The one hundred and sixty-eighth TV show: #536 Ally McBeal
I can't quite put my finger on how I feel about Ally McBeal. There is a good ensemble show in there, with the supporting cast being excellent with some I never get enough of - Jane Krakowski, of course, who got us more, Peter MacNicol, and Portia de Rossi and Lucy Liu as new additions in the second season. There are times where you wish they could get more time. There's a bizarre sense of humour at times - I appreciate the dream sequences and other weird touches. Calista Flockheart's performance as Ally McBeal is just as good.
But the other side doesn't work. Ally's life as a single woman trying to find love falls flat. The second season's opening episode is a good example of that - we skipped ahead to that season to see whether the shake up would help - and it features Ally basically wanting a relationship with a minor. It is played quite stereotypically and, considering the episode revolves around a court case with this boy being in a sexual relationship with an adult, falls incredibly flat. The lawyer bits are same, feeling TV-unrealistic with the sudden revelations that don't normally happen, and this episode's sudden plea of insanity feels wrong. It means that the core the show revolves around, its drama writing, fails to connect with me, and it makes me wish we could see the ensemble dramedy version of this instead of the single woman focused drama series we get half the time.