Boston Legal: Season One

David E. Kelley spun this ABC series off The Practice—his ultra-serious Emmy-winning drama about a team of low-rent defense attorneys, which ran for seven seasons—but while set in the same city, Boston Legal is a very different show, more like Kelley's quirkily comic Ally McBeal. Set at an extremely high-end firm, the show centers on Alan Shore (James Spader), a carryover from the last season of The Practice, a brilliant but unorthodox lawyer whose supremely arrogant manner and rude humor exasperate one partner (Candice Bergen) but earn him the friendship of another, the abrasive and even more hubristic—though deeply insecure—Denny Crane (William Shatner). The plots in the 17 hour-long episodes that comprise this 2004-05 first season take on big issues and lurid cases, but always with an eye towards satire and irony. What really distinguishes the show, however, is the cast, especially the deft verbal soft-shoe routine between Spader and Shatner, which has been instrumental in winning them both Emmys. DVD extras include deleted scenes and a pair of featurettes. Recommended. (F. Swietek)