The Blacklist Declassified

🔴 Boston Legal (2004 – 2008)

“The outrageous, surprising, and prescient legacy of Boston Legal”

 
For all its courtroom trappings, Boston Legal wasn’t really about upholding the law — it was about pushing the law past its limits. Every week, the show’s lawyers would argue cases that stretched beyond the boundaries of the law and delved into the boundaries of society. Sometimes those boundaries would push right back. But other times, the show’s “stretches” were just the torchbearers for new cultural norms. … As the series went on, the lawyers at Crane, Poole, and Schmidt would break the fourth wall to complain about the restrictions on their storylines and fight to stay in production.
 
“… But Boston Legal was far more than a moral compass for the future. The show relished the immorality of the characters in its core relationship: the idealistic, inappropriate Alan Shore (James Spader), and the absurdly conservative Denny Crane (William Shatner). … Together, Crane and Shore exacerbate each other’s worst impulses — especially with women. As the show’s reliable anchors, Alan and Denny seem to be quintessential men: one conservative, one liberal, but both in love with women, sex, whiskey, and cigars. …

“Boston Legal was never satisfied with being one thing. … The show wasn’t interested in defending itself, or a character, in some rigid declaration of purpose; within its stories, and as a TV show as a whole, it was interested in defending and depicting the virtue of change.”

– TheWeek, Monika Bartyzel (Oct 14, 2014): The outrageous, surprising, and prescient legacy of Boston Legal http://bit.ly/1GarEgu

⭕ Resources

 
DVDs Boston Legal, (Seasons 1-5): http://amzn.to/1YIuwwP *
DVDs The Practice, (The Final Season): http://amzn.to/1h07Aa8*
 
Detailed Alan Shore biography from the Wiki: http://bit.ly/1KH0Qpi
 
Boston Legal (Unofficial) Fan Site: http://www.boston-legal.org
Episodes, including scripts (at above site): http://bit.ly/1jnsIZC
 
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1O2wFzY
IMDb: http://imdb.to/1NUX54U
TV[.]com: http://bit.ly/1KYg8KL
Wiki: http://bit.ly/1PHFoF2
Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/1OZNLxs
 
Boston Legal Fan Fiction , ArchiveOfOurOwn.org: http://bit.ly/1iUt7mD
Boston Legal Fan Fiction , FanFiction.net: http://bit.ly/1jnr1vg
 
*Only Season 5 is online and although it has some great moments and takes on important issues like Denny’s impending Alzheimer’s, the show’s budget had been eviscerated and it is very apparent. It projects little of the serio-comic brilliance of the first four seasons. For one reason or other, I cried through most of the 5th Season.

So I recommend you invest in the DVDs. It is well worth it. And don’t forget the last season of The Practice, in which James Spader’s Alan Shore was introduced. Spader won the first of his three Emmys for that season.

⭕ Photo Gallery: Alan Shore

༺✦ ♤ ✦༻
 

Boston Legal: James Spader as Alan Shore.

 
༺✦ ♤ ✦༻
 

Boston Legal: James Spader as Alan Shore – In court w Shirley (Candice Bergen)

 
༺✦ ♤ ✦༻
 

Boston Legal: James Spader as Alan Shore – In court w Denny (Wm Shatner)

 
༺✦ ♤ ✦༻
 

Boston Legal: James Spader as Alan Shore – Amused

 
༺✦ ♤ ✦༻
 

Boston Legal: James Spader as Alan Shore – Not Amused

 
༺✦ ♤ ✦༻
 

Boston Legal: James Spader as Alan Shore – “Did YOU kill…”

 
༺✦ ♤ ✦༻
 

 
༺✦ ♤ ✦༻