So there are a lot of other shows other than Heroes, Smallville, Lost, 24, and The 4400 that I watch, but many of them aren’t very conducive if you want to write a column. I tend to enjoy analyzing shows and bringing up how certain characters have developed. Shows like House and Boston Legal, both of which I’m a big fan of, don’t really require that sort of attention. Nevertheless, they’re great shows, so I thought I’d take a crack at doing a “nightly” column, where I talk about the shows I watched on a given night. If this is a success, perhaps I’ll do the same for Thursday nights and discuss the always-hilarious The Office and ever improving ER.
We’ll start chronologically with House. I’ve personally enjoyed the drawn out job interview process, as it’s really given the show a refreshed feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I think the show would have prospered with the usual team, as virtually every pairing within the House/Foreman/Chase/Cameron foursome has wonderful chemistry together. Nevertheless, seeing House unleash his ferocity on a fresh batch of underlings is a joy to watch. Along with that, his borderline spurned lover routine whenever he sees any of his former subordinates is a lot of fun, as we rarely see that side of him.
And, as always, any interaction between House and Wilson is a highlight of the episode contender. I’m really glad they’ve upped the amount of scenes Wilson appears in, as he’s definitely my favorite secondary character.
I guess the obvious question is which characters do I think House will eventually pick for his team. I’m going to take a risk, and suggest that he’s going to go against the “two guys, one girl” grain, and he’ll ultimately choose Kumar (who I’ve partied with!), 13, and the bitchy girl. What I find particularly interesting about this threesome is the way they can be compared to Foreman, Chase, and Cameron (but not in the way you necessarily think). To me, the bitchy girl is most like Foreman, while Kumar and 13 each remind me of Chase and Cameron’s qualities. Besides, the obvious tension between 13 and bitchy girl makes me think that this threesome has a lot of potential.
As far the case itself, I thought the whole “mirror” thing was a clever way to take a humorous look at all the characters. Was it an episode that will forever impact the rest of the series? No, but not every episode has to be. The conclusion, with House and Cuddy both trying to show their superiority, was a nice payoff as well. I also got a kick out of practically the entire staff watching to see who House would fire.
Boston Legal was another enjoyable episode, and I must say, I’ve got some very polarized opinions of some of the new cast members. I really, really like Katie Lloyd, as her chemistry with Jerry has been phenomenal. Jerry is one of those characters that you can 100% get behind and root for, which this show was previously sorely missing. I also enjoy John Larroquette, except for the fact that Boston Legal seems to be inconsistent with its lineage to The Practice. On The Practice (which Boston Legal spun off from), Larroquette was a murderer who became a lawyer (if memory serves). Now he’s just some completely different character altogether. Nevertheless, he’s a fun actor, so I’m willing to give the Continuity Police a break and give his character a shot.
I’m not too keen on Lorraine, however, as her character doesn’t seem to bring much to the table except for the fact that she’s hot and makes Alan nervous. Like, literally, every single scene she appears in is simply to remind us about those two things.
The other thing that irks me is the way that every single woman in the world is gaga over Alan. I really like the character but with all due respect, he’s not the best-looking, most charming person in the world, nor is he even relatively successful (he’s one of the few vets on the show who isn’t a partner), so why does every girl want to sleep with him?
On the subject of Alan, and this is more directed at the writers, but his constant, usually irrelevant comments regarding his political stance can get a bit grating. I can don’t consider myself a political person, and I don’t associate myself with any particular party, but it gets really annoying how Alan’s “soap box closings” almost always paints Republicans as being monsters. It’s like whenever I listen to episode commentaries on the Family Guy DVDs. Seth MacFarlane (who I think is a genius) goes on these constant, unprovoked rants, basically saying that if you vote Republican, you’re a moron. Like I said, I don’t associate myself with either party, but some of the most intelligent, compassionate people I know vote Republican. Rant over.
One thing I will say about the show, though, is that it does a wonderful job of creating interesting cases. On top of that, while they do win a majority of the time, the series doesn’t fall into the trap of winning ALL of their cases, so you can really get into it without the security of knowing that their client is going to be found not guilty.
You know what I’m dying to see? A law series that focuses on the defense side (like Boston Legal) doing a cross over with another law series that focuses on the prosecution (like, say, Law & Order). This may have been done before, and of course it would have to be two shows that mesh well together and air on the same network (which, unfortunately, the two examples I used do not), but I think it would make for great television. I envision it as a four-parter, with the first two parts airing on the same night. Part one would focus completely on the defense building their case and part two centered on the prosecution doing the same (or vice versa, doesn’t really matter). Part three would be the trial, which would air a week later, where both sides present their version of the events. For the next week, viewers would have the opportunity to vote for which side they believe argued the stronger case. Part four would kick off with the verdict (they would film both, and use the one that won the votes), and then, in a Justice-like maneuver, the rest of the episode would reveal what REALLY happened. Doesn’t that sound fun?
With the fantasy booking out of the way, another gem on the show is William Shatner as Denny Crane. Although he doesn’t mutter “Denny Crane” as much anymore, which is a shame. I’m also a big sucker for when the show allows us to recognize that Denny is still a legal genius and not just a cartoon. I wish we’d see more of that, to be honest.
