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Amazon.co.uk Review
Much lighter in tone than creator, producer and writer David E Kelley's other forays into legal drama LA Law, and The Practice, the slick thirtysomething series Ally McBeal has never been out-and-out comedy but it spikes its exploration of emotional territory with sharp funny lines. Ally (Calista Flockhart) is a kookie cutie, a ditzy, skinny, single lawyer and we are privy to scenes from her overactive imagination (courtesy of CGI), surrounded by larger-than-life peripheral characters--almost grotesques--like outspoken boss Richard Fish (Greg Germann), nervy courtroom wizz John "The Biscuit" Cage (Peter MacNicol) and nosy secretary Elaine Vassal (Jane Krakowski). In later series these characters (including popular newcomers Lucy Lui and Portia de Rossi as frosty law babes Ling and Nelle) would edge towards one-dimensional caricatures as the same ground was retrodden relentlessly, but in this first series there is something compelling about the intrusive dynamics of this group of oddballs. The point is you don't have to like them to find them entertaining. Ally herself can be extremely irritating in a love-to-hate-her kind of a way. She is a curious dichotomy, a 1990s woman with a go-getting career and a penchant for her own way and yet with the romantic ideals of someone from another generation. Basically still hung up on ex-boyfriend Billy (Gil Bellows) who works for same Boston practice, alongside wife Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith), Ally is on the look out for her Prince Charming. The first series and its lead both garnered Golden Globes, a lot of gossip and a healthy audience for the Fox television network in America. Channel 4 snapped it up for British audiences who were intrigued, not least by the unisex toilets and sophisticated afterwork bar soirées where chanteuse Vonda Shepherd was always to be found crooning away in the corner. All in all, Ally McBeal leaves you with the conundrum of wanting more but not being able to say why. --Emma Perry
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An amazing start to one of the smartest & funniest shows now,
By cobi@stupid.com (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ally Mcbeal - Season 1 Box Set 1 [VHS] [1998] (VHS Tape)
This is the series and the box set that began the phenomenon. This is the series that introduced us to the most interesting characters and the box set that introduced us to "Fishisms","McBealisms" and of course the unforgetable dancing baby. With the fascinating stories they conquer in every episode with the addition of Ally's attitude,Vonda's brilliant songs and voice and of course everybody's sensational acting it sets an amzing tone for the show: an utter masterpiece. This box set alone already covers the following subjects: Ass-grabing,Prostitution,Age Discrimination,Affairs,Shoplifting,Spermicidal Jelly,Obesity,Judaism,Lesbianism,Dirty Jokes, Transvestites,3-Way Marriage,Cigars and Big Schlongs. It's definately one hell of a show! A must buy!
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must,
By
This review is from: Ally Mcbeal - Season 1 Box Set 1 [VHS] [1998] (VHS Tape)
A must for any Ally fan and the casual viewer alike. Ally McBeal is one of those marvellous TV shows that just break the mould and make TV worth watching (like The X-Files). It is just absolutely hilarious. Buy it for your own sanity.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Revisiting "Ally" 14 years later,
By
This review is from: Ally McBeal - Season 1 Part 1 [DVD] [1998] (DVD)
I had forgotten that the early episodes of this series were a bit creaky. and at first Ally seemed
so young, goofy and nervous that she felt more like a teenager than a smart 27 year old lawyer. But by episode 5 or the show and the character finds it's stride. And if it doesn't quite measure up to the best 'grown up' TV of today, it still deserves praise for being one of the series that broke the mold of what a TV show was supposed to be in the US. It had an openness to complicated tones that seamlessly mixed wild, sometimes surreal humor, more subtle humor and drama, to long story arcs and not easily solved once a week problems, and to being more about character than event, making TV a more novelistic and sometimes cinematic medium in the process. Certainly Ally McBeal wasn't the first show to do any of these things, but it was one of the first shows that was a big success with these new approaches, and that helped paved the way for many of the best dramas dramadies and comedies on American TV in the years since. I'll admit, with years of even braver shows since, Ally McBeal no longer feels quite as special, and in fact now feels a little limited. Especially with DVDs allowing more than once a week viewing, a certain sameness to Ally's constantly fearful, broken heart and her funny/sad attempts to overcome it starts to plague the show. But there's still a lot to enjoy here. The performances are terrific from top to bottom, and every 'silly' character is given their serious and moving moments, and every 'serious' character is allowed to be laugh-out-loud funny at times. Special mention has to be made of Peter MacNichol's 'The Biscuit', one of the oddest, funniest characters to actually work brilliantly in any series. The writing is sharp and full of wit and pathos. The music is integrated in a way that was rare for TV before, but much imitated since, with montages to songs played and sung by Vonda Shepard (a great voice) who often also appears in the series as a singer at the lead characters favorite after hours watering hole. I do have to say, some of the music now feels, in retrospect, too on the nose. The songs chosen (or written) almost always have lyrics that are too spot on, too obvious a commentary on the action, That good and bad side to the music sort of sums up my perspective on the series looking at it again in 2011. I appreciate and admire it for what it gave us and TV, I still enjoy it, but I'm no longer just blown away by it ' not in a world of Breaking Bad, Weeds, Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, Arrested Development, etc. etc.
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