I felt this one was really a hoot. We have the black widow thing where the icy blonde shows no emotion in any circumstance. The police were correct in arresting her. They have to go with what's in front of them. The singer definitely has to follow the dictates of the place he sings. He can opt to take his band to another venue. They are super talented. Why does he need to perform that one song in that one place. We also have the divorce case where a corrupt minister is trying to get money for himself and a deadbeat golfer who is going to extract huge alimony. That judge is great. I remember him from The Practice where he played a similar character. And then there is Betty White. The final bit with that little twerp is great.
3 Reviews
I found a mistake
tiggerden8 March 2021
When "Allan" said that Kelly was innocent and not required to prove it? Yea, that was wrong. She was his wife, she was the last person to be with him before he died. If nothing else She NEEDS to prove her innocence so that she can be excluded from possible murderers. I caught that at the first viewing.
Boston Legal - Schadenfruede
Scarecrow-8822 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
What is amazing to me is that this second episode is so damn good yet what I think most will go away from thinking about is Betty White clunking Leslie Jordan over the head with a frying pan! Look, Spader's so money during closing argument, that alone makes each episode worth watching, but his anguish at the realization he's losing his girl (Rhona Mitra, considered "special guest star" as to give her character an out when the time comes to leave the show
) is just as potent. No one--and I mean NO ONE--shows the agony of relationship woe like Mr. James Spader. Spader has this amazing scene where he notices Tara (Mitra) yucking it up with her mentor, Malcolm (returning for the next episode, Rupert Everett of My Best Friend's Wedding & Delamorte Dellamore fame), and "greets" them. He then goes to Denny and comments on his about to lose his case (it doesn't look well for getting Kelly (Heather Lockler) off for the murder of her 70-year-old husband) and woman ("She's gone.").
How Alan rallies through his closing argument, pointing out that no other suspect was investigated or possibility realized during the detective's pursuit of the killer—solely aiming for Kelly because of her cold, unfeeling call to 9-1-1 and lack of emotion or care when police and paramedics arrived to scene of her husband, dead—applying the successful use of "damage and joy" (hence, the German word, "schadenfreude" that is the title of the episode) to clarify that it is the severe dislike of his client and the joy the general public would feel if she were convicted that fuels the prosecution against her. Could she be responsible? She sure doesn't go out of her way to make herself sympathetic to the outside world or to the jury inside the courtroom. Alan uses the damage the media has caused (and how the maid held out some of her testimony just for trial as to dig her claws in on Kelly, further) to further his cause about not convicting her based only on circumstantial evidence. Meanwhile, Denise (Julie Bowen) faces a huge divorce case where her "golf bum husband" seeks a large alimony, putting her two young attorneys (Justin Mentell and Ryan Michelle Bathe) on the trail of finding something damaging/incriminating against him (instead, Mentell wants Bathe to attempt to seduce the husband's "reverend" husband (played by recognizable character actor, Kurt Fuller) in order to get the proposed alimony payment downsized!). Also, Malcolm is able to get Tara to assist him on a case (it really doesn't have much of a prayer to be a winner) involving the nephew of singer, Edwin Starr, who was famous for the anti-Vietnam song, "War", hoping to convince the judge in a court of law that he ought to be able to sing the song despite the club owner's demand that he not. The whole "private enterprise" debate is presented with the club owner protesting the song's "message" and not wanting it to be sung in his club, condemning it as "un-American and non-Patriotic!).
Big subplot concerns Alan's elderly secretary (the incomparable Betty White) who has a friendship (much against Alan's protest she shouldn't associate with a cold-blooded killer, responsible for murdering his mom!) with Bernie (Jordan). Bernie freely speaks with her about the "boasts" on the godlike power he felt taking a human life and getting away with it. He comments about how he would have liked to experience the atmosphere of the murder trial, and his confidences in unveiling all of this to White's Catherine Piper concerns her. She knows he'll kill again. She goes to the police, but he is unable to pursue Bernie because of the lack of clear and present danger that might exist (proof, and his admittance to her about his crimes could be seen as privileged only between the two of them)! During another talk about the urge to kill and how it never goes away, White clunks him over the head with the frying pan. Oh, Nelly, her case should be a doozy!
How Alan rallies through his closing argument, pointing out that no other suspect was investigated or possibility realized during the detective's pursuit of the killer—solely aiming for Kelly because of her cold, unfeeling call to 9-1-1 and lack of emotion or care when police and paramedics arrived to scene of her husband, dead—applying the successful use of "damage and joy" (hence, the German word, "schadenfreude" that is the title of the episode) to clarify that it is the severe dislike of his client and the joy the general public would feel if she were convicted that fuels the prosecution against her. Could she be responsible? She sure doesn't go out of her way to make herself sympathetic to the outside world or to the jury inside the courtroom. Alan uses the damage the media has caused (and how the maid held out some of her testimony just for trial as to dig her claws in on Kelly, further) to further his cause about not convicting her based only on circumstantial evidence. Meanwhile, Denise (Julie Bowen) faces a huge divorce case where her "golf bum husband" seeks a large alimony, putting her two young attorneys (Justin Mentell and Ryan Michelle Bathe) on the trail of finding something damaging/incriminating against him (instead, Mentell wants Bathe to attempt to seduce the husband's "reverend" husband (played by recognizable character actor, Kurt Fuller) in order to get the proposed alimony payment downsized!). Also, Malcolm is able to get Tara to assist him on a case (it really doesn't have much of a prayer to be a winner) involving the nephew of singer, Edwin Starr, who was famous for the anti-Vietnam song, "War", hoping to convince the judge in a court of law that he ought to be able to sing the song despite the club owner's demand that he not. The whole "private enterprise" debate is presented with the club owner protesting the song's "message" and not wanting it to be sung in his club, condemning it as "un-American and non-Patriotic!).
Big subplot concerns Alan's elderly secretary (the incomparable Betty White) who has a friendship (much against Alan's protest she shouldn't associate with a cold-blooded killer, responsible for murdering his mom!) with Bernie (Jordan). Bernie freely speaks with her about the "boasts" on the godlike power he felt taking a human life and getting away with it. He comments about how he would have liked to experience the atmosphere of the murder trial, and his confidences in unveiling all of this to White's Catherine Piper concerns her. She knows he'll kill again. She goes to the police, but he is unable to pursue Bernie because of the lack of clear and present danger that might exist (proof, and his admittance to her about his crimes could be seen as privileged only between the two of them)! During another talk about the urge to kill and how it never goes away, White clunks him over the head with the frying pan. Oh, Nelly, her case should be a doozy!
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