La La Land

La La Land was a 6-part British mockumentary comedy starring Marc Wotton, English comedian playing all three heightened characters. The show was broadcast in 2010.

What is the show about?

The series follows three Brits trying to make it big in Hollywood; the three characters never intersect with each other. The series follows Shirley Ghostman, a fake, conniving psychic; Gary, an actor; and Brendan, a Michael Moore type horrible documentary filmmaker. The show is very similar to the movie, Borat. Everything you see in the series is entirely improvised, and Marc Wotton will push and cross the line making the people he interacts with loose their shit or at least cause discomfort. 

Why should you watch this series?

It won’t take much commitment to sit down and watch this hilarious and at times so inappropriate, it’s funny series. The show is only 6 episodes long, running half an hour each and it’s fucking brilliant. It relies a lot on cringe, awkward humour, which is the best kind.

Marc Wotton knows his characters; after all they are of his own creation. Wotton has the freedom to do whatever he wants in this show. My favourite character in the entire series is Shirley Ghostman. Shirley is a flamboyant, fraudulent, self-proclaimed “psychic”, there’s nothing he won’t do to try and get ahead in Hollywood. Ghostman lies, cheats, schemes and pushes a lot of buttons of everybody who has to deal with him.

The great thing about this series is that none of these scenes are set-up; the ordinary people Wotton’s character deals with are not in on the joke, they take his questionable actions very seriously and when he crosses the line they get very upset and offended. Marc Wotton plays it completely straight with all his characters.

Watch this show, you won’t regret it. 

 

The Drew Carey Show

Drew Carey is someone I saw on my television screen on a weekly basis as I was growing up.  I would watch him host the American Version of Whose Line Is It Anyway and then I would of course watch his show, simply titled as The Drew Carey Show.  It ran from 95 – 04, Nine Seasons.

Drew Carey and Bruce Helford are responsible for brining this show into existence.

The show stars Drew Carey, Ryan Stiles (Lewis), Diedrich Bader (Oswald), Kathy Kinney (Mimi), Christa Miller (Kate), and Craig Ferguson (Mr. Nigel Wick)

What is the show?

Drew Carey plays a version of himself, he works a mundane, cubicle, go nowhere job. Carey is the everyman, down on his luck, nice guy. Drew Carey is someone you could relate to, the show centres around him and all his crazy group of friends and relatives. Hilarity often ensues.

Why should you watch this show?

The Drew Carey Show broke all the rules of your typical sitcom. It breaks the fourth wall and has themed and musical episodes. The show featured live, improvised episodes every other year, featuring members from the Whose Line cast. They were often hit or miss. The show was never nominated for a single Emmy, so Carey decided to do an episode to address this; full of over the top “Emmy Award winning” storylines. These types of episodes were brilliant. “What’s Wrong With this Episode?” was another set of themed episodes they would run year to year. They would purposely make obvious and subtle mistakes for the audience to spot and win prizes.

The show would feature big musical numbers to serve the storyline in some capacity. For a show made in the 90’s, these numbers were pulled off flawlessly. The numbers were very entertaining to watch, the chorography was nothing special but they were very engaging and worked for a sitcom format.

Drew Carey’s brother, Steve (John Carroll Lynch), a tall, bald man was introduced season three, who happened to be a cross dresser. A cross dresser! The big masculine man you would least expect to be a cross dresser was a cross dresser! That’s when I said this show is brilliant. The brother wasn’t gay and he wasn’t really effeminate in any way, he just happened to love wearing women’s clothes. They didn’t make a big deal out of this, it wasn’t really mentioned, and it wasn’t even used as a punch line all that often. However, by season five Steve stopped wearing women’s clothes when he started dating Drew’s nemesis, Mimi. The subject of Steve not wearing women’s clothes was rarely discussed, unfortunately. It was a part of Steve’s character from the very beginning and have it not even come up ever again felt like a betrayal.

Drew could never catch a break; he rarely had a happy ending with both his work and relationship problems. His boss, Mr. Wick played by the brilliant Scottish, now talk show host, Craig Ferguson would continually abuse his power and was like an evil genius, even inheriting an evil laugh throughout the series. Mr. Wick was an alcoholic, which Drew would shamelessly use to his advantage.  Mr. Wick would manipulate Drew Carey’s good nature on a regular basis, even marrying him so he could score a green card to stay in the country.

