“The Ass Fat Jungle”

“Gone”

“Legal Deficits”

James Spader is so good.

He rattled off a monologue to another lawyer that was absolutely off the charts. And he did it with such a ferocious gleam in his eyes that I was nearly intimidated sitting at home.

The was also one of the best scenes of the series in “Legal Deficits” where Denny Crane was examining Brad on the witness stand, after Brad had been arrested for cutting off a priest’s fingers in “Gone.” Brad was trying to help Denise, whose housekeeper’s son had been kidnapped by a pedophile. Brad and Denise did several thing that were anything but moral, including snatching the brother of the pedophile to get information out of him, pretend to be FBI agents and the aforementioned finger cutting.

The scene with Denny and Brad was so beautifully written that it was as clever of a scene as the show could offer.

“Legal Deficits” also saw the debut of Jerry “Hands” Espenson, who would become a much bigger part of the series moving forward. Jerry is shown to be on the Autism Spectrum, with a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome. Early connection to Alan would foreshadow what the characters’ future would entail.

In “The Fat Ass Jungle”, Shirley had to cross-examine a witness who had stage for Alzheimer’s Disease and she had to make her look confused to get her client off on the charge. It was clearly a dirty tactic for Shirley and she was conflicted with having to do it. We meet Shirley’s father at the end of the episode who is suffering from Alzheimer’s as well. David E. Kelley has used Alzheimer’s several times in his shows, certainly putting the disease front and center in Picket Fences as well as with Denny Crane in Boston Legal.

Denny cracked a great joke about winning an Emmy, which broke the fourth wall once again. The banter and the dialogue of this show is simply brilliant.