Au revoir, Biscuit. With a bangless whimper, the once-popular "Alison McBeal" has left the air, ending with what must be the most non-last-episodish last episode ever conceived as a last episode. Other than the last ten minutes, this could have been thrown into the "McBeal" annals as a season finale without anyone noticing, with the assumption that Ally'd be coming back from New York to Boston in next season's opener. Now that I think about it, what it really feels like is a season finale that makes way for an Ally-less "Ally McBeal" next year; none of the non-Ally, non-Fish characters' storylines feel near an acceptable coda.
Having watched Allison and her adventures for the past three seasons -- I'm not a fan, but Kim is -- I feel confident with the assessment that "Ally" will be remembered as an average show that was saved by some exceptional acting. Peter MacNicol was the finest comic actor on television through most of "Ally"'s run (though temporarily displaced by Mr. Downey Junior), and nearly every other principal (Flockhart, Germann, de Rossi, Liu, LeGros, Bellows) straddled the drama/comic line comfortably. Alas, what was consistently one of the better ensemble casts in television was saddled with Kelley’s necessity to (a) make everything exciting, exciting, exciting and (b) make everything sex, sex, sex. Like “Boston Public,” “Ally” was often eminently watchable bad television, if heavier on the “watchable” and lighter on the “bad” than “Boston.” I'll probably miss it.
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
