Boston Legal has always been a particularly good show, even if it has become so by positively highlighting some characters while treating others as lame ass idiots. One has to feel for the plight of Mark Valley’s Brad Chase on the series who’s gone from formidable fixture of strength of bumbling buffoon spending no time in the courtroom and the entire last episode stuck in an air vent. And for Julie Bowen’s Denise Bauer who’s gone from ass-kicking, intern-belittling powerhouse to sappy second string softie. Even Rene Auberjonis has taken a back seat at crane Poole $ Schmidt.
Even with all that seemingly negative change, the series continues to shine particularly with this week’s episode entitled Son of the Defender in which a man William Shatner’s Denny Crane defended along with his father in 1957 shows up with a gun held to his back by the very son of a man supposedly killed by the man Crane proved innocent back in 1957. The man takes Crane Poole & Schmidt employees hostage and forces them to re-enact the 50 year old trial. Because Shatner has been around forever and has been a TV and film fixture for so long, footage from his 1957 appearance in the TV pilot The Defender was able to be incorporated into this week’s episode.
The writers did a wonderful job tying Shatner’s appearance in the 50 year old legal drama together with the current Boston Legal episode in a way that lent true sentiment to the episode’s plot line. Couple that with some tremendous acting by Shatner and and an always amusing secondary plot line with James Spader’s Alan Shore and you get grade A television.
