Boston Legal

This episode was perfectly played out, addressing some of the issues that Alan Shore has again.



The dynamic, witty banter between him and his old flame Renatta, accused of murdering her husband, was intriguing, not least because of how he turns on her at the end. I loved the whole characterization of her, and the many plot twists of the story. And, despite the unoriginal part of his closing, I really didn't see it coming!



Denny provided some good moments with his rehab moments.



But the B-story I liked was Claire's- it was nice seeing her do something lawyer like, and she was entertaining. A bit like Lori from Season 1. I like her soft side beneath her hard act.



Overall, though, Alan's case stole the show, and it was brilliantly written and performed as usual.

It was nice to see the Alan Shore from The Practice. This episode wasn't about some political issue and he didn't get up on his little soap box; he argued his case.



This woman, Bethany, was an old friend (well, the kind of female friend Alan has anyway...) who was accused of murdering her fiance. At first she denies it all, then she admits that she isn't who she said she was and basically "borrowed" the identity of a young lawyer who decided to move to Alaska and apparently decided to come back and killed her boyfriend as retaliation.



Eventually Alan finds out the truth: She's dead, Bethany murdered her a while ago when she knocked on her door, asking for her old life back. And because she's a psycho, she also murdered her soon-to-be husband.



Alan still manages to make a compelling closing argument. The DA offers her a good deal, but she doesn't want to take it (because they were most likely going to win) and this is when Alan does what I wish he would do more often: What he thinks is right, even if it goes against his client's best interest.



He basically tells her to take the deal or else he would turn her in, ending his career in the process.

Renata's arrival and Alan's interaction with her are classic moments in this amazing show. I love their witty (if awkward at times) banter, including my favorite part: Alan tells Renata they need her dress as evidence and she begins disrobing. The always gentlemanly Alan asks if she would like him to look away, and Renata replies, "Yeah, if you've got to sneeze or something." I also loved the plot twists. I think that Boston Legal generally follows a pattern when there are suspense filled episodes, but this was definitely an exception! I had no idea what was going to happen and I loved it!!!

I liked this episode a lot, mainly because they writers led us to believe that the woman is innocent but by the end of the episode it is very clear that she is not. I also liked how Alan turned on her and made her go to prison for 12 years. Moreover we also got to see more of Claire in this episode. So far she has not had to many major episodes and this episode helped to build up her character. I am really looking forward to next week where it appears that someone is going to be shot. I really love this show its so good.

Imagine an ex-lover told you that the person you thought they were was all fabricated, untrue? Would you be annoyed? I would. Certainly not the ever expressionless face of Alan Shore. What is worse, Renata Hill kept on changing her story, time after time, making us all believe that there had to be something she was withholding from the audience. Indeed there was, after many twists and turns, Alan Shore comes up with the most unoriginal rabbit out of the hat explanation for who killed Renata Hill's husband and why? I guess Alan's experience in criminal law helped, but since he was defending a close friend it was surprising at how easily he separated friendship from his objectivity.

This was one of the best eps of Boston Legal that I have seen. I started watching Boston Legal a few months ago- and this ep was by far my fav. ep ever! Very exciting storyline and I loved the apperance by Megan Mullally- character Renata Hill. It was surely a episode I will remember. I was laughing each scene there was- there were jokes that other people didn't find funny or a serious moment that i for some reason found hilarious- i don't know why - the show is great and I loved this episode. It was a little confusing - but that is how it is supposed to be. I am loving Boston Legal so far and can't wait for any new episodes in the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The soapbox moralizing is kept to a minimum this week in favor of an excellent mystery. I'm not spoiling it for anyone, but expect some great twists. Megan Mullahly is great in her guest role. I especially loved Denny going to rehab. The secondary story with Claire and the cell phone guy was great as well.

'Primal fear' is one of the best courtroom drama movies ever made, and to see it put on a 40 minute episode tells you the quality of DEK's writing lately.. Watching the episode from the start, it felt very familiar, in the movie a scared looking alter boy with blooded cloths and a murder weapon was spotted running away from the scene. As the movie progresses, the defence lawyer notices the boy has 2 personalities, and it was Roy (evil side) that killed the Priest.. After a very clever set up and suspense it is revealed to everyone that there was no Roy and he was faking it the whole time. Walks away with reasons of insanity and gets out after 30 days.. As a fan of Boston legal, I am disappointed to see DEK writing becoming unoriginal.. Alan Shore's babbling and confusing the audience with unnecessary talk just to appear reasonable is making Boston Legal sound unclever.



This season's unoriginality starts off with Jeffery Coho's case, taken from season 8 'The Practice'.

Tremendous episode. I really liked the storyline between James Spader's character and Megan Mullally's character. It was an interesting turn, and the trial scene was very well done, and William Russ also was very good in the episode, and I was surprised to see him. I would like to see Megan Mullally come back for a couple more episodes, but with what happened withing in the show, it'll be kinda hard. Constance Zimmer keeps getting better and better on the show, and it was nice seeing her get a good chunk of time on the episode. They didn't continue the storyline between Claire and Clarence, I hope they didn't drop that, as I was really beginning to like that storyline. Also, I'm getting tired of the Denny and Bethany storyline, at first it was pretty good, now I'm tiring of it, as it's moving quite slowly. Overall, it was a pretty good episode.

It's great to see Megan Mullaly back on a TV series as she always makes things lighter wherever she goes. She started off goofy, running around in a bloody dress and stripping it in front of Alan. But she got a bit darker as it went along, particularly the twist of her identity.



Indeed, the revelation that she was using another woman's identity was something I didn't see coming and made for great drama in the second half. Alan's "surprise appearance" bit was great as that led to the even better twist of Megan's character. We saw the more moral side of Alan as he makes it clear he'd prefer being disbarred to letting a lying killer go free, which makes hime awesome.



The Claire plot was pretty small and not that interesting but the way she won was nicely done. The stuff with Denny and Israel was a bit too soapbox. But I liked the way they faked out on the "Bethany showing up" gag. I also loved the bit where Brad takes off his tie to show it's a clip-on and everyone stares at him in disbelief, Denise in near shock. Too bad Alan wasn't there to see that.



But Megan was the star of this episode and helped make it one of the most memorable of this year.