Topics
The 2 Best Legal Dramas Of All Time Exist In The Same Universe And Have 268 Episodes Combined
Boston Legal and The Practice aren’t just two of the best legal dramas ever, with 268 episodes between them; the shows also exist in a shared universe. Shared universes are now most closely associated with superhero movies and TV shows, but before Spider-Man was jumping between worlds, networks were filled with shared universes between procedural TV shows. Law & Order, CSI, and The Buffyverse all interchanged characters between their shows for years. Boston Legal and The Practice are more examples of these older, shared universe shows.
Along with being an early adopter of the shared universe conceit, Boston Legal and The Practice are also simply excellent legal TV shows. It’s a packed crowd with long-running shows like Law & Order and prestige series like Better Call Saul usually sitting at the forefront of people’s minds when they consider the genre. However, Boston Legal and The Practice need to be considered alongside the great legal drama shows. Together, they’ve provided over a decade of excellent TV, all set within the same universe.
The Practice And Boston Legal Are Two Of The Best Legal Dramas Of All Time
These Series Deserve To Be Lauded Alongside Acclaimed Dramas
The Practice and Boston Legal are up there with the best legal drama TV shows ever. Premiering in March 1997, The Practice ran for eight seasons and earned seven Golden Globe nominations, winning three times, and earned 41 Emmy nominations, with 16 wins. The series follows the lawyers at Robert Donnell and Associates, which becomes Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt, a legal firm in Boston. While the show could be funny, it was a more grim look at the legal system compared to other series, showcasing how morality and legal ethics can be at odds.
Related
15 Best Shows Like Suits To Watch While Waiting For Suits LA
Suits remains one of television’s most beloved shows, and with Suits: LA arriving, here are more shows for fans of the franchise.
Boston Legal came out the same year that The Practice ended, premiering on ABC from 2004 to 2008 for five seasons. Boston Legal follows the lawyer, Alan Shore (James Spader), who previously worked at the firm in The Practice in that show’s final season. The show earned one Golden Globe win out of four nominations and five Emmy wins out of 26 nominations. The series also stars William Shatner as Denny Crane, a flamboyant, loose-cannon of a lawyer who works alongside Alan.
Boston Legal Is A Rare Example Of A Spinoff That Is Just As Good As The Original Show
Both Shows Are Great For Different Reasons
The problem with spinoffs is that the new show is rarely as good as the old one. The handful of cases where this is the case are only the exceptions that prove the rule, like Better Call Saul to Breaking Bad and Frasier to Cheers. Boston Legal came out the same year that The Practice ended, and it manages to be just as good a show as the original. One of the ways it does this is by not trying to out-and-out copy The Practice. They are quite different shows with very different tones.
It’s these different tones that probably set them apart more than anything. While The Practice is a legal drama with some comedy moments, Boston Legal is much more of a comedy, with the juxtaposition of Shore and Crane’s style of lawyering the source of a lot of this comedy. However, Boston Legal still has plenty of dramatic moments to keep it a thrilling and engrossing show. Both The Practice and Boston Legal are great to watch, even if you haven’t seen the other one, which is the sign of a great spinoff.
The Practice And Boston Legal Are Still Worth Watching Even Decades Later
These Shows Hold Up Thanks To Their Lengths And Casts
Even two decades after The Practice ended, and a decade and a half after Boston Legal ended, both shows are still worth watching. For one, unlike a lot of legal shows, The Practice and Boston Legal are relatively short in their series length, meaning it’s possible to get through the entire show. Law & Order is currently on its 25th season. If you haven’t been watching along all this time, you might find it hard to jump into the long-running series. The Practice and Boston Legal at least have finales.
There are also a lot of actors in both shows who are still doing great work in the 2020s, so it’s fun to see them in these roles. Dylan McDermott and LisaGay Hamilton from The Practice are still acting in notable productions. James Spader, Lake Bell, Julie Bowen, Constance Zimmer, and Taraji P. Henson of Boston Legal have gone on to great careers. These shows don’t break the legal drama mold, but they just excel at every opportunity, making them solid series that happen to be set in the same universe.
source
