The Practice 3/28/04 (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

So Alan finally gets his day in court against Y, F, & B and pulls off an impressive ruling in his favor. Alan blew Eugene's closing out of the water in his closing, even if Eugene still was riding low on that high horse of his.

Totally LOL when the cross examination of Tara went something like this:


The Denny Crane bit got old and stale awfully quick in its second week.

Another LOL quote was Crane's "We conduct our sexual harrassment behind closed doors, sailor." when commenting on Alan hitting on Tara at their office.

 

[Henry Gale]

No, "To Be Continued" no teaser for next week, is this the end of the season?
I loved Alan's comment to Eugene in court, "It's exciting."

 

[Eddy-C]

Nope. Theres 4 more eps. Its just that next week,ABC is showing "The Ten Commandments" and the week after that,ABC will be showing a Nick and Jessica special so no Practice that week either.

 

[James T]

After 2 episodes of what next year will look like for Alan Shore, I don't know if it'll be interesting enough to for me to tune in. I never watched Ally McBeal b/c it just seemed too ridiculous to me, and that looks like the direction the Alan Shore show will be heading.

I agree that the Denny(or is it Danny?) Crane thing got old fast, but when Shatner said those two words to the jury, it caught me off guard and I laughed.

 

[AlexanderS]

I thought Shattner was great. "We do our sexual harrasment behind closed doors sailor". Another great Alan episode as well. The cross of Tara was hilarious. What's the rest of the season going to be about now that he's left the firm. Are they going to stop showing him and just focus on the un-ravelling of the practice?

 

[Craig S]

Get used to it. According to AICN's "Hercules" (usually pretty reliable), the word now is that Shatner will join Spader, Mitra & Capshaw in the cast of next season's first "Practice" spinoff.

First? Yup, there's also talk of spinning off Camryn Manheim's Elanor Frutt character in a half-hour sitcom.

 

[chuck_b]

Initially I was jacked, but now I 'm a little concerned about the upcoming changes with spin-offs and character additions. Although I think the Denny Crane character is funny in an off-beat way, it could get overused after a few episodes (if not already). I also almost feel the Shatner role is not fully baked and they are feeling their way around as they go.

The beauty of Spader's original addition to "The Practice" this year was his irrelevance to the law that was highlighted by his "normal" peers at the current firm. In a potential spin-off firm where this crazy approach is normal, Spader's role may lose some of it's edge.

The beauty of this season on The Practice was it allowed for a contrast between how right and wrong is defined and the many ways it is accomplished. A characters role is shaped by the other roles around him and the contrasts that occur each week. I hope the wacky Spader thing is not lost in a show which makes wacky the norm.

 

[Elizabeth S]

I've watched this show from the very beginning, and it gives me a funny feeling to see how this is all ending. Our sympathies have been made to shift to Alan Shore, obviously, since he's the character continuing with the new series. In a courtroom showdown between the firm and Alan, it's hard not to see Eugene & Co. as the "enemy" when THEY were who we rooted for for years and years. I'm presuming the entire returning cast knew that this was the direction the show might take, but in essence, it's like "thanks for the 9(?) years, guys, but bye -- Alan Shore is more interesting now and we're going with him."

 

[Patrick Sun]

What will also be of note is whether Alan Shore will be interesting enough if there isn't a moral center on the new show to contrast the shades of grey he engages in in the practice of law.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

I thought Shatner and Spader were going to be pretty much the only really crazy characters in the spin off. Mitra and the rest of the people in Crane's office seemed to be pretty straight laced.

In fact, Spader's character may get toned down for all we know since he's met a lawyer who's wackier than he is, and is put off by it.

It just may be that below the surface Shore and Crane do have a "moral center," but they just have forgotten how to express themselves. The writers kept showing that behind the facade of Shore's nastiness, he genuinely feels for his clients (and very deeply for his friends) and does what he thinks needs to be done to help them... even if it means bending the rules (and perhaps hurting his own reputation in the process). As Elenore put it, Shore has a sense of self loathing, and low self esteem that manifests themselves as self destructive mannerisms.

Cool to see such a complex character back on network TV. Things were getting a little bland.

Dan