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| Show Reviews |
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Boston Legal
Barry Willis
03/01/2005
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Produced by: David E. Kelley Productions/Twentieth Network: ABC
Network: ABC
Scheduled: Sunday,10 p.m.
Reviewed on: KGO San Francisco, CA Comcast
Channel: Channel 707
 Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley can’t stop riffing on the Boston legal
profession. This time around, William Shatner stars as Denny Crane, founding
partner of a prestigious Boston law firm. His mere name brings lesser men to
their knees, but his best days are behind him, and he may be losing his grasp of
reality, a continuing problem for the firm and its steady-at-the-helm senior
partner Paul Lewiston, played with great panache by Rene Auberjonois. James
Spader stars as Alan Shore, a creepy charmer with no ethics and a vestigial
conscience. The firm is otherwise populated with slinky maneaters played by
Rhonda Mitra and Monica Potter, who provoke inter-office rivalries as often as
they prevail in court, which is almost every episode.
“Boston Legal is shot
on 35mm film and transferred to 1080/24p video, edited in 24p. The edited master
is converted to 720P and 480i, which airs on ABC HD and the ABC NTSC networks,
respectively,” explains ABC executive Randy Hoffner. “The show is mixed in
discrete 5.1-channel sound, and the 5.1 tracks are downmixed to derive the
2-channel matrixed surround-sound tracks that are aired by ABC HD affiliates
that do not have 5.1-channel capability, and by the ABC NTSC network.”
With
scenes shot almost entirely indoors, the show has a rich look that complements
the dark comedy. The tone is more somber than Ally McBeal and lacks its flights
of fantasy, but compensates with deeper characters. ABC should never be forgiven
for canceling Once and Again, but it’s come a long way toward redemption with
Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal.
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