"Boston Legal" 4x1

BOSTON LEGAL 4x1 "Beauty And The Beast"

Change of plans, Jeffrey, take me to Jail. Here we go again...

I've so been looking forward to this - even seeing the new main titles with our new regulars brings a smile to my face! And for a show known, nay, prided for it's constant churning of cast, this new lineup is perhaps the most extensive changeover yet. But because of the way this show operates, something that would be seen as an indicator of major problems is business as usual at Crane, Poole, & Schmidt. Last season there was a fantastic referrence to this, when a few new people showed up in Episode 2, Denny said that it was impossible that they were new, or else they'd have been introduced in the season premiere. This show has destroyed the fourth wall to great effect.

We welcome the great John Larroquette to his second role in this universe (He was probably the greatest guest star ever on "The Practice" the evil genius murderer Joey Heric). He's going to be Denny's new foil in from the NY office. Jerry "Hands" Espenson has been promoted to regular in another wonderful move. This show has the pattern of bringing on interesting people and sort of trying them out, and then if it works they move up and if not they move out.

I'm sort of confused that they've demoted Constance Zimmer yet kept Gary Anthony Williams. The two of them seemed linked in story, so I'm curious to see where that's going. Clarence is certainly more of the traditional quirky David E. Kelley character though. It seems that his new 'girlfriend' is going to be "Hands". Buckle up for this coupling, this show surely knows how to do hetrosexual male couples right!

We have two new girls, Tara Summers and Saffron Burrows here to keep that area of things warm until a few more actresses are hired to replace them later this year or in the fifth season premiere (The only lady around here with staying power is the queen bee Candice Bergen, and that's fine with me)

The only demotion I'm sad about is Rene Auberjonois, but it's totally understandable since they hadn't given him a thing to do all last year. I read he'll recur when needed, and hopefully he'll have more to do now that they don't feel forced to wedge him in here and there. That's something I've dubbed "Lorne Syndrome". On "Angel" Lorne was a delightful guest star, appearing when required, and he did so well he was promoted to series regular. Unfortunately once he was there when not required for story he became a millstone, as they couldn't always find a good reason for him to be there, and eventually stopped trying. On the flip side, I hope Jerry Espenson doesn't become a 'Lorne'.

I read something in EW recently that was basically telling the Emmy people "how dare you give all this recognition to 'Boston Legal' when all these other shows I love got bupkis" and that pisses me off. Just because this show is clever and joyous and fun, it somehow isn't worthy of adulation. Its the same way I get defensive when people reflexively dig at soaps. This show is fantastic and it's closing in on stellar this year with the cast they've got, and all of Kelley's attention.

This last 90 minutes has just reminded me that this is one of the shows I'd never miss, and if it was gone I'd surely miss.

*****