Becker The Second Season

Having conducted our seasonal check-up, the prognosis is positive for Becker, which, following a healthy first season, showed a steady improvement with sharper writing, funnier jokes, and a more at ease ensemble. Dr. John Becker (Ted Danson in his Golden Globe-nominated role), who operates out of a Bronx neighborhood clinic, is pretty strong medicine, and this season, the writers upped his dosage with more potent misanthropic rants against "a world that sucks." Prone to losing his temper and alienating everyone, Becker is "not good on the phone, not good in person, you’re just not good," his much more likeable chief of staff Margaret (Hattie Wilson) tells him. Whether fighting the phone company over a call he insists he didn’t make or, dismissed for jury duty, railing against a justice system that doesn’t "value my intelligence and want my talents," Becker sees conspiracies and stupidity everywhere. He is invariably his own worst enemy, as in the season opener in which he saves a grateful woman’s life and repays her acts of gratitude toward him by accusing her of being a stalker (spoiler alert: she’s really a nun). Becker is an equal opportunity offender with an unkind word for all, including blind newspaper vendor Jake (Alex Desert), and "Reggie" (Terry Farrell), owner of the struggling diner where Becker holds court and slings insults. But we do get to see his more vulnerable side after he is accidentally shot during a street altercation. He even gets a girlfriend this season, the doctor (Frances Fisher) who treats him (surprise; he’s even a bigger pain in the posterior as a patient). But no amount of pathos can redeem two of the most annoying and obnoxious characters in prime time, flaky and "hardcore unemployable" nurse’s assistant, Linda (Shawnee Smith) and loser Bob (Saverio Guerra). Becker does have a heart, but it also has a brain. One of the best episodes this season is "Crosstalk," in which atheist Becker and a priest (Frasier’s John Mahoney) anxiously await the results of a patient’s operation and debate the nature of faith. Becker wasn’t exactly a water-cooler show, but it’s solid, dependable, and worth checking out if you missed it the first time around. --Donald Liebenson