KELLEY'S CREATIVE WELL DRYING UP.Byline: David Kronke TV Critic Tonight's season premieres of ``Ally McBeal'' and ``Boston Public'' may inspire a sense of deja vu among viewers, as David E. Kelley, creator of both series, seems to be running on fumes fumes odorous gases and other volatile materials; inhalation of irritating fumes causes coughing and, if sufficiently severe, irreversible pulmonary edema. : He employs the exact same provocations in both shows' respective episodes. Calista Flockhart, who is paid a handsome sum to play Ally, has complained in interviews that she's tired of her character's dithering Simulating more colors and shades in a palette. In a monochrome system that displays or prints only black and white, shades of grays can be simulated by creating varying patterns of black dots. This is how halftones are created in a monochrome printer. romantic woes, and if she can't be bothered to care, who among us can? Tonight, Ally meets her doppelganger doppelgänger Psychiatry A delusion that a double of a person or place exists elsewhere; it is related to other defects in recognition and suggests organic disease in the nondominant parietal lobe. See Depersonalization disorder, Schizophrenia. in Jenny (Julianne Nicholson), a frazzled, fetching attorney with man trouble; she hires her to join the firm without consulting with Fish (Greg Germann), who has hired Jenny's ex-boyfriend Glen (James Marsden) - which is essentially where this series began, when Ally joined the firm, unaware her former lover was a partner. It's as if Kelley is simply hitting the reset button. The case is a capricious one - a class-action suit against the phone companies for harassment while soliciting business - and the subplot sub·plot n. 1. A plot subordinate to the main plot of a literary work or film. Also called counterplot, underplot. 2. A subdivision of a plot of land, especially a plot used for experimental purposes. is hoary hoar·y adj. hoar·i·er, hoar·i·est 1. Gray or white with or as if with age. 2. Covered with grayish hair or pubescence: hoary leaves. 3. , as John (Peter MacNicol) mistakenly believes Ally's in love with him. Ally consults with an eccentric therapist, who suspects that she is trying to protect Jenny from evolving into the full-blown neurotic Ally is today, and we can empathize em·pa·thize v. To feel empathy in relation to another person. : One's more than enough. To further underscore Kelley's crisis of imagination, he tries to eke out jokes by using a word for male genitalia genitalia /gen·i·ta·lia/ (jen?i-tal´e-ah) [L.] the reproductive organs. ambiguous genitalia not usually employed in the country's better courtrooms, as well as a fairly queasy QUEASY - An early system on the IBM 701. [Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)]. gag involving Ally and self-gratification (I'm fairly sure the mortification MORTIFICATION, Scotch law. This term is nearly synonymous with mortmain. on Flockhart's face in those scenes is not acting). For bad measure, Kelley resorts to the same ostensibly comic gambits on the season premiere of ``Boston Public,'' which scarcely earns Thomas Newman's classy new theme music. ``Boston Public'' was probably the most schizophrenic new series of last year - it veered wildly between serious, compelling drama, and obvious and frankly idiotic comedy, shoehorning Shoehorning is a ploy alleged by skeptics to be used by psychics as a way to make it sound like their prophecies or those of earlier prophets had come true. The process involves taking an earlier prophecy and attempting to affix a current event to it, with the event apparently romance in wherever it could. Not much seems to have changed - Harry (Nicky Katt) still resorts to unorthodox methods to keep his unhinged charges in check, prompting principal Harper's (Chi McBride) umpteenth declaration of ``I don't even know where to begin on this one.'' The big news on this series is Jeri Ryan's addition as a limousine liberal's fever dream, a hotshot corporate attorney and friend of Harry's who leaves the good life to join him in trying to make a difference in these kids' miserable lives. Speaking of miserable, there's a bizarre subplot carried over from last season, involving a mother-son combo in which it's tough to tell who's the more abusive: Mom's hand has been sawed off, and the kid brings it to school as a science project. Memo to Kelley: This is ``Boston Public,'' not ``Ripley's Believe It or Not.'' This storyline threatens to wind up in David Lynch land. Elsewhere, Lauren's (Jessalyn Gilsig) suspension for carrying a gun has been mysteriously dropped, while Guber (Anthony Heald), the show's most complex character last season - he was simultaneously exasperating and highly sympathetic - has been reduced to a caricature, virtually drooling drooling the discharge of saliva from the mouth. A normal feature in some breeds of dogs such as St. Bernard, Newfoundland and English bulldog, presumably because of their loose, pendulous lips. whenever Ryan shares a scene with him. (In case you're wondering, it takes scarcely any time at all before a gag refers to Ryan's anatomy, which is likely the first chance Kelley got to make a breast joke, since he usually casts extremely attenuated Attenuated Alive but weakened; an attenuated microorganism can no longer produce disease. Mentioned in: Tuberculin Skin Test attenuated having undergone a process of attenuation. actresses.) ``Ally McBeal'' has sort of been coasting for a while now (notwithstanding last season's Robert Downey Jr. storyline), but it's a little early in the game for ``Boston Public'' to resort to such desperate measures to keep audiences engaged. ``ALLY McBEAL'' What: Fifth-season premiere of the adventures of Time magazine's former poster girl for feminism. The stars: Calista Flockhart, Greg Germann, Jane Krakowski, James Marsden, Julianne Nicholson, Regina Hall. Where: Fox (Channel 11). When: 9 tonight. Our rating: Two stars ``BOSTON PUBLIC'' What: Second-season premiere of David E. Kelley's high-school dramedy. The stars: Chi McBride, Jessalyn Gilsig, Nicky Katt, Anthony Heald, Jeri Ryan, Michael Rapaport. Where: Fox (Channel 11). When: 8 tonight. Our rating: Two and one half stars CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1) Calista Flockhart begins her fifth season as the neurotic title character on ``Ally McBeal.'' (2) The storyline of new ``Ally'' cast member Julianne Nicholson seems a bit familiar. (3) Jeri Ryan, center, assimilates to the teacher's life in ``Boston Public,'' with fellow new cast member Michael Rapaport, right, and Chi McBride. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion