(Season 5, Episodes 12/13 – “Made in China/Last Call” – Series Finale)

A day late maybe, but not a dollar short if Denny Crane has anything to say about it. We could just get married. The gang pulled out almost all the stops on this final run through Crane, Poole & Schmidt. With two episodes back-to-back we got not one, not two, but three balcony scenes (though the third one was a bit of a special occasion).

We did get resolution on the financial problems at the firm, the Sack-Schmidt union and the return visit to the Supreme Court. On a character front, I’m pretty well satisfied with how things are left, but I can’t say the same for the firm. I understand that David E. Kelley likes to get his pot-shots in and he likes to shoot big with his targets, and I don’t fault him the target at all. Still, I can’t say as I enjoyed how things turned out for the firm. And poor Shirley.

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(Season 5, Episode 11 – “Juiced”)

It’s all coming to an end so quickly. Why couldn’t ABC have just given us a full season of Boston Legal this season instead of this truncated half-season? Did I really just use the word “season” three times in one sentence? I want a season six! There, said it again.

In one respect, it looks like David E. Kelley is looking to have some fun as he goes out, with Carl enabling Catherine Piper’s craziness by taking a case against the television networks to court for … wait for it … not programming for people over 50. Why, the only show on television brave enough to have stars over 50 is Bo– Well, that would break the fourth wall, wouldn’t it Carl?

Fun stuff indeed, as well as raising a lot of valid points. Why isn’t television that skews older allowed to thrive on television? They do have more money than those of us under 50. They certainly have more money than I do (he said while scraping remnants from the bottom of a can of potato soup). Kelley balanced his direct attack against ABC with the somber revelation that Denny’s Alzheimer’s is no longer something that is coming, but is in fact here. Now.

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(Season 5, Episode 10 – “Thanksgiving”)

You know what? Going into this holiday themed episode, I was pretty worried. I wasn’t thrilled with how the episode that took Denny and Alan to Utah turned out, and so when I saw that again we were going to be staying out of the courtroom, I got worried. Can David E. Kelley do what he does so well on this show completely outside of the courtroom?

And then Shirley got mugged by a nine year old black kid in a parking lot, only to find out that this is the new foster child of Edwin Poole. From there things were more fun than they had any right to be, minus a few bizarre outbursts from Shirley, and Kelley still finding a way to have Alan wax poetic about some hot political issue, this one being racism in this post-Obama America. But then halfway through, something remarkable happened and this became one of the most powerful and moving episodes I’d seen in a long time.

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(Season 5, Episode 9 – “Kill, Baby, Kill!”)

Boston Legal loves touching on hot political issues, and we’ve gotten some of our best material from them. That didn’t happen tonight. The ensemble reshuffled the pairings for tonight because, as Denny explained, this is their last season. It’s time to mix things up. So he took off with Carl to Virginia to tackle a murder case with a Boston Legal twist. The defendant shot a man who was in the middle of being executed by the state to end his suffering.

The other storyline put Alan and Shirley together, and even had them sharing a cigar on Denny’s balcony. Cheri Oteri guested in that role as a woman who said she got fired because she voted McCain. The counter argument? She was fired because she was dumb. It was great seeing Oteri on television again; if she’s appeared elsewhere lately it’s not been on shows I watch. She’s still just as manic and spunky as many of her Saturday Night Live characters and is a lot of fun to watch.

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ABC

(Season 5, Episode 8)

Alan Shore got to speechify in a case on abortion. He probably got an erection as soon as the case was offered to him. It also featured the welcome return of Ming-Na to television, playing the role of the mother of Alan’s client. Meanwhile, Jerry went apeshit crazy at a “Starbucks” type of establishment, leading into one of those integrated intro segments with Jerry singing and dancing to the opening music.

All in all, this episode was a great mix of fun and serious and a perfect example of why Boston Legal remains one of the sharpest and most relevant shows on television. I don’t even care that the median age of its small cast is 97 years old. I’ve chosen that picture because once again Carl Sack wasn’t given really anything to do and I think that’s how he would feel about it. This is an Emmy-winning actor. Give him a damn role!

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ABC

(Season 5, Episode 7)

Can I just come out and say that I have absolutely fallen in love with the friendship that’s developed between Katie Lloyd and Jerry Espensen on this show the past two seasons. There’s a reason Christian Clemenson was offered a full-time position on Boston Legal after awhile in a “featured player” role. He plays the role of Jerry with such a passion and sincerity that you fully believe his every tic and mannerism.

And since Katie has moved into his office, they’ve become one of the sweetest pairings on television. While I’m not sure they could carry a show on their own, they are a wonderful addition to the general insanity of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. And so tonight, they each got to sit in front of the executive committee and discuss whether Jerry should be offered full partnership in the Firm, and each was just beautiful with their words.

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ABC

(Season 5, Episode 6)

The formula was certainly shaken up this week to accommodate Denny’s and Alan’s trip to a dude ranch. I have to think this was done in large part due to William Shatner’s love of horses. After all, it’s the last season of the show and why not have some fun. It was fun seeing Melvin Palmer at the dude ranch. He’s someone who’s always driven me crazy, that’s what he is. Every time he’d appear opposite Alan and call him a hoot. I’d never realized that Denny hadn’t met him ever before tonight.

The small cast continued to be a bit jarring at times. Particularly with Denny and Alan out of the office, it only left Katie, Jerry, Carl and Shirley, and then when Shirley got called to trial to help out Catherine Piper (Betty White) again, we got a somewhat odd and forced little discussion on “the little kid inside.” I really wish they’d fleshed the cast out a bit again this year, like they’ve done in every previous year, so we could get a more natural flow between the characters.

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