Alan SHORE: Isn’t it grand… We do these things that seem completely absurd and then, incredibly, we manage to make them not only watchable, but fun and informative. Aren’t you just dying to see how we do it, this time? Yes, we certainly are!
This sums-up the series better than I can and Shore (deftly played by James SPADER) manages to be a cross between Atticus Finch (the lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird) and Don Quixote and inevitably getting up most people's noses in the process. Still tilting at windmills in condemning the death penalty, protecting Black defendants from the institutional racism of the US legal system and, most of all, condemning the inherent bigotry of organized religion.
This is the best of contemporary television viewing at whose core lies a profound deliberation on the nature of male friendship as well as the essential humanity inherent in the concepts of Tolerance and Acceptance. This friendship is explored despite the difference in their ages and political outlook. Much of the dramatic conflict here is between love and work; friends and career.
The characterizations and style moves with disarming ease from the distinctly surreal to the tear jerkingly poignant; with plots deriving straight from newspaper headlines. This is especially true concerning the current moral crisis in the USA concerning its failure to respond adequately to 9/11 – or to even truly want to understand the foreign policy implications of such an event. Instead a kind of running around like headless chickens mentality prevails and anyone who disagrees is labeled un American, unpatriotic and has their telephone tapped. This move towards an effective police state is well represented throughout this comedy drama series. Yet, this show - itself - proves not all Yanks believe that such a state of affairs is the best and most sensible path forward – especially in the long run.
The phrase that also best describes this series is: Many a true word spoken in jest. Approaching difficult subjects with humor offers insight into jocularity's true purpose.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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