Boston LegalRoe
Original Air Date: 10 Nov 2008
Kathryn – TwoCents Reviewer
kathryn@twocentscorp.com
Producer David E. is not making this recap gig easy. Even David E. got Denny to admit it. This week’s topic is abortion and abortion is ‘not’ fun. This is a topic I am afraid to even think about thinking about after I had to review a film called Vera Drake which is all about a lady who ‘helps young girls out’ and nearly got clobbered at a media do simply by mentioning I’d seen it. It wasn’t pretty. I had to go hide behind a gaggle of weather girls. It’s a very delicate topic and please beware these ideas are David E’s not mine. But BL fans are brave and courageous and we will go there. The Fox guy would say VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED, but Alan Shore is a bit more witty: ‘try to think of it as a challenge’.
Continue reading (if you dare!)...
[photo: ABC.com]
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Producer, David E. is not making this recap gig easy. Even David E. got Denny to admit it. This week’s topic is abortion and abortion is ‘not’ fun. This is a topic I am afraid to even think about thinking about after I had to review a film called Vera Drake which is all about a lady who ‘helps young girls out’ and nearly got clobbered at a media do simply by mentioning I’d seen it. It wasn’t pretty. I had to go hide behind a gaggle of weather girls. It’s a very delicate topic and please beware these ideas are David E’s not mine. But BL fans are brave and courageous and we will go there. The Fox guy would say VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED, but Alan Shore is a bit more witty: ‘try to think of it as a challenge’.
ReplyDeleteThe fourth wall? What is this strange thing you speak of?
The birds are chirping in Boston. It’s a typical day at the office. Jerry ‘hands’ Epsenson has been indulging in muffin violence and is being bailed out by Katie; Alan and Denny are discussing the need for firearms in the workplace, i.e. “Are those loaded,” asks a worried Alan as he eyes off Denny’s six shooter? And then the young Chinese/American lady who was a clinic patient from House pops in and asks if Alan could help her secure an abortion because she’s underage and her mom won’t let her.
This is an approximation of the conversation that follows:
Denny does not want to take the case. ‘What if everything I say is on national television. I might be influencing millions of people’ says Denny?
‘I hope so,’ says David E. Kelley.
“Abortion is not fun Alan.’
‘We can make it fun. Think of it as your Emmy episode,’ replies Alan.
Kathryn sighs. ‘Don’t bother James Spader. If they won’t even give one to Hugh Laurie Bill Shatner’s stuffed. Just go with the Golden Globes’.
‘I can hear them changing the channel,’ mutters Denny.
Now if reading that made you confused: try watching the episode!
Muffin violence
Please consider other people the next time you are riding in the tram/train/bus/public place and loudly start telling the entire world your love life/when you’ll be home/your last drug deal - to everyone. Or else someone like Jerry Epsenson might throw a muffin at you… and then they might punch you… and break your nose.
This sounds like pretty unusual behavior for sweet nervous Jerry. But the guy was really obnoxious and he made the mistake of being rude to Jerry in front of Katie. If there is ever anything guaranteed to bring out a man’s inner caveman it’s insulting him in front of his girl. Now the fight was fair and you could be forgiven for thinking Obnoxious Guy had it coming; what Jerry probably shouldn’t have done was the victory dance.
But Jerry’s unrepentant. Carl even offers to help, but they only hired John Larroquette to look perpetually surprised. To be fair he does it quite well. It must be a great job. He just wanders around the office going ‘what the heck are you doing on the desk’ or ‘Denny put your pants back on’. He very rarely takes any cases.
So Jerry says no. He’s going to represent himself. After a whole life of being bullied he finally stood up to life with a bread product and one punch. Jerry gets the David E. Kelley Memorial lecture. Bullying never goes away. Its victims are scarred for life. It can also work out bad for the bully when some weird guy breaks your nose.
Back to the other topic
The young Chinese/American lady seems like a very switched on young lady. It takes all of her two minutes to fire Hopalong Crane, so Alan goes to Shirley for help. Although from other episodes, we know ‘Grammy’ must have kids, from Shirley’s uncomfortable reaction to Alan’s request we also know there are a few hypothetical grandkids of Shirley’s who are not walking the planet.
She’s not comfortable arguing pro-choice. While Alan thinks it’s a bit more a political issue (a la Roe v Wade), Shirley thinks it is a moral argument. It’s then we know conclusively both of them have had experience with abortion and they are both very torn.
They are also even more confused when Carl brings up the tendency for certain cultures to prefer boys over girls. But the court rules ‘why’ is a personal choice. The mother ‘not to be’ is granted to ‘have the procedure’.
The balcony scene
Alan makes the point that Sarah Palin was very proud of her teenage daughter’s decision to have her child, but if things change others like her may not have the choice, which is why laws like Roe v Wade are so important.
‘Does that make in any easier,’ asks Denny?
‘No,’ replies Alan.
I know you’re all taking David E.’s advice and off doing important things like voting and trying to save the salmon, but with six shows left ‘a bit of an umph’ please people? I feel like I’m arguing in front of the Supreme Court. Stick a coin in the slot and watch the sideshow – then press the button.