Boston LegalHappy Trails
Original Air Date: Oct 27, 2008
Kathryn – TwoCents Reviewer
kathryn@twocentscorp.com
I’m a half an hour away from watching the episode, but like most TV critics, not seeing the show is no impediment to judging it, so I’m predicting Alan and Denny are riding around what looks suspiciously like Bill Shatner’s ranch providing comic relief while a more serious issue is tackled at Crane, Poole and Schmidt – and there will be sheep.
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Boston Legal
ReplyDeleteHappy Trails
Original Air Date: Oct 27, 2008
Kathryn – TwoCents Reviewer
kathryn@twocentscorp.com
I’m a half an hour away from watching the episode, but like most TV critics, not seeing the show is no impediment to judging it, so I’m predicting Alan and Denny are riding around what looks suspiciously like Bill Shatner’s ranch providing comic relief while a more serious issue is tackled at Crane, Poole and Schmidt – and there will be sheep.
What do you know? I should write for television.
Okay, I didn’t guess Jerry Espenson dressed as Little Bo Peep, but I do think that one was hard to predict and I was spot on with Alan clinging to his horse with quiet desperation.
And I wasn’t too far off with the sheep thing either.
I think we need a moment to think about that: sheep. An excellent source for jumpers, but Denny’s lustful looks were a bit much. It seems there is no boundary high enough for David E. Kelley. Personally I wish the sheep was one he hadn’t jumped (or jumpered), but what the hey - BAA!
Serious issue time
Catherine is back. In a slightly different take on her role as the naïve dippy Rose on The Golden Girls, on Boston Legal Betty White plays a sweet little naïve dippy old lady/murderer (much the same as her role on The Golden Girls, but with less homicide). In this case she’s tried to blow up her doctor. No it wasn’t House – talk about a surprise. But she sort of had some justification. The doctor gave her medicine that gave her a heart attack. I’m not sure how familiar you are with this whole doctoring thing, but generally medicine is meant to make you better not worse (that only happens on House).
The David E. issue of the week is kickbacks. I’m all for a kickback if you are selling shoes, hats or other accessories. If Nike wants to throw a pair of size sevens my way what’s the harm? And movie reviewers get special screenings put on for them. A good movie reviewer can go for years without having to pay for a film. Mind you, quite a lot of non-movie reviewers can go years without having to pay for a film also.
But potentially life threatening drugs? If your favorite star wears pink shoes and you buy a pair you may be a bit embarrassed a few years later, but if your favorite doctor prescribes a drug he’s being paid to prescribe by a big drug company and you end up dying on the kitchen floor think how embarrassed you’re going to be when they find you thee weeks later and the Doberman has been nibbling on you.
Not so serious time
Jerry is wandering around the office in full Bo Peep costume. He got Halloween day wrong. This gives me so much respect for the Americans. They can do this? Dress up like nanas for a holiday? I’m with Katie. More silliness is needed in workplaces. Our major banks and businesses are crashing around our ears so a few funny costumes would probably lighten up the place. Being stodgy sucks, she tells Carl.
I’m not stodgy, says Carl showing her some photos. His rebellious phase seems to consist of a nineteen seventies hairstyle (and he even looks stodgy in that). But he is thinking about it – how can you not when the point is put forward by the lovely Katie?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch
After getting their outfits from Gay Cowboys R Us, Alan and Denny are Dude Ranching. But this isn’t any happy City Slickers type holiday with bonding over cows called Norman. This lot are exactly the kind of people you’d expect on something billed as ‘an experience’ – rich, selfish, ‘self lovers’ with attitude – and determined to enjoy their trip of a lifetime no matter how miserable it makes everyone else. Just to make Alan extra miserable they’ve also thrown the crazed Texan lawyer Melvin ‘Hoot’ Palmer into the mix.
Kill me now, says Alan. But Denny won’t take him home. One: it’s important to get in touch with nature and 2: it’s important to get in touch with Irene (in every way).
Irene’s husband does not share the same view. But to be fair to Denny, he had mixed up the hay fever pill with the Viagra pill, and, as Alan wouldn’t let him have his way with the sheep, something had to be done.
Personally I think if Denny had got in touch with the sheep it would have been worse (and yes he was thinking about it complete with sappy music), but not according to the laws of Utah. Maybe if the sheep had been married? Adultery is still a crime in the good state of Utah (no, I didn’t believe it either).
Shirley shows no surprise when Carl announces ‘they’ have been arrested. Alan even got done for aiding and abetting. Bad move. Even though he’s handcuffed and dressed like one of The Village People, Alan’s up on the big polygamy scandal in Utah and he’s unpacking packing his soap box.
Here’s where my world goes topsy turvy! Melvin ‘Hoot’ Palmer comes to the rescue. Using his down home plain speaking Texan logic he convinces the judge Alan isn’t going to rest until he’s knee deep in the issues of polygamy and child abuse and why aren’t they doing something about that instead of prosecuting two consenting adults for having a bit on the side. And to be fair: I don’t blame Irene. Her husband was a creep.
More of Carl’s emotional growth and the sheep thing
Carl has embraced his inner child. He’s dressed up as a French maid, Jerry is Little Bo Peep and Katie has made the unfortunate mistake as dressing as his sheep. Cue sappy music as Denny gets that look in his eye and suddenly leaps. It takes Carl and Alan to prize him off. Jerry helps by hitting Denny over the head with his staff.
The balcony scene
Alan says he felt a bit gypped by this episode. No hard hitting issues. And true, while not as hard hitting as most, sometimes you just have to take a week off: get bullied, shag said bullies wife, make insinuations about polygamy, have lustful thoughts about sheep and wear hats that light up.
Anyone as mindboggled by Denny’s sheep obsession as me? Two cents please.
I’ve enjoyed watching the slightly deviant antics of Alan and Denny, but this episode being referred to as “over the top” is an understatement. It was not only disgusting in its sheep innuendo, devoid of accurate information and overall degrading to the State of Utah and its citizens. Amazing what garbage is spread on the screen in less than 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was completely insulted by the portrayal of Utah and the legal complexities of prosecuting polygamy.
ReplyDeleteAnd sure, adultery is illegal in Utah, as it is it almost every other state in the union (just one of those old laws that's still on the books and no one prosecutes.)
I was not amused.