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 thirty-something 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 whiz 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 after-work 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
Synopsis
The series tells of the professional and personal lives of a group of people who work for a law firm in America. Ally, as the central character adds to the events with her sometimes vivid daydreams. The episodes are: 'The Blame Game', 'Body Language', 'Once In A Lifetime', 'Forbidden Fruits', 'Theme Of Life', 'The Playing Field', 'Happy Birthday Baby', 'The Inmates', 'Being There' 'Alone Again' and 'These Are The Days'.
![Ally McBeal - Season 2 Part 2 [DVD] [1998]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4139ET04EKL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