Ryan Stiles’ Lewis and Diedrich Bader’s Oswald were inseparable; they were like a whole other show in itself.  Lewis worked for a drug testing company that would be an ongoing gag throughout the series. If someone had something wrong, Lewis would suggest a new drug that may turn you into a monkey but would probably solve your problem. One of my favourite episodes of the series was “DrugCo” (Season 4, Episode 20) where you find out what DrugCo is actually doing with its science experiments. Oswald was the loveable, fun, good-natured dumb guy. I loved Lewis and Oswald’s friendship; they were often mistaken as a gay couple and would act like an old married couple. They even lived together; they built their first house together, inseparable to the very end, possibly one of the best comedy duos of the past couple of decades.

While The Drew Carey Show followed the situation sitcom formula, it would deviate from the typical sitcom reality. When watching certain episodes of Drew Carey, you will have to park your logic at the door; the show would regularly set itself in a heightened reality. The show eventually ran itself into the ground, by not living with the philosophy ‘quality not quantity’. I think it simply ran out of ideas by the end of its seventh year. I would consider the first 7 seasons ‘must watch TV before you die’.

The Drew Carey Show was a unique sitcom with fun loving characters you want to see succeed.  

The Practice (Part 2)

Jason Kravits was introduced season four as Assistant District Attorney, Richard Bay. He was Bobby Donnell’s rival for the next two seasons. The audience was originally predisposed to hate Richard Bay; he was continually up against big lawyers like Eleanor Frutt and Bobby Donnell who would call him a midget because of his short stature. He once kicked Eleanor in Judge’s chambers. Richard Bay was devoted to the law and believed he was convicting for all the right reasons. He also had a crush on fellow attorney, Helen Gamble who rejected him on many occasions.

By the end of season five, Bay was in a heated trial prosecuting a man who had connections on the outside. Richard Bay received a death threat from the man he was prosecuting, he thought nothing of it and was eventually assassinated in a parking lot. This was one of the best season finales the show ever delivered, it made you feel saddened, anger and most importantly made you turn against the lead characters that defended the man that was responsible for the death of Bay. I’m not aware of many shows that can do that sort of thing. It shines a pretty ugly spotlight on the characters you’ve rooted for and spent seasons watching.

The show featured some of the best public, open court meltdowns by clients and supposed professional lawyers alike. The dialogue was sharp and spot on. 

I could start to tell that the show started to run on fumes by mid season six, season seven; it became repetitive by this point. How many times can Lindsay defend a killer, only to be stalked weeks after the trial?  You could tell when the show was jumping the shark or phoning it in; I’m looking at you “Man and Superman” episode! By the end of season seven, ABC (which The Practice was broadcast) was making budget cuts, and almost the entire cast was fired.

In 2004, McDermott, Williams, Hamilton, Boyle, and Sokoloff were let go, leaving Harris, Manheim, and Badalucco the only original cast members remaining. Then when you think they’ve finally run out of ideas and they’re dead in the water, The Practice came back kicking with a fucking brilliant final season.

This is when THE JAMES SPADER came into creation as the ethically challenged Alan Shore. Shore had no remorse; he would blackmail, hack into personal email accounts, impersonate airline executives, extort, and resort to bribery. Eleanor, one of Alan’s best friends called him self-destructive. He was on a dark path and unknowingly taking the entire firm down with him.  The show shifts its focus almost entirely on this new character, leaving the original cast members to almost fade into the background. Alan Shore monopolised the firm in his big murder trial, he would come to blows with Jimmy on more than one occasion.

Although Alan Shore is a despicable character, the writing and performance by Spader make you love him. The show turns the tables on the original characters and makes you nearly despise them for continually undermining Shore’s unethical acts. Alan Shore brings in a lot of business and is eventually fired by Eugene for his questionable actions while working for the firm. Needless to say, Shore takes the firm for everything they have with the help of Denny Crane played by the larger than life, William Shatner. Alan Shore is later featured in the very different comedy/drama spinoff, Boston Legal,  which I will inevitably discuss on this blog.

Season Eight has to be one of the best TV seasons I’ve ever seen, for a final season, this does not disappoint. Season Eight has to be saluted for reinventing the show completely and starting fresh, while still continuing threads from previous seasons.  It delivers on story, drama, comedy provides rich characters, and does something different from previous seasons. All characters are given a great send off and pretty much every loose end is tied.

