Boston Legal - The Complete Third Season (DVD)

The first season of "Boston Legal" blew the doors off, the combination of William Shatner and James Spader was better than you ever could have imagined. It was witty, not too over the top, basically it was just right. The second season stumbled. The writing got lazy with the introduction of the Asbergers inflicted Jerry Espenson (Christian Clemenson) . With Jerry's introduction the show started to lose what little believability it had and I had heard through the grapevine that trend continued into the third season, and it does, but not for too long.

There are very few build-ups or cliffhanger moments in "Boston Legal"; this is a show that takes it episode-by-episode. Occasionally we will have cases continue on from episode to episode such as the aging killer Bernard in the first and second seasons and new character Lincoln Meyer here in the third, but for the most part each episode introduces a new case while carrying on the lives of the employees and Crane, Poole and Schmidt.

The first eight episodes of the third season pretty much pick up where the second left off, too much Jerry getting into ridiculous amounts of trouble involving life-sized dolls, sexual surrogates, Scientology troubles and so on. Fortunately Jerry is trying to form his own firm and the Scientology episode sort of works as does his improving ability to actually be a lawyer despite is affliction.

Another problem with the second season was the way the writers escalated the nonsense Alan Shore (Spader) and Denny Crane (Shatner) would get involved with. In the first season it was interesting in funny; in the second season it became annoying and tedious due to how insane it all was. For the most part that is cleared up here in the third season including a season long storyline involved Denny's relationship with a little person played by the 4' 3" Bethany Horowitz. The real reason it works so well is due to Bethany's great acting ability, but considering she already played a lawyer on "Family Law" this is old hat, the upside is she gets to play with this one a little more. Of course the 3-4 episode storyline involving her mother played by Delta Burke is annoying, but you win some and lose some.

The great additions to the third season involved Constance Zimmer as Claire Simms and Craig Bierko as Jeffrey Coho. Both are welcome additions even if one of them isn't with us by the time the season ends. I was a bit neutral on the inclusion of Gary Anthony Williams who plays a range of characters as he uses various personalities to get his feelings across. This involves him dressing as a woman to play Clarice and even Oprah, but for the most part you see him as Clarence Bell. Lucky for him, the other characters make Clarence a welcomed character since the other personalities are complete throwaways.

This seven disc set includes all 24 season three episodes and two featurettes, one focusing on the actors that play the judges on the show and then another that features some of the bit players that show up for an episode or two. The featurettes are pretty much worthless as the show itself is the real reason you are picking this one up.

While I wouldn't say the third season is particularly stellar as the first season was, it is definitely an improvement over the second. However, I am anxious to see the fourth season as John Larroquette and Saffron Burrows have joined the cast. Hopefully the writers can regain the magic that made this show special in the first place.