I know, it’s not fashionable to talk about a TV show as if it’s art or fascinating.

As you know, though, I don’t care about perpetuating my “fantasy self” and pretending to believe that some TV is not absolutely terrific in every way.

Boston Legal is one of those shows. I was reluctant to give it a try, even though my wife had repeatedly tried to get me to go back and watch it from the beginning. In this Netflix/download culture, it’s so easy and enjoyable to go back and watch every episode of a show. It is something that TV execs never imagined even a decade ago. It’s revolutionized the way we watch television.

Boston Legal is one of those irreverent and funny shows that not only makes me think, but also laugh at the riduculousness of the universe it portrays. And it’s a universe I would enjoy being in.

James Spader as Alan Shore is sublime and preposterous. William Shatner and the rest are great, too, but James Spader is the best debauched liberal person I’ve seen on TV.

Spending so much time getting to know the idiosyncrasies of  the characters, only to have to bury them all intellectually.

(Before I digress, no other show captured the beauty and horror of this intellectual burial better than Six Feet Under. The last episode of that series was too epic to describe…)