Tuesday, November 09, 2004

CRAFTY WRITER'S TOOL: THE CONVO AT CROSS PURPOSES

Watched Boston Legal tonight on my PVR. Gosh that's a well written show! Spader is wonderful as the scummy lawyer you can't help admiring for his sheer lack of shame (I keep thinking of Jabba the Hutt: "HAH HAH HAH. YOU ARE MY KIND OF SCUM.") Shatner is hysterical as a self-aggrandizing blowhard Denny Quinn, a persona he's built for himself over the past few years (see the excellent Free Enterprise).

Many plot twists you are not expecting, and all of them plausible, and all of them emotionally satisfying.

There are also some very nice conversations at cross purposes. Rene Auberjonois as partner Paul Lewiston tries to talk to Denny Quinn about how he's been underbilling and not bringing in enough business; Quinn only wants to talk about his fear he's losing his mind to Alzheimer's. It's unclear whether either of them is listening to the other, but what Quinn says in not responding to Lewiston is so much more revealing than anything he could say in response to Lewiston's accusations; and their mutual refusal to come to grips with each other's points says worlds about their personal relationship.

I wonder if I can spec this? It's first season, but it's a spin-off. And boy I could write one of these.

1:00 AM

1 Comments:

Nitpick time: it's not Denny Quinn, it's Denny Crane.

--Jeff

By  Anonymous, at 1:14 PM  

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