In the days before fifteen different kinds of forensic cop dramas in a week’s worth of television, there were fifteen different kinds of law dramas. And at the top of the list, for me, was Ally McBeal. It had more than law, more than dramatic relationships. It was quirky in a way that I could totally relate to. Inventive.  Honest.

I hadn’t seen a single episode of Ally McBeal since it went off the air in 2002, but from the moment I pressed play, and heard the first bar of a lonesome piano underneath the title screen… I wanted to pull on some bunny slippers, pour myself a bottle of wine, and settle in for the long haul. The nostalgic value was intense, and it totally stands up over time. A single girl in her late 20s, new associate at her firm, trying to find empowerment wherever she can, with a particularly unique inner life that shows up in ‘hallucinations’ that we are privy to… her assistant’s inflated head, a dancing baby, a talking horse’s ass, and various other imagined interludes. This series is iconic; I still hear people referring to particularly short skirts as being “Ally McBeal short”. And there would be no Scrubs, no Malcolm in the Middle if Ally hadn’t paved the way. 

While many of us are not too fond of Callista Flockhart, and are not above cracking jokes about her apparent anorexia or relationship with the much older Harrison Ford, she really does a fine job as Ally. Still, it’s the supporting cast that really sells this show. Fish, the Biscuit, Whipper, Billy, Georgia, Renee and Elaine, the unisex bathroom. Such incredibly dynamic characters, each bringing their own uniqueness and profundity as they face life’s daily inanities and insanities. Sometimes it’s easier to deal with our own drama by seeing how hard things are for another.

Please accept this caveat about this review: I don’t know whether it was a security thing or a cheapskate thing, but Fox only sent the very first disc and the very last disc of the boxset for review. Two discs out of thirty-one. And the last disc? Bonuses. So no Portia de Rossi, no Lucy Liu, no Taye Diggs, no Robert Downey Jr., none of the show when it was really in its stride. Just the first four episodes, and then a bunch of featurettes. Though I had watched the majority of the series several years ago and know that I was a big fan then, and have now watched again the first four episodes, I have no real way of knowing what lay after that.