CS Weekly Archive> DVD > 06/15/07

Guilty of Great Writing

by jason davis

Exploiting the inherent drama of the American judicial system, prolific writer-producer David E. Kelley populates The Practice with idealistic characters for whom the subtle distinctions between the law and what's right become an emotional trial in every episode as Donnell and Associates tackle noble targets like big tobacco while insuring that even the most unrepentant killers get a fair trial.

The Practice: Volume One

Stephen Gaghan, Alexis Ganya, David E. Kelley, Michael R. Perry, Ed Redlich, and David Shore
Created by David E. Kelley

Seven years after starting his low-rent Boston law practice, attorney Bobby Donnell (Dylan McDermott) and his associates: Eugene Young (Steve Harris), Ellenor Frutt (Camryn Manheim), and Lindsay Dole (Kelli Williams) have reluctantly yielded to the notion that drug dealers, pimps, and murderers pay the bills, affording the firm the economic latitude to serve the worthy humanitarian cases for which the practice was originally founded. Using stunts like Eugene's "United States of America Defense," wherein the right to personal freedom can justify any malfeasance, and Bobby's "Plan B," which sows reasonable doubt in a jury by accusing an associate of the defendant of the crime, the practice plays fast and lose with the law and the lawyers often end up suffering the consequences. Kelley and his writers use the law as a looking glass to explore the human condition while occasionally indulging in both social criticism and primetime soap operatics to show off the depths of their characters.

Though ostensibly a series about criminals on trial for crimes, The Practice is really about trying its characters in a crucible of ethical conundrums. Consisting of serialized episodes produced for the first season alongside more self-contained efforts from year two, Fox's Volume One illustrates a format in flux, but the characters and professional dilemmas are at the heart of the drama from the first scene. The pilot finds Bobby defending a 17-year-old girl (Tammy Townsend) unwilling to take a beneficial plea bargain that will commute her 15-year sentence in exchange for an admission of guilt for a crime she didn't commit. Kelley structures the story so that Bobby is caught in a Catch-22 between saving his young client from a lengthy prison sentence and championing her honor and self-respect. Such scenarios recur throughout these 13 episodes, including the Emmy-nominated "Betrayal," in which the firm's own legal maneuvering is used against them by conniving client Joey Heric (John Larroquette, who won an Emmy for his performance).

Sidestepping the notion that a legal drama inevitably becomes predictable since, more often than not, the heroes win their cases. The Practice inverts the television conceit with the occasional empty victory where the legal triumph is undermined by a personal defeat, as when Bobby's successful in-court condemnation of a client's co-defendant earns his client an acquittal—and then Bobby learns that his own client was guilty. These kinds of cases play against the tropes of TV and inform the character's actions as the show goes on. Mining Kelley's recurring interests in Constitutional rights, emotion-based litigation, and the gray areas between right and wrong, The Practice eschews the writer's frequent reliance on quirkiness as characterization to tell meaningful stories about the human heart in conflict with itself, framed by the seemingly infinite dramatic applications of law.

Humanity is key to the characterizations in these 13 episodes—six were produced and aired as season one while the remaining seven were produced during years one and two, but aired as part of the sophomore season. Kelley, himself a former Boston lawyer, broke into TV on Steven Bochco's L.A. Law, and crafted his characters as a realistic response to that show's glitzy portrayal of the practice. Bobby, Eugene, Ellenor, Lindsay, new recruit Jimmy Berluti (Michael Badalucco), and even the often antagonist DA Helen Gamble (Lara Flynn Boyle) live for the good fight. Though they often represent the scum of the Earth, the firm is at its best when it's suing big tobacco for wrongful death or protecting a woman from her violent husband. Though the characters are not without humor, they're more grounded than the often melodramatic inhabitants of sister series Ally McBeal or even the show's own spin-off Boston Legal. Quirky character traits and convoluted personal lives bolster the writing of the latter shows, but The Practice is populated by believers with richly realized (though subtly revealed) backstories that live, breathe, and litigate as the series ramps up to two years' worth of Best Dramatic Series Emmys.

- Setting Up The Practice

Though only 17 minutes in length, this sole featurette finds Kelley explaining the series' origins as a reaction to his stint on the glamorous L.A. Law and detailing how his initial conception of Bobby Donnell as a slovenly character altered with the casting of leading man Dylan McDermott. Kelley then explains how Jimmy was introduced to recover those qualities and provide an emotional anchor for the series before exploring the creation of the rest of the characters, as well as the audience-building necessities of featuring a promotion-friendly crime in each episode. If Fox can create a featurette like this for every Kelley series coming down the DVD pipe, they'll end up with a multi-part master class in populating ensemble series.


David E. Kelley is a television legend, and The Practice presents the writer at the height of his power, employing his skills not only to entertain but to enlighten with stories that question the audience's beliefs just as much as those of the richly realized characters, who remind us that good people help blind ladies like Justice across the road.

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Jason Davis is the DVD Manager for CS Weekly , a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.

The Practice: Volume One courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

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