TVSquad

(S03E01) Denny Crane.

If you haven't heard William Shatner utter those two little words to anyone and everyone on ABC's Boston Legal, then you are certainly missing out. Because, out of all of television acting gigs, even including Star Trek, this is one of his finest performances. And, why shouldn't it be, when he has stars such as Candice Bergen and James Spader, as well as creator David E. Kelly, to work with.

With that introduction, welcome to Boston Legal, season three. I admit, I thought that this was one of the shows we should have reviewed last year, and I wanted to do it. However, I was reviewing the considerably darker Law & Order: SVU at the time and wasn't able to juggle both. Well, I got tired of SVU (which the capable Anna Johns is reviewing this season), so I decided to give the law firm of Crane, Poole and Schmidt a look-see. So, let's get moving.

Let's get one thing out of the way. If you previously watched David E. Kelly's The Practice but never watched this show, which is a spin-off, you may be in for a bit of a surprise. Where later seasons of The Practice were so serious that it was actually painful (until James Spader came in to lighten it up), Boston Legal is sometimes more legal comedy than legal drama. If you're thinking it's an extension of Kelly's Ally McBeal, you would be wrong. McBeal was absurd and sometimes bordered on Scrubs-like antics. Remember the dancing baby, anyone?

Moving on to this week's episode, we revisit a few storylines from last year. In the middle of last season attorney Denise Bauer (the lovely Julie Bowen) met and fell in love with terminally ill client Daniel Post (Michael J. Fox). Daniel left for Europe for experimental treatment of his lung cancer and Denise thought she would never see him again. So, she started up a romance with co-worker Brad Chase (Mark Valley). At the end of the season Daniel returned and asked Denise to marry him. She accepted, without telling Brad. Needless to say, the man was pissed.

However, there may already be a complication with the engagement: Daniel has been arrested for allegedly paying for a lung from another terminally ill patient who is dying of a brain tumor. Denise and Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) try to get him acquitted on a constitutional claim, but are denied. The jury declares Daniel not guilty, which relieves Denise, but something's not right. She begins to feel that the love she has for Post isn't quite complete.

Meanwhile, attorney Alan Shore (James Spader) tries to help former (?) co-worker Jerry Espenson, who is having some issues. Mainly, he attacked police officers at a traffic stop when they tried to take the anatomically correct doll he was driving with in the car pool lane. This isn't surprising, as Jerry has problems dealing with others due to his Asperger Syndrome, for which one of the symptoms is lack of social, emotional, and sexual skills. Alan, who has taken an extreme liking to Espenson, recommends that he talk to a sexual surrogate he had once dealt with.

One of the sessions involves Jerry and the surrogate laying down in a bed, naked. During the session the police break in, at the behest of the prosecutor's office, and arrests both Jerry and the surrogate for prostitution. Alan comes to their rescue and gets the charges dropped. However, as he watches the interaction between Espenson and the surrogate he realizes that he is having some emotional troubles as well. In his routine evening get-together with Denny Crane (William Shatner) Alan asks Denny if he ever feels lonely. He answers no, and so does Alan, but you know that they really do feel lonely after all.

In the third storyline, Denny reveals to Alan that he has an anatomically-correct doll that looks (and dresses) remarkably like Shirley Schmidt. He calls it Shirley Schmidt-Ho. No, really! The funniest scene in the show was when Shirley found out about the doll and wanted to meet it. As her and the doll are staring at each other she asks Denny if he doesn't find this a big degrading. Denny's response to Shirley, "Are you jealous?".

Nice episode. Over the last few years we've seen the continuing maturity of Alan from the pompous ass he was at the beginning of the series. Oh, he's still a pompous ass, but not as much. Once again, Shatner's over-the-top portrayal of Denny Crane was the funniest of the episode. Hopefully, we'll see more of him in upcoming weeks.

Next week, we look at some of the junior members of the firm.