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Boston Legal: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"You're thinking. I used to do that, but when you grow old, you realize what it's all about: Money."''|'''Denny Crane'''}}
''Boston Legal'' was a legal [[
Created by [[David E.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Accuse the
** Jeffrey Coho takes this [[Up to
** Alan does this in an [[Large Ham|overly melodramatic]] and obviously insincere manner during another trial, and tries to excuse it to the judge by saying he had to do ''something'' to distract the jury from the witness's damaging testimony.
** This is played straight in another episode where Katie Lloyd asks the husband of the victim if he was the murderer.
** Subverted in yet another episode, where Alan and Denny separately represent two sons who are both accused of killing their father. {{spoiler|They secretly agree to have both the boys accuse the other one of being the murderer while on the stand, while pretending that they each pulled this trick on the other. The jury can't decide if it was one boy or the other, or if it was both boys, or someone else entirely, creating reasonable doubt}}.
* [[Activist Fundamentalist
* [[Adrenaline
* [[Amoral
* [[And
* [[Asshole
* [[Audio
* [[Author
{{quote|'''Judge Weldon:''' Counsel, what are you doing?
'''Alan:''' ''*standing on crate*'' Getting on my soapbox, Your Honor, I do it once a week.}}
* [[Backdoor
* [[Berserk
* [[Better Than a Bare Bulb]]
* [[Bittersweet
* [[Black Widow]]: The firm once defended a woman who married for money whose husband turned up dead. {{spoiler|It's left ambiguous whether or not she actually killed him}}.
* [[Boring Invincible
{{quote|'''Alan:''' Do we win too much? Are we losing all suspense?}}
* [[Brother Chuck]]: Nearly every character besides Alan Shore, Denny Crane, and Shirley Schmidt.
* [[Bunny Ears
** How could people forget to mention that Shore is the trope namer?
** Literal in several cases.
* [[Canada, Eh?]]: Denny Crane, eh?
* [[Catch
{{quote|'''Denny Crane:''' Denny Crane!
'''Shirley:''' That's not a defense!}}
* [[Character
** It's a trick that legendary civil libertarian lawyer Clarence Darrow used to employ. No one since Darrow has ever come close to doing it right... Except the fictional Alan Shore.
** A father once pulled a gun on Alan at work after Alan agreed to represent the guy's ex-wife in a custody battle.
** The son of a woman whose accused murderer was cleared by Denny Crane and his father once took Denny Crane and much of the rest of the supporting cast hostage in order to stage the trial again.
* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]
* [[The Comically
** Shirley Schmidt is ''comparatively'' strait-laced compared to most of the loons on this show, even though her entrance into the series in an innuendo-laden discussion with Alan Shore is something of a [[Crowning Moment of
** Paul Lewiston is almost entirely devoid of a sense of humor.
* [[Courtroom
* [[Deadpan
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: In-universe. Paul Lewiston, when telling Shirley that they should fire Alan, mentions his last firm sued him. This case was detailed in the last-half of the ''[[The
* [[Oscar Bait|Emmy
* [[End of Series
* [[Evolving
* [[Friends with
* [[Frivolous
* [[From the
** To elaborate, ''The Practice'' ended with Alan joining Crane, Poole and Schmidt. ''Boston Legal'' begins with Alan having settled in for what must be a year (if you go by Alan's claim to have known Denny for six years in the series finale). The first season contains perhaps the most references to things that happened to Alan on ''The Practice'', given that there were more carry-over characters like Tara and Sally and Catherine Piper, than there were in later seasons.
* [[Funny
* [[Hanging
* [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?]]: Denny.
