I watched the first season quite recently but couldn't get past my contempt for the protagonist.
I was going to make some suggestions, but now....screw off.
As mentioned, the best police procedural is easily Dragnet. I prefer the color version in 1967. But of the Law and Orders, I prefer SVU. The first season is a little rough, but by the time the 4th season comes around, they are really rolling. Oh, and the first season is definitely the weakest season of Boston Legal.
The only knife more damaging would have been one with Matt Damon's name on it.
Supremely intelligent and totally unflappable with a witty comeback for every occasion.
Not really, especially as you get further in. There are numerous times when he's rendered inarticulate, though usually due to some psychological or emotional scarring which occurred in his life before he appeared in The Practice.
Moral but plays by his own rules because he's above the system.
I wouldn't say that nearly as much as I would say he doesn't allow the system to interfere with his morals. But this changes over time also, and it's openly acknowledged on the show by Shore himself, as is the reason for his change.
Antisocial and dismissive towards all of his "intellectual inferiors" yet unaccountably irresistible to every single attractive female on the show.
Most of them yes, but not all. I'm thinking mostly of Shirley Schmidt, which makes sense as two of the most attractive qualities women find in men are power and wealth, and Schmidt is more powerful and more wealthy. And of the ones you would have seen in the first season, two of the three who are attracted to him became attracted to him during the last season of the The Practice (Sally and Tara), so only Lori Colson is the inexplicably and unexplainably attracted to Shore woman.
Oh, and he always wins. Maybe he gets better in later seasons - thought if I were a betting man I'd wager on him staying exactly the same and just being increasingly angsty about it.
Actually, he loses quite often. But remember, Shore is playing the character of an incredibly gifted lawyer at an incredibly prestigious firm in an incredibly prominent legal city. By the very nature of the character, he has to win often. Most lawyers in his position do win often, or they are not in his position.
The practice took a lot of similar traits for Bobby Donnell, but Donnell was portrayed as a human, relatable and utterly tragic figure, as opposed to some kind of all powerful legal demigod.
I'm not sure how you can call Shore any different. Alan Shore, outside of his incredible ability to practice law, is an absolute wretch of a man, incapable of being in love and/or being loved, whose childhood was broken by terrible parenting and has rarely allowed anyone to become close to him. And yet, despite his flaws, his empathy for humanity is nearly unwavering and those he does choose to care about, he is extremely loyal to them.
Барбоса;4347133 said:
The writers and producers of Boston Legal do pick up on Shore's repeatedly long winded closings and poke fun at it and he does lose on occasion (unlike Denny, who remains undefeated regardless of the ridiculousness of the case).
Shore's closings are simply amazing and his first time before the Supreme Court is easily one of my favorite moments in television.
while season 3 has the awful paralegals in Garret and Sara
Actually, those two were in Season 2. And, if I remember correctly, Garret and Sara were added in because the first few episodes of Season 2 were originally planned to be in Season 1 (but weren't), and the paralegals were added in to flesh out the story with Denise. Denise WAS part of the Season 2 cast, but since the first few episodes were not going to include her (since she wasn't part of Season 1), they shot the side story with Denise and gave the paralegals a role to help carry the side story. You'll notice that after the first few episodes of Season 2, Sara is gone completely and Garret shows up much less often.
but the additions of Shirley Schmitt, Jerry Espenson, Clarence Bell and later Carl Sack and Katie Lloyd work well and can even take the main story away from Denny and Alan on occasion.
Jerry Espenson's character is phenomenal. In many ways, several episodes revolve around him instead of Alan and Denny.
