| | I'm gonna step sideways and digress for a moment, Tibor. Hope you don't mind :-)
Boston Legal has just started here in NZ so I made an effort to catch the first show. I was disappointed. The moral of the story was that the ends justify the means. Even the presence of James Spader & Bill Shatner, two of my favorites, couldn't redeem Kelley's "who cares what I have to do as long as I get it done" theme.
Kelley--a former Boston Lawyer himself--wrote many, many episodes for LA Law*, and Boston Legal has the look of a retelling of that show from a 21st century revisionist perspective. That is, BL is the show Kelley might have written in the 80s if he'd had the benefit of 20 years hindsight. And we all know what the popular view of the 1980s is, don't we?
Kelley's The Practice & even Ally McBeal are better than Boston Legal. Still, I'll reserve final judgement for now. Besides, anyone that had the good sense to marry the delectable Michelle Pfeiffer must always be given another chance :-)
American television is the best in the world. I'm not talking about the Survivor-type reality bullshit, but the prime time dramas. The reason it's the best is because most of these shows are little morality plays. There's a theme. They are still *romantic* in nature. I'm pretty sure that's a product of American culture and not anything too conscious on the part of the writers or producers. And it's illustrative of the effect solid philosophy, no matter how damaged, can have on the psyche.
[before anyone jumps up and mentions the Brits, no, nothing especially wrong with Brit TV, but it's far too easy to confuse gritty, verbose to-ings & fro-ings done in charmingly broad accents, & titillated-up by lashings of sex & violence, with good thematic drama :-)]
Now, take Desperate Housewives. Lightweight fluff? Methinks not. I'm convinced that show's a hit because, while it appears to be your prototypical soccer-mom cum super-soap expose, interwoven with the bitchiness & bling-bling is a hefty dose of everyday morality & ethical dilemma.
The tight skirts & high heels don't hurt, either ;-)
Ross
*created by the great Steven Bochco: Hill St Blues, Murder One, NYPD Blue & the short-lived Brooklyn South.
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