{{quote|'''Denny:''' ''[to Alan, as he fixes Denny's
'''Alan:''' I heard you the first Freudian slip.}}
* [[Head-Tiltingly
* [[Homoerotic
* [[Insufferable
* [[I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of
* [[I Won't Say I'm
* [[Just
* [[Kick the
** Alan Shore's abuse of Jerry's Asperger's Syndrome in "The Good Lawyer".
* [[The Killer Becomes the Killed]]:
** Patrice Kelly's daughter was murdered by a man who got off on not guilty on grounds of temporary insanity because he had skilled lawyers. So, she goes to Alan Shore to announce that she's going to kill the man and wants to be found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
** {{spoiler|Catherine}} kills {{spoiler|Bernard}}, who killed his mother and neighbor.
* [[Lampshade
* [[Last-Minute Hookup]]: Played with (to say the least) with Alan/Denny, and played straight with {{spoiler|Jerry/Katie + a [[Sealed with a
* [[Lighter and
* [[Like an Old Married
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: One moment they'll joke about Alzheimer's, then the next it will suddenly be a serious issue. For a supposed comedy show, it's disturbingly dark to have the first series finale end with {{spoiler|the sounds of a man gasping and struggling for his life as he's about to be executed while the credits roll}}.
* [[Motor Mouth]]: Alan Shore.
* [[Nasty
* [[Nice
** ...[[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Bunny ears...]]
* [[No Fourth Wall]]: This show was created with none installed.
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*** And, of course:
{{quote|'''Denny''': Welcome to ''[[Title Drop|Boston Legal]]''... [[Theme Music Power-Up|Cue the music]]! [The opening credits begin to roll inter-cut with shots of Jeffery Coho looking absolutely stupefied].}}
* [[No Sense of
* [[Not Love
* [[Obfuscating
* [[Off on a
* [[Once an
** Not true. In several episodes of season one they do not. They started that in Season Two.
* [[Only Sane
** So, really, it's more like Denny Crane and Alan Shore are the Only Insane Men.
* [[Overcrank]]: Usually occurs partway into a character walking to the next scene. Everything starts off normal, then as they round the corner, everything slows to increase the drama.
* [[The
* [[Practice
* [[The
* [[Refuge in
* [[Revolving Door
* [[Running
* [[Sarcasm
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have
* [[Sinister
* [[Smug
* [[Southern-Fried
* [[Spin-Off]]: Of ''[[The
* [[Straight
* [[Strawman Political]]: Alan Shore very frequently goes up against broad conservative caricatures, and always wins. Oddly, he himself resembles the conservative straw man of a corrupt liberal trial lawyer.
** Denny Crane is a straw man political caricature of a conservative gun nut, although this did allow him to save the day a few times. Keeping guns in your office seems so much less crazy when you just used them to shoot the man about to kill your friends.
** The show is more than self-aware enough to strawman consciously, and the real beauty of it is its use of the basic fact that a lawyer is supposed to advocate for his client: Alan is a liberal, but he's not always on the liberal side of the case, and Brad, a conservative, passionately defends a number of liberal causes. Denny, for his part, is very good at avoiding cases he doesn't want, up to and including {{spoiler|''shooting his client''}}.
* [[Sympathetic
* [[Take
* [[Theme Tune
* [[Third Person
* [[Verbal Tic]]: Lincoln has a particularly noticeable one. He uses heavy emphasis every time he says "Shirley Schmidt" (and he says it ''a lot''). It doesn't really help that the camera almost always zooms in on his face when he says it.
* [[Voice of Dramatic]]: James Spader's voice can make the most [[
* [[Wanting Is Better Than
* [[Wholesome
* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: Alan Shore is terrified by clowns.
* [[Will They or Won't They?]]: Alan/Shirley, and Jerry/Katie: {{spoiler|it looked, for a while, like Jerry and Katie wouldn't, but according to this page, they do}}.
** Alan and Shirley on the other hand, {{spoiler|don't}}.
* [[You Look
* [[Your Approval Fills Me with
----
'''''[[Say My Name|Denny
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[[Category:Law Procedural]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the
[[Category:Moving Picture
[[Category:American Serie[[Category:TV Series]]]
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[[Category:Boston Legal]]
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