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Satire in Boston Legal
by David Papke
Boston Legal does not add to the convention of
the dramatic courtroom trial that has been a mainstay of primetime
legal drama since the emergence of network programming in the
late 1940s. Boston Legal also does not significantly advance
the portrayal of small law firms, the lawyers therein, and the
tortured relationships among them. L. A. Law established
the law firm sub-genre in the late 1980s, and it has continued
to be part of primetime through The Practice up to the
present. However, Boston Legal has given television viewers
a fresh satirical look at lawyers and legal practice, and this
satirical dimension of the series may be its most noteworthy
feature. The viewing public's positive response to satire in
Boston Legal may also be suggestive of what lawyers have
come to represent in the culture of postmodern America.
 Satire is a venerable
form of cultural expression that lampoons or ridicules a subject
by making it look ridiculous. If well executed, satire amuses
the reader or viewer more so than it provokes hatred or contempt.
There is a lightness or playfulness to the best satire. How does
satire differ from comedy in general? Comedy produces laughter
in and of itself, but satire is more specialized. In playfully
deriding and derogating, satire makes fun of something that exists
outside the given anecdote, short story, movie, or television
drama. The chief satirical target in Boston Legal is the
legal profession and, in particular, self-impressed and immoral
lawyers.
The two most developed satirical characters in the series are
Denny Crane and Alan Shore. The former is portrayed by William
Shatner, who is of course known to one and all for his portrayal
of Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek. Earlier in his career
Shatner also played an earnest law clerk in the heavy-handed
film Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and an idealistic prosecutor
in For the People (CBS; 1965). In Boston Legal
Shatner's Denny Crane is a buffoonish lawyer, who seems to suffer
from some variety of dementia but who nevertheless continues
to believe he is "the greatest trial attorney that ever
lived." Crane frequently conveys this sentiment with the
simple phrase "Denny Crane." Yes, some lawyers are
a deluded, unduly self-impressed lot, and what's even more sobering
is that the inept courts and superficial legal system often defer
- or so Boston Legal tells us - to these delusions and
self-impressions.
James Spader plays the lawyer Alan Shore. Less recognizable for
viewers than Shatner, Spader has nevertheless strung together
a long list of acting credits, often playing characters with
a pathological side. Especially noteworthy in this regard is
his creepy performance in the film Sex, Lies, and Videotape
(1989). In Boston Legal Shore has left the firm of Young,
Berlutti & Fruitt of The Practice and joined the more white-shoe
Crane, Poole & Schmidt, where he has made his mark taking
(and usually winning) cases nobody else wants. Shore does not
let such things as integrity and honesty impede his practice.
His conduct and comments are a satire of the conduct and comments
of the ethically-challenged lawyer, who is the source of so many
jokes and cartoons in contemporary American culture. How are
lawyers different than vultures? Only lawyers qualify for frequent-flyer
mileage.
Boston Legal is only partially satirical, and it is not
the first primetime legal drama to satirize lawyers. Ally McBeal's
partner John Cage, after all, prepared for trial by listening
to Barry White tapes, and he was the best litigator in the firm!
However, the sustained excellence of the satire in Boston
Legal is notable, and when we finish laughing and smirking,
we might contemplate what the lawyer has come to symbolize in
our culture. Gone and perhaps not even remembered is De Tocqueville's
sense that lawyers were America's most honored and distinguished
profession, the symbolic elite of a democratic people. In contemporary
America they might and often do serve as the butt of satire.
Posted April 4, 2005
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