Boston Legal Season 1-5 Complete Collection

David Kelly (LA Law, Picket Fences, Ally McBeal) is one of the greatest writers and producers around. A real lawyer who got hired by genius writer-producer Steve Bochco (Hill Street Blues, LA Law, NYPD Blue). Boston Legal is IRREVELENCE to the maximum! An 0ff-shoot of the more serious The Practice (which I never got into, too serious) James Spader (Stargate the movie and more recently NBCs BLACKLIST) teams up with William Shatner (I am NOT Captain Kirk, I am Denny Crane and you're not!). Candace Bergen (I am NOT Murphy Brown, I am Ms. Schmidt and don't call me Shirley), John (I wish I was a Loofa) Laroquette and incidental characters like,Betty (Serial Killer) White, Roma Mafia, Henry Gibson, my friend Frank (I know you think I'm a hack actor) Birney. Dialog like: (Opposing lawyer): You did go to law school didn't you? Spader replying): Actually I got my degree on the Internet. Shatner (To Shirley's 17 year old grand-daughter): You're as hot as grand ma (Shirley) are you as dirty? Shirley's grand daughter (to Shirley): you were a suffragette, weren't you? Shirley (To her grand daughter) How OLD do you think I am!? Leave. Through the windows, it's faster! They take unwinnable cases before judges including the Supreme Court of the US. They take ridiculous cases, like Denny Crane pulling an illegal concelled weapon and shooting a black man. And him being defended using the Supreme Court ruling on the 2nd amendement. This series is a send up of LAW, LAWYERS and TV SHOWS, NETWORKS and SCHEDULING (Schatner to Spader as Denny Crane to Alan Shore "There must be some time slots we haven't used yet!" If YOU truly believe that all the lawyers in the world should be sent into the OCEAN to drown then Denny Crane and Alan Shore must lead the pack and they RULE this show! At the end of each show they sit on the balcony with Scotch whiskey and smelly cigars talking about Shirley Schmidt's Cheer Leader uniform from High School and all Denny can think about is Crane in POOLE with Schmidt! This show is to TV what M*A*S*H was to Theatrical MOVIES. This is Comedy/Drama of the ABSURD and David Kelley takes on EVERY taboo law case known to Man with Denny Crane and Alan Shore confronting the US Supreme Court without a CARE in the world! When all is said and done Denny and Alan have but ONE thought and that is to see Shirley in all her spendor to which Candace Bergen (Shirley) can't stop laughing about! The pervert lawyers at Crane, Poole and Schmidt aim to damp out racism, sexism, homophobia, government spying,false imprisonment, underage voting, under IQ death sentences and every other liberal cause you can think of from happening while they dwell on what it's like to lift Shirley's cheer leader skirt! You have to have a liberal sense of humor to like this show otherwise you'll take it too serioiusly.

I cannot rate the actual CDs themselves or the quality of the reproduction. This set was purchased as a birthday gift for my sister-in-law. All I can say about the vendor is that it was delivered on-time, well-protected by the packaging, and exactly as advertised new and in the shrink-wrap.HOWEVER, this is one HECK of a great show! It features cast of great stars and promising newcomers, and is funny, entertaining and thought-provoking throughout. For those of you who know William Shatner as Captain Kirk, getting to know him as the early-stage dementia-suffering lawyer Denny Crane is even more rewarding -- it may not be the role he was born to play, but it is the role he grew old to play. Candace Bergen as Shirley Schmitt is exquisite, and there are lots of other favorites among the cast, including the always delightful Julie Bowen at her very best. The Asperger's Syndrome sufferer Jerry Espenson (Christian Clemenson) is a portrayal full of heart and soul. I could go on and on and on and...But the main and most intriguing character is Alan Shore, portrayed by James Spader. Alan Shore is a truly complex character, a brilliant lawyer, a womanizing rake but riddled with insecurities and peccadilloes. He is an ethical cheat, an honest deceiver, a straight-shooting trickster, and lots of other oxymoronic conundrums. Although he himself is a truly compassionate liberal, his very close friendship with the archly right-wing Denny Crane is the dominant theme of the seriesI have always been under the impression that this show was cancelled because its willingness to address controversial political and legal issues was seen as too big of a risk for the network executives to tolerate -- sort of the same reason why the Smothers Brothers Show was cancelled back in the '60s. The cast obviously loved doing it, the producers (David E. Kelly) loved producing it, and the ratings stayed high throughout its run.But I LOVE this show and wish they were still making it. This is one good thing that there was never a danger of having too much of, and alas that we were left with far too little.

Boston Legal is an interesting show. Sometimes it's a drama, sometimes it's a comedy & sometimes it's just silly. At the time that the show aired I wasn't able to watch all the episodes and having them on DVD allowed us to binge watch the series and laugh all over again. James Spader & William Shatner play well off each other. I believe we first met them in Season 8 of The Practice, which is a series we'll have to see if we can find in it's entirety now. The show's main character is of course Alan Shore, a liberal Democrat, who takes on all sorts of cases and mostly wins them. His antics in court are funny. The show took on social issues of the day and pulled no punches. With the way that some characters came and went it's almost like several versions of the show but he main theme is the interaction between Alan & Denny. I wish some of the characters hung around longer and it was nice to see some of them back for the last season of the show. Christian Clemenson who played the role of Jerry Espenson portrayed the characters idiosyncrasies very well. Denny Crane maintained his perfect record & I did not recall Denny shooting so many people.Of all of Denny's shootings the one that was I think the best was when he was being mugged and he handed over his watch, wallet and pulled out a gun and shot his mugger in the knee, then right foot, then left foot. Don't mess with Denny.I especially enjoyed the Special Features including the one in which we learned of Denny's daughter. Sorry to see that it was cut from the episode but glad that it was included on the DVD. Too bad the episode Juiced was not made into a longer show. I suppose the only way to have included it would have been to make the episode into either a 2-hour show or a 2-part show to facilitate syndication.