I just watched some episodes of Ally McBeal and I have this to say about the show

[LynneSin]

I loved the show when it first came on but then I got a job where I had to work 3rd shift so I pretty much quit watching it after the 3rd season.

But I saw they had all 5 seasons of AMcB on Netflix so the past season I watched all of season #1, part of season #2 and then the finale because honestly I was curious to see how it all ended.

First, really - you're a law firm of a bunch of 20-something hot looking lawyers and the ONLY bar in all of Boston is some lounge that has a very annoying lounger singer there every single day of the week. I mean for those of us NOT from Boston this show gives a very poor reflection on the type of entertainment one could expect to find in Boston since it seems like this place was packed all the time. And not only did all the same people go there for happy hour but they seemed to be there for lunch, breaks AND dates. It's like there was absolutely NO OTHER places in Boston to go on a date other than that cafe that served horse meat (it was a case in season #2). Thankfully I've been to Boston and know that the people there have much better taste.

I have no clue how Jane Krakowski ever got another TV show after Ally McBeal. Don't get me wrong - I adore her on '30 Rock', which was a well written part catered to a very talented actress. But for 5 years this poor woman played this beautiful but extremely piss poor self-esteemed person who bragged about being a slut. Was Jane that hard up for a paycheck to play that same character for 5 years. Mind you've I never have seen any of season #4 and only the finale of season #5 so perhaps she was redeemed somewhere in between.

They could have given John 'The Biscuit' Cage his own TV show and I would have watched it without a doubt. Peter MacNichols is a very underrated actor in Hollywood.

I'm not sure if I loved or hated the finale. At one point I was in tears because they brought back Ally's ghost of her former dead first love. It was something straight out of 'Ghosts'. But basically the last finale was like Ally deciding that her daughter was stressed and she had to move RIGHT NOW to New York in order to save her. How Ally got a 10 year old daughter I don't have a clue but she had one. I'm not sure where in New York they were moving but it was some very remote, exotic location only accessible by airplanes that leave late at night from Boston. I mean she's moving and she's a lawyer - drive your car there or just take a damn train. I mean I assume her furniture and belongings would get there. And strangely enough a year after 9/11 it seems that you could board a plane at Boston Logan in less than 30 minutes since it was at night that she was leaving for the 10pm flight. And since it was warm enough for everyone to wear spring & summer dresses on that episode and when she said her final goodbyes after dark, my assumption is it was about 8:30-9pm when she said her goodbyes, walked back to her house where her 10 year old child lived, gather her up get to the airport AND thru security to catch the flight to the remote, exotic location in New York only accessible by airplanes that leave late at night from Boston.

My guess is I should quit while I"m ahead with watching any more episodes.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

1. I quit watching about the 2nd or 3rd season

I used to like it but I got tired of it relatively quickly and the "novelty" aspects of the show had already become irritating and annoying for me by the time I stopped actively watching it. That's quite often the problem with shows with unique concepts -they get can become boring rather quickly if not nutured properly

So keep in mind I'm only talking about the first one or two seasons here. I don't know about the later seasons

I actually liked Jane Krakowski and her role in it, albeit I thought she was slightly underused and she could be over the top at times.

I agree about Peter MacNichols -a very good but underrated actor

I didn't like the addition of Portia De Rossi and Lucy Liu to the show. Liu's character in particular seemed to be too much of the typical stereotype of the American-Asian woman which I found irritating. I think when they were added to the show, that in particular was when it started to go downhill for me

I largely agree with you about the annoying lounge singer. Her songs were meant to convey some special meaning relative to each episode but I don't know, in retrospect it probably just fell flat. But having one hang-out for the characters in a show is not uncommon -they do the same in several sitcoms and dramas -Murphy Brown and Happy Days come to mind -probably simply because of budget constraints

As for the finale, I can't comment on it. I'd lost interest by then and the rare snippets of the show I'd see in later seasons irritated the heck out of me, IIRC, so it's unlikely I'd be inclined to watch it. But, from what you've said about it here, it seems to me to be in keeping with the light on substance/realiy style and tone of the show so I'm not that surprised

I loved what I can remember of the eps from the first season -in fact I think I've still got some of them somewhere. But, as I said above, it got old fast for me

[LynneSin]

2. I understand the idea of a common hang out - typical of any TV Show

Last edited Wed Nov 14, 2012, 03:30 AM - Edit history (1)

But what I found annoying was this place was the ONLY hangout on the show. I mean when the lawyers went out on a date they ended up at the same exact bar with their date and there was everyone else from the workplace. I mean any show with a common hang out like 'Friends' with the Coffee Shop or 'Cheers' with the Bar or anything else - at least when they had a date they went elsewhere.

And I know this much - if I'm on a first date, I really don't want to be on that date while every one of my co-workers is hanging out.

And speaking of having your co-workers know everything. If I worked at an office where the bathroom was unisex and a common hangout for employees PLUS we had an extremely nosy legal secretary that was the town gossip, rest assure if I thought I was pregnant I'd do the pregnancy test at home where it's PRIVATE. Sure it made for a funny episode 'Is Georgia Pregnant' but really what woman who may or may not be pregnant let's all her coworkers in on the gossip that early in a pregnancy.

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. I only saw occasional episodes and I don't know what seasons they were, but...

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... for the most part I enjoyed the shows... and they were in the forefront (it seems to me now) of
the fantasy musical dance numbers that other shows of the time adopted ("Scrubs" did them VERY
well).
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I really liked the senior partner who preferred older women and had the "wattle" fetish.
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