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 The Other Balcony Scene  

   By Adam Holmberg
   IV Leader Staff, Mar 15, 2007

    Television viewers, tired of the monotony of the countless legal dramas and procedurals, will want to visit the offices and courtrooms occupied by the flawed, yet funny people who make up the Boston law firm of Crane, Poole, and Schmidt.
    These characters are part of David E. Kelley’s bitingly witty and brilliantly balanced Peabody-winning masterpiece Boston Legal.
    Another show set in the vast universe of Kelley’s dramas and dramadies (a list which includes Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, and The Practice), Boston Legal is perhaps Kelley’s best, most refined work.
    In its first two seasons is an effortless joy that dances between side-splitting comedy and true drama in a voodoo mixture that’s magical to watch.
    Its third season is less balanced but no less compelling. The show is often a “message show,” confronting a rich salad of topics, dominating current events.
    These current events range from anything and everything such as mad cow to support of the war in Iraq to the death penalty to America’s love of watching rich beautiful people suffer without once lecturing or condescending, or even giving an intelligent voice to the “other side” of the argument.
    Boston Legal is truly a show of many joys. The bond shared by two men, Alan Shore and Denny Crane – one a liberal Democrat, one a conservative Republican – is, at the risk of sounding repetitive, one of the most honest in the history of television.
    Like every Boston Legal episode, there is “the balcony scene” (not the one from Romeo and Juliet), but “the other balcony scene” that closes each episode of Boston Legal, like Alan Shore and Denny Crane with a cigar and a drink on the balcony of Denny’s office.
    Their discussion sometimes wraps up some of the lingering themes of the episode. Sometimes it is just a whimsical trifle, and sometimes its sincere words and a touch of humor between two men who truly love each other.
    The “other balcony scene” is two close friends, played by two fantastic actors, simply enjoying each other’s company just as the viewer can sincerely enjoy Boston Legal, a show with both laughter and depth in equal measure.

 

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