"Boston Legal" Marathon

The majority of this weekend has been and will yet be spent watching the entire first season of one of my favorite shows on TV, Boston Legal, about 16 episodes worth. I have been thinking about why I like it so much, and there are some obvious reasons...there is pretty good star power, attractive people whose roles on the show mesh well with their personalities, heck, there are even some novel and contemporary legal arguments taking place from episode to episode. What's more, the show is ridiculously funny and makes me laugh as an attorney and a human being, and it tugs sometimes at the ol' emotions and heartstrings.

I can't say it is the most accurate reflection of the practice of law itself or the intra-office politics in a law firm of any size or reputation for that matter, but then again, neither is any other show out there allegedly based on reality (save maybe Convictions, which also happens to be very good but which has a limited audience because it comes on Fridays.) Besides, who am I to be nitpicky? :)

I think what gets me the most, why I really like it, is because the show actually allows me to think, feel, and process for myself. So much of what passes for TV entertainment these days, let's face it, is packaged for mass appeal to drooling, mouth-breathing, recliner jockeys. That means there is no such thing as nuance, interpretation, etc. anymore. Consumers have become so afflicted with attention deficits and utter laziness that they want everything to be handed to them...indeed, they demand to be beaten over the head with something, have the point or the joke driven home ad nauseam, or they will simply change the channel, because they are too lazy to be bothered with thinking when they aren't punching the clock. God help us all if that's as true as I perceive it to be...that said, I think Boston Legal is a bastion of intelligence and some depth in a sea of shallow, steam-shovel fed idiocy we call television, and for that I am grateful...oh look at the time, now it's off to breakfast :).

P.S.- It is cool to have a show I like well enough to stage an all-night season watching marathon over...hasn't happened in a while, and when it does, the only thing that makes it better is a good friend to watch with you.