Lots of the episode is good. Forke’s excellent, even if her character is really poorly written. The Ned sensitivity (helping Stacey) even works. It doesn’t hurt his high opinion of her as a journalist was established in the second episode–even though, for the majority of the series so far, Stacey having a career has been forgotten. The scenes with Ned and Forke’s character are funny because Thomas Haden Church and Forke work well together and he’s got some great material here.

It fails because of the resolution. From the plot standpoint, it’s a good resolution, but from the comedic one… it just doesn’t work. The definitely solid one-liners can’t pull it out either.

Maybe all the episode needed was a funny closing joke (the joke under the end credits is funny, but takes a while to get there and even so, the damage is done). The episode ends on a misfired pop culture reference instead of something strong and it hurts the whole.

2.5

It’s also a silly ending, since the innocent man off to jail has almost infinite grounds for appeal. Here’s the other thing Kelley’s done–skipping three months, in story time, from the previous episode to this one–he’s turned Lara Flynn Boyle into Lex Luthor. She doesn’t care about finding the truth, she doesn’t care about getting the right person in jail–she cares about showing up Bobby.

Even giving Kelley a lot of rope–and pieces of this episode are quite good (Chris Sarandon is excellent)–it’s a definite sign whatever impulse Kelley had to create the show is long gone. It’s sort of past even dwindling. It’s gone.

0

A lot of the episode–until Ned goes to Hawaii for a commercial break–is great. There’s Rico revolting, Ned and Amanda bickering, Ned acting real scary. Quite a few of the series’s memorable one-liners are from this show–the scene with Stacey chastising Ned for being sensitive is fantastic.

The additional problem comes from the lack of focus–it’s not really about Ned versus the new guy or Ned on a strange, sequestered vacation or Ned on a real vacation. It’s also not about Stacey home alone for a week and wrecking havoc on the once beautiful apartment. Instead, the episode tries to be about none of them, just a sequence of events and, though it’s an interesting approach to not really having a plot, it doesn’t work. The jokes work for the most part, but come the end, when it gets “real,” everything falls apart.

I can’t even remember the last scene.

2.5

This episode’s mostly just the engine starting–Helen and Bobby against each other in a high profile murder case, along with Eugene’s quirky case (the curse of the two case “Practice” strikes again)–but it’s decent enough. Kelley avoids most of the familiar, court-related pitfalls the show plummets into.

The big problem–and it’s a huge one–is the lack of chemistry between Bobby and Lara Flynn Boyle. It’s unbelievable, both from the chemistry angle and the common sense one, they’d be together. It’s as unlikely as Bobby’s beautifully groomed wardrobe.

Eugene and Rebecca have their trial, Lindsay has a scene with Lara Flynn Boyle and occasionally counsels Bobby and Ellenor has a second with the suspect’s wife, but I don’t know what Jimmy has to do the entire episode. Oh, wait, I remember–Kelley turns him into a disgusting, publicly vocal pig this episode. Even Rebecca is horrified by him.

It’s the best episode from the second season production run in a while–so long, I can’t even remember the last good one–and it’s possible Kelley won’t screw it up. Unlikely, but possible.

2.5

The whole thing starts going south when Ned’s moping around the party (while Stacey’s off on her date). Given the show’s never shown them slow-dancing at one of the parties or anything close, it’s hard to believe Ned’s really upset over her not being there (except it makes him come up with endless excuses). The episode never explains why Ned’s upset, which makes the final ten minutes peculiar.

Actually, past the plotting problems, it’s an excellent episode. Messing is quite good (no idea how long it’ll last though) and Rico and Amanda both have great material. They’re being with Calabro out on the date doesn’t hurt. But the episode starts with good material for Ned, then sort of shoos him aside (except when he crashes Rico and Amanda’s private New Year’s celebration).

It should have been better–not schmaltzy.

The scene under the end credits saves it.