The Practice (Part 1)

The Practice is a show that ran from 97 - 04, initially a mid season replacement, I don't think anyone expected it to run one season let alone eight.

David E. Kelley made famous for working on shows like L.A. Law, Chicago Hope, and Doogie Houser is responsible for this creation. 

The show featured a large ensemble cast that consisted of Dylan McDermott  (Robert Donnell), Kelli Williams (Lindsay Dole), Lisa Gay Hamilton (Rebecca Washington), Steve Harris (Eugene Young), Camryn Manheim (Eleanor Frutt), Michael Badalucco (Jimmy Berlutti), Marla Sokoloff (Lucy Hatcher), and Lara Flynn Boyle (Helen Gamble).

What is the show?

The Practice is about a group of defence attorneys working in a small, struggling law firm in Boston, lead by the stoic Bobby Donnell. These defence attorneys often represent the vilest of criminals.  They are often conflicted with ethics and morality when it comes to representing their clients. The show also features the point of view from the prosecutions side in Assistant District Attorney, Helen Gamble alongside Richard Bay (Jason Kravits) & Kenneth Walsh (Bill Smitrovich).

The Practice was heavy on serialisation and was not afraid to go places where other shows ordinarily wouldn’t go on a week-to-week basis.  This was a dark show.

Why should you watch this show?

This show was simply brilliant. It took a lot for me to get into this show at first; the first two seasons were at times very dull.  However, season two offered up very meaty episodes involving a client named Joey Heric played brilliantly by John Larroquette. Heric was a narcissistic gay man who would befriend men then ultimately killing them, just so he could stand trial.  Heric would attempt to sensationalise every case he was involved in throughout the series.

Larroquette wasn’t the only compelling guest star to darken the doors of The Practice.  Linda Hunt would recur as Judge Hiller, a prim and proper judge that would often butt heads with the firm. Her performances were outstanding, she would get into yelling matches with Bobby Donnell which were compelling to see unfold. Most times it was like watching a one-act play.

Once you get past the first two seasons, the show goes from mediocre legal procedural to a ‘must watch’ serialised, legal thriller. The show no longer was bound down to simple ‘case of the week’ television. There would often be two or three on going storylines that could expand and grow over the course of nine episodes. It would show you the point of views from the defence attorneys, the prosecution and judges. The show would show every aspect of a legal case including the crime, the hiring, arraignment, pre-trial, to trial to appeal, sometimes it would even show jury selection.

There were more compelling and complex characters introduced, including the Emmy winner Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men) as Judge Roberta Kittlelson, an elderly woman who was a very lonely soul. Roberta began a relationship with Jimmy, who was a much younger man. They had great chemistry and weren’t your usual TV couple you’re accustomed to seeing on your screens. The relationship was dropped (assumedly off-screen) and never spoken of again, which was very strange.

Michael Emmerson (LOST, Person of Interest) was introduced as William Hinks, one of Lindsay Dole’s clients she got off, and ultimately stalked her for half a season. Emmerson’s portrayal of Hinks was Emmy Award winning. He was creepy, yet comical at the same time. Still one of the best performances I’ve ever seen from Michael Emmerson. 

I have to mention two of my favourite episodes from the series, maybe two of the best hours of television I’ve seen in a while; the first episode:

“Killing Time” (Season 6, Episode 2)
Charles S. Dutton guest stars as a man who is up for parole, in order to be released he has to ask for forgiveness and admit his guilt. He refuses, insisting he is an innocent man. Dutton delivers one of the best monologues I’ve ever seen on a TV show, he conveys both emotion and anger; it’s hard not to feel for the man.

The second episode:

“Day in Court” (Season 4, Episode 10)

Bobby defends an old client charged with murder. The trial gets out of hand very quickly that not even the judge can control. The client attacks the prosecution in open court, strangling her and even attacking his own lawyer. This episode is all about yelling. The defence, the prosecution, the judge are at each other like ravaged dogs. Paul Dooley who plays the judge in this episode delivers the best shouting and intense lines which made me think to myself: “Was he nominated for an Emmy for this performance?” Well, guess what? He was!

Other notable guest stars included Henry Winkler, Rene Auberjonois, Sharon Stone, Tony Danza, and Edward Herrmann.  

This is the end of Part 1 of my review of “The Practice”