B.A.

"Smile"



Cast: James Spader, Julie Bowen, Mark Valley, Rene Auberjonois, Justin Mentell, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Candice Bergen, William Shatner.
Director(s): Bob Yannetti.
Producer(s): David E. Kelley, Bill D'Elia.
Writer(s): Corinne Brinkerhoff .

Original Airdate: February 14, 2006.

Crane, Poole & Schmidt

B.A.

The cat storyline was completely retarded.

At least Denny made me laugh.

As I was watching the credits I began to wonder when was the last time that we saw the black female attorney. The last thing I remember her doing was setting up the lawyer/reverend w/ her underwear.

MrX

The look on Denny's face when they were in the room with the cat and in the beginning when he was trying to get the girl to smile were great

Ranger

is denny getting paid to drink alcohol and pull quarters out of people's ears?

hope to see him back in the courtroom soon.

about the cat. I was just waiting for deniro to walk in and say stupid cat? how can you say that? that cat has been like a brother to you!

I had to laugh when alan called the private school board a bunch of inbred elites. and at his shock of the news that guy being a lawyer too and that the school had been sued several times but never successful.

the morning after case was ok but needed some comedy.

Decker

Wasn't the best. Plus two preachy soapbox issues in the same episode. Yawn.
What happened to the female first year associate? She's still in the credits but I haven't seen her in weeks.

Was this episode shown out of sequence? Brad refered to his bribe of Beverly as happening "last week" but that was three episodes ago. And the whole DA setup thing from last week was curiously absent from this episode.

pelenor

Was I the only one who was waiting for the mother to tell Alan that her daughter was THEIR daughter?

Chew

I fully expected it. That's why this show is good: it still surprises me.

As to episode order: the production number is showing as 2F12 at tv.com. The previous episode was 2F11, so it looks right?

tofu

Ain't it great to be a partner in the law firm? But he still cracks me up.

Still love Spader/Shore and his ability to be a "perfect bastard" He makes the episode for me. But he needs to get back another sexy secretary for him to have the sexual banter with.

Cusm

Betty White?!

Red Dog

Denny's reaction when the cat wouldn't die was priceless.

kvrdave

The politics was heavier than usual, but still a better episode than not having one.

Cancer Man

So is David E. Kelly vanishing up his own ass again, like he did with Boston Public and Ally McBeal?

MrX

How does one vanish up his or her own ass?

Cancer Man

I meant it as a metaphor; David E. Kelly has a pretty bad habit of making his shows too preachy and using them as podiums to express his own political leanings. Also he tends to wreck his shows with his bizarre and self indulgent ideas after a while.

tofu

Well, he has a nice, conservative yet outlandish character like Denny Crane to kind of balance out any liberal messages that he makes.

creekdipper

And we all know that conservatives are all egotistical nutcases such as Denny Crane.

Honestly, I understand the comment about David Kelly's shows. The guy has a flair for comedy and drama but can't held himself when it comes to preaching. In addition to the shows mentioned earlier, he did it with Picket Fences, too...an entertaining episode tended to be alternated with a preachy one. Less so with Boston Public, but it had its share of messages, too.

Kelly tries to be convincing in providing "balance" (usually allowing the viewpoints contrary to the "correct" view...his... to be presented briefly). However, he then 'helps' the audience to reach the 'correct' conclusion through loaded arguments, sappy music when presenting the plaintiff's tearful viewpoint, etc. It's a pretty successful propaganda technique, I'm sure...but it does get irritating. Imagine Lost or Desperate Housewives insinuating political storylines (lots of Bush-bashing as well...even at very odd and awkward moments) into its plots. I imagine people would get a little tired of that, too. We find Kelly to be a talented writer and entertainer when he sticks to the entertainment rather than preaching...especially since he revels in outlandish characters and situations which are rather inappropriately juxtaposed with his 'real-world' political observations...so much so as to be jarring at times. We usually look at each and roll our eyes when Kelly preaches to the audience through his characters (even when the 'moral' message doesn't seem to match their otherwise immoral/amoral behavior in their own lives). To be fair, it's a common practice in Hollywood...ER has been quite preachy for quite a while now and doesn't hestitate to make its points about liberal messages. Of course, as the political messages have increased, the dramatic impact has gone down...must be a correlation there. I imagine neither conservative nor liberal audiences want to be bombarded with 'messages' every time they sit down to relax. There are plenty of other venues for that on television.