Harry's Law Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

I just realized a thread on this wasn't ongoing. Good to see it back this year. We're starting out with the kind of thing that definitely smacks of "The Practice" or "Boston Legal".. S2 actually. Good stuff so far.

 

[Mark_B]

I was a little surprised in the way the new season started. They went from the little tiny storefront office/Fine Shoe Store in the bad part of town to a big law firm that has offices above the shoe store. All of a sudden they have all these people, that I don't know or don't remember working there. I see Brittany Snow is listed as a guest star now. Is she not going to be a regular anymore? That stuff is what I liked about it last year. I also see the replaced one crazy DA with Jean Smart, another crazy DA. The cases seem to be the same tho. I'll keep watching as I like legal stuff, but I am not wild about the changes. It is now just another lawer show. The quirkyness seems to be gone.

 

[Matt Hough]

I'm very happy to leave Brittany Snow's drama and tedious love life behind, but the charm of working out of the shoe store with street level tactics is gone and I will miss that. Always enjoy Mark Valley, but now Harry's firm has three full-time lawyers plus Tommy Davidson across the hall? It must mean there are going to be two or three on-going cases all the time. I think the show might suffer from legal overkill.


I was also surprised the main case of the week with Harry squaring off against the villainous Jean Smart barely got going last week and had to be carried over to this week's episode (which i haven't watched yet). I would have thought the producers would have wanted to start the season with a good, strong case that got wrapped up by the end of the show to get folks back in the habit of watching the show. I myself was frustrated last week with the case hardly begun.

 

[mattCR]

That case will apparently go several episodes. Shades of Boston Legal Season 3.

 

[mattCR]

Yep, finished up last night. Good conclusion too.. I liked that they went in a way that was not really expected. We always see malicious prosecutors, etc. in these defense oriented shows, but they mustache twirlers just live to fight another day. I liked the angle of the Judge stepping in. The reveal at the end "meh". I thought it would have better if no one knew at all.

 

[Matt Hough]

Thoroughly enjoyed the conclusion of this story arc. The court scenes were wonderfully entertaining.

 

[Mark_B]

I enjoyed the conclusion too. It bothers me still on how the whole premise of the show has changed. Last year Harry was basically a new attorney. She had spent her whole career in Patent law I believe. Had a problem with the firm and went out on her own. The charm of the show was her inexperience with criminal law and the walk in nature of her practice. Now all of a sudden she has this big firm and seems to be just like any other high priced criminal attorney. I miss the quirkiness of it. It now reminds me of the show with Jim Belushi last year, The Defenders. Since that isn't on anymore, maybe Jim can move to Cincinnatti.

 

[mattCR]

It's interesting to see Boston Legal characters pop back up here (the Nancy Grace talking copy cat/tv star)

 

[Matt Hough]

Very much enjoyed the case of the night; interesting arguments on both sides of the question.

 

[mattCR]

We are now in full Boston Legal (#2) Remake. More faces from Boston Legal turn up. As the former creepy ex-neighbor (Lincoln Meyers, as played by David Bottrell) appears as creepy baptist minister (as played by David Botrell). Combine that with the last week Nancy Grace knock off..


I do miss the small neighborhood cases that they were doing last year; I thought that gave it a very different and unique twist. While I love BL, Im not sure now how this will play out.

 

[NeilO]

I missed most of last season and unfortunately NBC didn't carry many episodes online this summer. This past week's ending had quite a few surprises.

 

[Matt Hough]

I was surprised by the endings of both cases they dealt with this week. It's definitely not the Harry's Law from last season, but as someone who enjoys legal procedurals, I certainly intend to keep watching.

 

[mattCR]

I think it's still enjoyable. But last year, as a penny lawyer in a mostly African American poor neighborhood, it had a very different vibe from everything on TV.. now, all their clients are middle class white people, gang issues are gone, people who run small stores and struggle are gone; the Chinese family gone.. it went from really integrated to pretty lily white.

 

[mattCR]

Best episode of the season. By far. Such a grueling conclusion, and the obvious answer was that they needed to sit down together and talk, and work something out.. or at least go to counseling. There was no winner in that court case. Brutal.

 

[Matt Hough]

It was brutal and completely riveting. The lawyers looked as destroyed as the parents.

 

[Mark_B]

Unfortunately, stuff like this actuall happens. I remember a case in the Chicago area years ago about a little boy given up for adoption and 4 or so years later the biological father comes forward and decides he wants the child and the courts awarded the child to him taking him away from the only family he had ever known. Bob Greene had a whole series of coulumns about it before he was fired. I'll never forgetthe pictures of the little boy being handed over. Again, no one wins.

 

[mattCR]

I don't know how I'd feel about the case above. What I really liked about this case was how often the judge kept pointing out these people needed to sit down and talk and get a therapist/psychologist involved, who wasn't advocating for one side or the other but trying to work something out. It was a case that has always worried me about international adoptions; here a child was taken basically against the will of the family and then adopted by someone else who didn't realize the child was abducted. There was a news story about this recently revolving around a child from Africa in similar circumstance. It's a brutal problem: while the child is acclamaited to the US and the family here, if you let the adoptions stand, does it further encourage the abduct-sell for a profit baby market?

It's a tricky battle there. I felt for both sides, I think it would have been terrible no matter who won/lost. But I admit, as a parent, if I were in the family that lost.. our biological child abducted and then adopted by someone else, I don't care how pure the motives of the adopted family were, or that they weren't part of the action that took the kid.. I would probably do what they did and fight like heck for the return of our child, and a verdict that went against that would seem insanely cruel.

Then again, if you're the adopted family who didn't know this, you'd also feel like such a verdict would be forcing you to pay for the crimes of others and making a child who had become part of your family leave.


Very difficult; like I said, the best writing on this show this season

 

[mattCR]

Well, you figured they'd have to come up with a use for the Wonder Woman costume somewhere

 

[Matt Hough]

Two interesting cases with two fairly obvious (but nevertheless appropriate) outcomes.

 

[NeilO]

I was going to watch the latest episode of Harry's Law online this morning and discovered that NBC is not allowing it to be shown online anymore - not on nbc.com or hulu