(Season 7, Episode 8)
While The Practice is generally not stale, from time to time it will inadvertently reveal how dated it is. And that usually happens when it comes to the post-September 11 atmosphere so pervasive when the show aired its final few seasons. Not to say that we haven’t seen the increased security become a part of our daily lives, but back then it was new, and you could almost taste it.
7.8 “Bad to Worse”
I enjoy when someone on the show appears in a Federal courtroom, because it’s an opportunity for a fresh face among what’s usually a very familiar cast of characters. Plus the Federal judges are even more full of themselves than the regular ones — case in point was Judge Kendall Marcott (John Aylward), who at first summarily brushed aside the case of the airline that refused to fly all Arabs on principle. Not that he was wrong to do so — there’s no argument to be made for that kind of discrimination, and the defense failed to make one — but there was something very “Federal” to the manner in which he brushed the case aside.
Of course somehow the convict managed to wrangle an evidentiary hearing … I loved when opposing council asked the CEO of the airline if he’d fly his own attorney on one of his planes. The most pompous thing about Marcott, however, was his ruling in favor of the airline, citing the notion that the day was coming when security would trump civil liberties to that extent. Why bother making a ruling that you know will just be knocked down on appeal (as he said it likely would be before making the ruling)? All you’re doing is costing the Federal government, and the parties involved, money.
The in-house case was confusing. Not that I didn’t get it, but there were a lot of avenues left unexplored in the story. The client, Cassie (Lolita Davidovich), was charged with murdering her ex-boyfriend. The episode started with her talking some nonsense about her breasts being real, and needing to authenticate that to the jury … no idea.
But her nanny Sophie (Suanne Spoke), who had claimed to be an embezzler running from the law, made for a really interesting character. Sure, I guessed that she was the wife of the guy that Cassie had murdered seven years before. But it was still interesting to watch the story play out. It was great when Eugene laughed out loud in court as Cassie read the entry in her own diary about her dreams of killing her ex.
And even though they lost, I always appreciate the opportunity to watch Eugene at work, first going at Sophie with “Plan B,” and then hitting the jury with the “United States of America” closing when “Plan B” fell apart. Steve Harris is a tremendously talented guy, and I hope he keeps finding work.
I did enjoy some other laughs, too. The witness who mentioned in passing that she saw something suspicious while out walking her cat? Nice. And good for Rebecca for telling the convict to get her own secretary. I wish it hadn’t only been because Rebecca took issue with the airline case the convict took on, but I’ll take what I can get … for now.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jul 15, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