3

It’s a standard, unimaginative “Rockford” episode, gliding as much as it can on Garner’s charm. There’s not even a car chase. All the best moments with Rocky are–seemingly–off-screen, but there’s a good bit with Dennis. It seems like most of the middling episodes come from a Roy Huggins story (credited as John Thomas James, which has been confusing me for nine episodes) and this one might be the worst.

Van Ark could maybe have handled being the client who disappears after hiring Rockford, but she’s in it the whole episode–in love with the mobster who has to kill her, but she still loves him–and it suffers. It’s also a bit goofy, with Rockford constantly pointing a pistol at mobster Paul Michael Glaser.

Glaser’s pretty good, actually, even if he’s a tad young looking.

Since Van Ark’s worst acting comes at the end, most of the episode’s fair until then.

2

Even though it doesn’t sound like much, it’s actually the first episode to really manage both the absurd humor and the sentimentality. Stacey comes off a lot better in this episode than she ever has before, the right mix of ditzy and sensible. She’s never mean-spirited or obtuse either. It’s a fantastic read on the character (it doesn’t hurt Messing is really on the ball).

The best scene, however, is Amanda’s. She comes out in the middle of a mock seduction between Stacey and Ned. Dajani is, no shock, wonderful.

There are a lot of other good scenes in the episode–Rico explaining marriage to Ned and their boss, the sort of funny corporate lackies–except the whole thing is terribly directed. The close-ups all look awkward and they’re cut together poorly, like they didn’t shoot enough coverage.

But it’s a funny and–not sweet, but sensitive (or implying the possibility of sensitivity from Ned) episode and it works well.

3

As Lindsay and Ellenor defend a porn star accused of killing her husband on set, Lindsay battles her feelings for Bobby–while Bobby and Lara Flynn Boyle get even more serious.

Boyle is awful in this episode, just awful. She’s as bad, if not worse, than I thought she was going to be when I started watching this season. She’s atrocious this episode.

Not much else goes on–Rebecca’s case is in trouble, Jimmy–with Kelley continuing the character’s downward spiral–is revealed as a porno fiend.

It’s not an all together terrible episode, some of the acting is good–Richard Masur’s guest spot as the prosecuting attorney is great–and the writing is competent, but Kelley’s very obviously sold the farm on this one. Bobby’s not even a lawyer in this episode, he’s the frequently shirtless People magazine cover boy.

It’s gotten to where I can’t even remember when the show was excellent.

2

It’s a strange scene, obvious about the contrivance, something I assumed no sitcom writer would be desperate enough to try, but here it is.

The rest of the episode is Ned and Stacey bickering over the guest star, her new boyfriend and his new friend. It returns Stacey to a more grounded version, which is a mistake and it’s clearly visible when the episode becomes about the quartet (minus Ned) excluding him from their reindeer games. Oddly, Sheehan’s written the majority of the episodes and Weithorn created the show, so this side trip seems like it would have been avoided.

It’s not a bad episode, even–guest star John Slattery is great–it’s just a misguided one. The goofy, unreal sitcom is pretending it’s “Friends” or something.

The bickering between Ned and Stacey is even funny, it’s just not a successful episode.

2.5

It’s not a bad episode–it’s the best of the last few–but it’s cheap. The whole thing relies on the trial being interesting enough to carry an episode and it isn’t. Weeks and weeks pass during this episode and the passage of time is never seen. It comes out in the expository dialogue, when Bobby’s bitching about Jimmy to Lindsay. Why Ellenor has totally disappeared from a case she’s supposed to be second chairing… it’s never addressed.

What Kelley does here is reduce the case to black and white. Jimmy, good. Clients, good. Judge, bad. Other lawyer, bad. Everyone but Jimmy, clients, and people who agree with Jimmy, bad.

It’s kind of offensive.

I mean, I get why Kelley did what he did, because you can’t have the movie ending on a weekly TV show too often (though he does it all the time–to great success–on “Boston Legal”), but what he does instead is worse. He makes the show silly and obvious.

But it’s still a heck of a lot better than usual.

2