Boston Legal Kicks Ass

[filkertom]

In case you hadn't seen it, there was a scene on Boston Legal where James Spader's character lets loose, pretty succinctly, against the administration and the populace that enables it. Not a very well edited clip visually, but the audio's great.

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

If you didn't catch it last night, make sure to catch today's re-run of Colbert Report. His guest is Keith Olbermann.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Boston Legal is a wonderful show, and while last night's episode was, overall, only middle-of-the-pack, that speech was a killer. What the clip doesn't show is the context that made it work dramatically. Earlier, Shore (Spader's character) admitted to his client that he would have trouble doing the impassioned closing she expected of him, because he believed she was guilty. Then the prosecutor got up and used the "How dare she criticize the government in a time of war" garbage we've come to know so well. That's what got Shore started.

There's even one good laugh out of the case. There's a scene were Denny Crane (William Shatner) confronts Shore about taking the case. The conversation, in part, goes something like this:

Crane: Do you know what will happen if the little people stop paying their taxes?

Shore: The rich people will have to start paying theirs?

Crane: Exactly! You're threatening my loopholes!

Oh, and I don't know if the clip showed it (since I saw it last night, I just checked the starting point), but the judge in that trial was played by one of the great stand-up comics of all time, Shelley Berman. Boston Legal does great casting.

[indyellen.livejournal.com]

I don't watch the show, but that was *great*. Now if we could just find a Presidential candidate - and I'm not sure I care which party, anymore - who could make the same speech and MEAN it, we might have a chance.