TV Review: "Ally McBeal" (Season 1, First 2 Episodes)
Oh, goodness, why did I review this?
“What did I watch?” I ask you readers. Do any of you know?
My great uncle, born about sometime in the 1920’s, not the Illinois based guy the other one on the East Coast, loved Ally McBeal. He used instant messenger, e-mail, and a flip phone. Sometimes, people thought I was IMing, that is texting over instant for you younger folks, people my age. I was, not always. My great uncle was checking in on me. He was a worrywart. Or he might be complaining about something.
A cool kid thing he did was be a super fan of Ally McBeal. Seeing Calista Flockhart at a restaurant once when he took me out in junior high made him extra happy for the rest of the night. About the year 2000-2001 when that happened. As you might expect, he got up and asked Calista for an autograph. I’m just kidding about the second half, he would never do that. What was he going to do with an autograph unless it were on a paycheck? 😂 I knew her from The Birdcage. How he spotted her face in person, I will never know. She looked like any relatively attractive, very thin lady to junior high me.
My younger self believed he wanted Ally for the legal drama. He was a serious corporate exec! Would he follow this show if not?
Ally won Emmy awards. It had to be really good?
🙄
The year 2026. Freshly turned 39 year old me, hoping for a straight up legal drama I could use, or maybe a Lifetime-esque night soap, bring it on. OK, I’ll do a She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. No, Ally McBeal is all along live action Family Guy in the courtroom. I thought maybe a short bit. No, it’s sort of 90’s/Y2K stale men vs. women, “yuppie” professional chitchat with Family Guy daydreaming segments.
Be silly. Be serious. Be romcom. Be indulgent night soap that makes no sense. Be an obsolete 90’s corporate drama for young women. PICK ONE. This show doesn’t.
The one genre Ally never, two episodes in, attacks is horror. Please, someone invite the Scream guy in because seeing the paralegal’s head balloon all episode, each episode, in a legal drama was weird.
“And Melrose Place is from 1992 and still deliciously bats*** crazy addictive,” a Reddit user says on a discussion how outdated Ally is.
“I find if I skip through all the scenes with Ally, it’s pretty great.”
“I got really excited when it first went on streaming about a decade ago and I found it unwatchable...I was wondering how I used to think this was the best show ever.”
Ally makes all women look catty and weird, putting down other women when they can. In episode one, her ex’s current wife confronts her at her apartment because Ally joined the firm. Ally paces outside the vicinity of her fake workplace, filmed at the real 14 Beacon Street in Boston, yelling at old people. The crazy female stereotype appealing to female viewers, uh, no. Ally looks down on the paralegal and seemingly all women. She will not stop digging into other people’s business. Nothing about Ally is a likable character. You understand why her ex dumped Ally, going to Michigan when he could have remained at Harvard Law.
I’ll go with that guy and dump this show. LOL.
