Boston Legal - Season 3 DVD Credits:

Region: 1

Boston Legal - Season 3 DVD Release Date: 17th September 2007

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Boston Legal - Season 3 DVD Review:

Spawning from a guest character on The Practice, David E. Kelley’s next legal show is headed up by a great cast of veterans. Boston Legal follows the happenings in the law firm Crane Poole and Schmidt, which is full of the best and the strangest lawyers in Boston. Each episode brings a unique case which is only outdone by the methods used by some of the lawyers. As predictable as each court outcome is, the dialogue and the acting make this show fun enough to get attached to. I don’t much care for lawyer shows as a rule, but this isn’t your usual stuffy courtroom drama. This show actually has a sense of humor, and occasionally a heart as well. Each episode brings in a number of cases in each episode, following different lawyers as they go to court, all seeming to have the verdict read at the same time making for some convenient crosscutting to wrap the episode up. The cases are mostly relevant to issues which are prevalent today, which makes it a very hot show to watch, but that also means that it will be dated and forgotten five years after it goes off-air. It is interesting to see what lawyers get paired up together each episode, because it can affect the amount of humor which will follow.

James Spader heads up the cast as the rebellious lawyer. He is Alan Shore, a habitual flirt and rule-bender. He is only outmatched by Denny Crane (William Shatner), a partner who may be on his way towards Alzheimer’s and retirement. Shatner is fantastic as the self obsessed lawyer who repeats his name as if it is his own personal mantra. As funny as many of the hi-jinks are there are also a number of serious topics raised, and not all of them are pleasant. The show has a great deal of emphasis placed on moral decisions, and conversations about God, however openly offensive they may be, keep appearing in the dialogue. Somehow in seeing different sides of many arguments, they are faced with deciding how they feel about many issues we never have to face. It is just convenient that they almost always end up agreeing with the side they are fighting for. It is when they disagree with their own side that the show gets interesting and we begin to get into the deep character development that longstanding television shows are able to acquire.

After such a promising first season Boston Legal began season two with a number of unwelcome cast changes and absurd pot twists. With all of the fuss that we were forced to endure season three tries its best to make up for it. There are the usual cast changes, adding in new lawyer unpredictably in the second episode. As Denny says when they walk in, “If there were new guys they would have shown up in the season premiere”, and this statement almost makes the unwelcome intrusion of New York characters into the plot bearable. The more the writers seem aware that the show has become somewhat repetitious, the more they seem to have fun throwing in postmodern elements that make the viewers directly aware that not only the actors, but the characters also realize it is just a television show and they don’t exist when not on. Season three starts big with the new characters, even giving one of them a murder case that lasts several episodes. Often the cases are resolved at the end of each episode, but Boston Legal is adapting the progressive storyline format even more freely the longer it stays on air.

While season two didn’t know when to stop including Betty White in the cases as Alan’s killer assistant who also robs liquor stores, season three has the same déjà vu with Alan’s mentally gifted and emotionally challenged friend, Jerry Espenson. At least Jerry is a lawyer, giving him more cause to be in court, yet he also manages to find far too many charges brought against him. While we see far too much of Jerry this season, a welcome guest star is a returning character from season one. Sally was the only love interest that Alan seemed sincerely upset to lose, so it is a pleasure to see her go up against her in court. There are twenty-four episodes in season three, all fit on seven discs. There are two featurettes, but the special features are rather weak.

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Boston Legal - Season 3 DVD review written by: Ryan Izay