"L.A. LAW" REVISITED: Caught last night's "L.A. Law" reunion movie; while the show was one of my favorites as a kid and it was great to see the cast back together again, the reunion movie was both a colossal disapointment and a reminder of just how dated the show has become since it went off the air eight years ago. Not only was it a meticulously constructed, bleeding-heart morality play in which evil was punished and the good guys won, but it also made room for the kind of sexual frankness and plot twists that would've been shocking in 1985 but are pretty tame today (I'm reminded of a scandal ten years ago about a lesbian kiss on "L.A. Law"; also last night on "Six Feet Under" two men were in bed for an extended scene, and I expect no controversy.) The reunion movie, as well as the daily re-runs on A&E, remind one of how much the lawyer show genre has been improved and refined, mostly by "Law & Order" and it's various spinoffs, since "L.A. Law"'s '80s heyday. (Don't even talk to me about the ridiculous "The Practice"; it's more melodramatic and unconvincing than "L.A. Law" was at its worst). And why did NBC advertise it as a "Ten Year Reunion" when the show went off the air eight years ago? This may be the first case in history of a network acknowledging a show's "jumped the shark" date.
Posted by Stephen Silver at May 13, 2002 08:42 AM