The Practice virgin’s diary – George Vogelman, in a nun’s habit, with a butcher’s knife

by Aryeh S.

(Season 4, Episodes 1-3)

I’m still trying to figure out the timeline of the beginning of this season versus the end of the last. It’s long enough that Lindsay’s out of the hospital, but short enough that she’s still feeling the physical scars of her attack. Considering that the perpetrator is still out there, and that this was a crime that involved an ADA’s best friend, the arrest of a judge, and the death of a known criminal, hopefully they didn’t just wait the four month summer hiatus to pick things up again. Can we trust that the criminal justice system in Boston is more efficient than that?

4.1 “Free Dental”

Only Fonzie (Henry Winkler) could be sympathetic as a dentist with a bug fetish, accused of murdering a patient. Well, maybe not sympathetic, but less than cringe-worthy, so at least a step in the right direction that no one else could have managed. The entire case was a bit odd for a season premiere (and what was with the grape jelly angle?), and I wasn’t quite sure why Bobby AND Lindsay had to be there to help Jimmy. Do they just always come as a pair now?

New ADA addition Richard Bay (Jason Kravits) seems to be the latest in a long line of ADAs who are looking to “make Donnell and Associates pay” for winning so many cases against the district attorney’s office. Maybe it’s time to cast a new role….

George Vogelman returned yet again, newly evicted from his co-op. I don’t like the guy, but how could he be evicted when he’s an innocent man? A jury only delivers a verdict, not public opinion, but shouldn’t we have law upon law in place to protect the innocent, including those once suspected to be guilty but found to be not by a jury of their peers? Don’t get me wrong … he definitely murdered Susan Robin, and likely stabbed Lindsay, but he’s been found guilty of no crime; how can he be treated like a pariah?

4.2 “Boston Confidential”

Jimmy remained embroiled in the Olson (Winkler) trial, or rather the sentence that Winkler’s character received. His scheming brought Judge Kittleson back into things, a situation that’s just getting weirder. Can’t Jimmy be in a relationship that isn’t with a judge who was once dreaming of Bobby, and is a little crazy?

Anyway, Jimmy decided to break privilege, which led Olson’s son, the real guilty party, to commit suicide. It’s nice when you meddle, right Jimmy? The episode highlights the weakest link in the series: no matter how devastated Jimmy was about the situation, no matter how committed he was to getting his friend out of prison, and no matter how mad Olson was about Jimmy’s breaking privilege, it’ll all be forgotten by next week, like 85% of these things on The Practice. I love how many things are recognized as not being simple, but then why do they get left by the wayside once the main plot point (the son’s suicide, in this case) is over with?

Interesting Fourth Amendment violation case for Helen and Bobby (and of course, tag-along Lindsay). It was a great setup by the husband, and if only he’d left town to deal with his “grief,” and had his girlfriend/the cop meet him after quitting the force “in shame,” it would have been a happy ending for them. But I’m not so sure I agree that Bobby called and left that message for Lindsay knowing that Helen would get it. It’s another instance of our being told that something is true without seeing it happen on screen.

Did anyone else think that Helen and Ellenor living together was a good idea? Or that Lindsay moving in with Bobby was a better one?

4.3 “Loser’s Keepers”

I knew it! George is sick, the killer, and Ellenor is an idiot for not seeing it. It literally took him appearing at Ellenor’s door in a nun’s habit for her to see it. It was, however, a little too spick-and-span for Helen to just kill him. Maybe this will scar her, but I expected more of a prolonged captive situation, and then maybe a battle in court — you know, this being a legal drama and all. Like, the firm being forced to watch a defense attorney get him off, as they themselves do for criminals every week, and maybe then, when he came for Ellenor six episodes from now, have Helen kill him.

I’m not surprised that Lindsay’s still scarred from her attack, but for it to only come up three episodes into the season? It’s one of these convenient revelations that generally mean it just slipped everyone’s minds beforehand. I think it’s a bit sloppy, and reads as being a little too convenient when it does finally come into play.

Rebecca’s case was billed as a return to the courtroom of biased and hard-nosed Judge Swackheim (Paul Dooley), but instead I saw it as an interesting case of what people struggling to get by will do for money. And how hard some will fight to make sure that those people don’t throw their lives away for an easy buck. But what happens to Ronnie (Steven Kozlowski) now? Will this be another case of “we’ll never know?”

Who had Judge Kittleson naked in Jimmy’s bedroom when he and six cops burst in, guns drawn? Not I.