Both the legal and the character parts of "Boston Legal" are pure farce. But many of us old fans still keep tuning in. And that's to try to get a handle on or at least some more clues about the enigmatic Denny-Alan relationship. Tonight we were rewarded.
Denny came out, in his own ham-handed way. He passed on marriage to a smart, warm female cattle rancher. She needs to live in Montana. He isn't able to leave Alan. Surprisingly, that's the total pull force. It isn't the vestiges of the job or the lawyer he used to be before Mad Cow. It isn't the coolness of urban Boston. It's the balcony and Alan, every night.
In this episode the two men do discuss their love for one another. It seems to go back to the kind of friendships males had in ancient Greece. In a sense those friendships, even if they involved same sex and hetero sex, were based in an almost Platonic affinity and respect for one another. Perhaps that's what Denny and Alan are trying to figure out that they already have.
The court room issues, which often are interesting in their topicality, would have been riveting had they not been depicted via slapstick.
One was the safety of the beef food chain. That's right up plaintiff attorney Bill Marler's alley. I wonder how Marler rates the safety of cloned beef. Marler Clark Law Firm's specialty is food-borne diseases. On tonight's episode Judge Poppycock had no ruling.
The other was the DNC rules governing the SuperDelegates. I hadn't been aware of this but according to the DNC, that delegate can vote conscience over what the state's constituency voted in the primary. Shirley, who launched this suit against the DNC, at Alan's suggestion, lost. This too could have been useful during this confusing Campaign08 but it defaulted into a depicting staid Shirley atypically as a windmill charger.
The coming attractions for two weeks from now seems to veer into "Kristen" territory. Unfortunately, the writers and producers will probably not do justice to the legal matters involved.