(Season 6, Episode 22)
The Practice is like two shows for me. On the one hand, I greatly dislike a fair number of the main characters. On the other, I find most story lines and plots to be interesting, well acted, and impressively developed. Except where the latter crosses the former.
I do not care that Lindsay’s a murderer. Really, I don’t. Save for the potential it holds to get rid of her for good, there’s nothing about it I care to watch. And actually, I wish it were indifference that I was feeling, because at least then I could hum my way through it. But having to listen to the ridiculous nonsense that went on in this episode? The safest thing to do is see it like an unfunny comedy, and evaluate it on those merits.
6.22 “The Verdict”
Ellenor as the lead on Lindsay’s case was quite possibly the biggest joke in this whole escapade. She’s a miserable attorney, so Eugene may as well have let Jimmy defend Lindsay, for all the good that Ellenor’s capable of doing. Watching her as she “tried her hardest?” I guess it was mildly amusing.
Lindsay’s battered women syndrome defense was a joke as well, and I did like when Walsh made the comparison to William Hinks during his cross of Bobby. As he put it, “I smell a pattern: threaten Lindsay Dole, you get killed.” I never thought of it quite like that, but that does seem to be the way things are going.
Speaking of Walsh, had anyone else been on the case for the prosecution (obviously not Helen, but anyone else), I might have been rooting for them a bit harder. I wanted Lindsay to get the death penalty, but cheering for Walsh to get her convicted was tough. He’s just so unpleasant.
The drive-by guest spot by John Larroquette as Joey Heric was great. It was one of the highlight’s of the episode for me, as brief as it was. Because the entire thing was just absolutely farcical. Lindsay didn’t have a leg to stand on during the trial, and any halfway decent attorney would have seen that. I couldn’t believe what Ellenor said at one point — “By the way, if Lindsay hadn’t snapped, she’d be dead now. No question.” Was she out of her mind? Be scared, absolutely. But Lawrence O’Malley gave no indication that he represented a threat to Lindsay’s life at the moment that he came to her home. As she herself said during her testimony, “I was afraid he’d kill me,” which, when taken in the context of her psychotic rambling, was clearly a general indication, and not specific to the moment. Lindsay established a lust for revenge, not battered women syndrome.
Lindsay’s sob story to the firm, about how they were all looking at her case as one of murder … right? Your point? You murdered an unarmed man in cold blood. How else should they see it? Just because Lindsay didn’t see why anyone should make a big deal about her crime doesn’t mean that no one should make a big deal about her crime.
In the end, my smile couldn’t have been wider when the first degree murder guilty verdict came in. I still say it should have been Bobby who was convicted way back when, but I couldn’t be happier. Obviously this won’t hold, and obviously Lindsay will be back on the street sometime in the first half of season seven. But there’s no way in the world she should be allowed to practice law again.
Bobby was acquitted of accessory to murder, but Lindsay shot and killed a man. Her alleged innocence will be based on intent, not action, because she shot and killed him. My hope is that with the original guilty conviction, not to mention her crazies and the facts, the least the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will do is pull her ticket to practice.
In the meantime, I’m reveling in the verdict. Yes! Finally one of them got what they deserved!
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jun 10, 2010 @ 16:15 EST5EDT
