The Practice virgin’s diary – Now it’s just getting stupid

(Season 7, Episodes 11-12)

With the end of the show in sight, the writers and producers of The Practice clearly felt that there were a slew of messages left that they’d yet to scream in our faces. So instead of tricky cases and substantiated verdicts, we get inundated with ludicrous cases and asinine verdicts. Awesome.

7.11 “Down the Hatch”

Gregory Itzin was a different kind of actor before he became king of evil presidents on 24, a lot more low-key and subtle. Here he appeared defending a brewery being sued for fraud that resulted in the death of a young man. The fraud? Not listing all of the dangers associated with alcohol in their advertising. We’re not talking their ignoring the legal warning requirements, we’re talking their being expected to essentially put a poison symbol on their labels. Ridiculous, right?

No, what was ridiculous was that the case made it out of the show’s writers’ room. What was ridiculous was that Eugene’s client passed on a settlement offer of $1.6 million before verdict. What was ridiculous was that the jury found the brewery guilty, and ordered it to pay $700,000 in compensatory damages and $125 million in punitive. Whatever little it had left, at this point the show’s lost all credibility. They’re just shooting the moon now.

Ellenor was approached with an interesting case. The warden of a women’s prison came to her seeking her help in staying an execution. He was pro the death penalty, but believed that the inmate, Denise (Alfre Woodard), was really no longer the same person she was when she murdered two young boys. Why? Because now that she was on a cocktail of medications she was no longer crazy. These cases never have any hope of success, but thus far they’ve all proven interesting either from a legal, or a dramatic, perspective.

7.12 “Final Judgment”

The opportunity for a “teaching moment” was lost as soon as a judge found Denise to be insane following Ellenor’s ploy to take her off of her meds and get her execution stayed on the grounds that she was crazy. Harry Lennix did a great, albeit ultimately futile, job arguing for the AG’s office.

The one bright spot came when Ellenor’s request to force medicate Denise on the grounds that keeping her insane was cruel and unusual punishment was denied. But that her execution was ultimately stayed, and her sentence reduced to life in prison, was completely bogus, and legally baseless. I was disappointed in how little effort was put into making this one believable.

The settlement on the brewery case pitted Eugene against Bobby once again. Bobby lost it when he told the client that they could be sued for Donnell and Associates share of the verdict … funny that Jimmy was the voice of reason, he of the bank fraud escapade. Even so, in the end the firm’s client walked away with $3.2 million of the brewery’s money, because the company sold beer that the client’s dead son had started his life of alcoholism by drinking. What does that teach us?

Okay, TV doesn’t need to provide life lessons. But a show about the law should reflect the justice system at least somewhat, even if it is meant to show us where the legal system could or should be heading. It needs to be grounded in something real.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Aug 06, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT