uses veteran actors for occasional or recurring roles (such as Shelley Berman and Henry Gibson and Betty White). I love how they introduce quirky characters that become regulars such as the brilliant Christian Clemenson as Jerry "Hands" Espensen.

And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how the show frequently breaks the "fourth wall":

• About the Breaking the Fourth Wall from here:

Here's what wikipedia says about BOSTON LEGAL's precedent of 'breaking the fourth wall" and what's called 'meta reference" The show has increasingly adopted the devices of breaking the fourth wall and meta reference, but usually in a sly manner that can also be interpreted as the characters only jokingly pretending they're on a television show.

Denny Crane refers to the fact that he won an Emmy, when in fact it was the actor playing Denny, William Shatner, who won the award. In another episode, Denny Crane complained that he was tired of his "mad cow" disease being a story point.  In another, Alan Shore says to Denny Crane, "Ah, there you are. I've hardly seen you this episode." In yet another, Alan jokingly refers to the fact the show had switched the nights on which it aired as a reason why he hadn't seen a recurring guest star sooner. In the episode "Squid Pro Quo," Crane references a new character on the show, expressing that he can't wait to "see her next week."

• Boston Legal Forum -- lists of breaking the fourth wall quotes
• The first time I really became aware of this was in a S2 episode. Don't recall which one. But Denny had not appeared in the entire episode and I really missed him. The episodes just did not see the same without him. So in the standard closing balcony scene, Alan is waiting on the balcony and Denny walks out. I turned to my kids and and said, "we've hardly seen him in this episode." Almost simultaneously Alan says in greeting to Denny, "I've hardly seen you in this episode." I paused, looked at my kids, the TV...and just cracked up!

But the cherry on the top of everything is Alan and Denny.

Dancing and twirling, fishing, spooning, getting facials, musing on happenings and life on the balcony. Having sleep-overs. Helping each other out. The two characters that are extremes -- Denny is an ultra conservative, gun toting senior partner who has never lost a case (yet) and is denying (Mad Cow anyone?) that his abilities may be suffering from age.  And Alan is a liberal (kinda) and cares nothing for breaking rules where it makes sense.  They are both kinda "on their own"--but end up being the best friends ever. And no, not like "that." They truly are so comfortably around each other that normal heterosexual American male boundaries just don't exist.