Alan Shore in The Practice
Nobody can lend me Season 8 of The Practice because it isn't out on DVD. However, BostonLegal.org hosts some streaming videos of highlights here. I can't link directly to the videos, but I especially liked "Alan Shore - His Arguments" in the second column. It includes these excerpts from episode 10, Equal Justice, where Alan is assigned by the court to defend a 19-year-old drug dealer charged with murder:
Alan Shore: I was drafted for this trial much like all of you were summoned for jury duty. And my reaction was, "Dammit. I have better things to do than sit around the courtroom all day." ... But then I found out it’s a murder trial, and part of me went, "Oh boy!" inside. 'Cause murder trials, they can be juicy. ... And the great thing about this particular murder trial? There’s no real tragedy. The victim was a drug dealer; my client is a drug dealer. One is dead, another we can send to prison for life. It's a win-win. So let's sit back, relax, enjoy ourselves, shall we? One low-life down, one to go.
Then later:
Alan Shore: At the beginning, you heard me mention that I was assigned this case. We have this pro bono program because somebody has to be here for the guy. You see? That's where our judicial system actually exceeds real life. In here, somebody’s gotta be there for the guy. In life, Marshall Bagnell never met his father. His mother worked fulltime, leaving him home alone all day. He got involved early in drugs. There was nobody there to get him in treatment. His parents, his teachers, school principals, probation officers, people vested with the responsibility of caring for him a little: they didn't. And he became a drug addict. Now, I'm not gonna stand here and ask you to care for him. God forbid. But, what I will ask is for you to recognize that life hasn't been very fair to Marshall Bagnell. The irony is, by pulling that trigger three times; he gets thrown into a system that's required to treat him fairly. He gets a right to a fair trial. And if you afford him that right, he must necessarily be found, 'Not Guilty'. The supposed eye witness admitted she was watching television, her own words. She wasn't looking at the man, at the time my client drew his weapon. She told you that. She did not see. Now. What she did see supports precisely what Marshall told you. The victim was going for his gun. At that point, my client could only shoot, or be shot. That's self-defense. That's classic self-defense. And think about it. If Marshall Bagnell wasn’t acting in self-defense? Why did he not shoot Andrea Mills? Why did he leave behind this eyewitness? Perhaps, because she wasn't about to shoot him. Of course, you could choose to ignore all this, simply because you don't care. Not only about Marshall Bagnell, but also about the law you swore to uphold. Swore to, because what we do pretend to care about is the integrity of this system. We do believe in that cherished notion of a fair trial. We're fiercely loyal to the ideal that a prosecution must satisfy its burden of proof. They haven't done that here. As dearly as we'd all love to send Mr Bagnell to prison, we cannot know for a fact that the victim, a drug dealer, rumored to have killed somebody before, didn't draw his gun to shoot first. We cannot know beyond all reasonable doubt that Marshall Bagnell didn't fear for his life. And if he did reasonably fear for his life. If you believe it's possible that he feared for his life, you must find him 'Not Guilty'. Unless of course, you don't care.
Drug dealer's mother, while jury is deliberating: You're a big fraud. You know that? You do care about my son. You're not foolin' me.
"How It All Began - Denny Crane" contains Alan and Denny's first meeting and their first conversation about Denny's declining mental health. I also really enjoyed the video of Alan and Ellenor, which shows a strong male-female friendship and Alan's initial appearance on the show.
I keep happily going back and forth between the finale and Alan and Denny's first meeting scenes.
Alan Shore: I was drafted for this trial much like all of you were summoned for jury duty. And my reaction was, "Dammit. I have better things to do than sit around the courtroom all day." ... But then I found out it’s a murder trial, and part of me went, "Oh boy!" inside. 'Cause murder trials, they can be juicy. ... And the great thing about this particular murder trial? There’s no real tragedy. The victim was a drug dealer; my client is a drug dealer. One is dead, another we can send to prison for life. It's a win-win. So let's sit back, relax, enjoy ourselves, shall we? One low-life down, one to go.
Then later:
Alan Shore: At the beginning, you heard me mention that I was assigned this case. We have this pro bono program because somebody has to be here for the guy. You see? That's where our judicial system actually exceeds real life. In here, somebody’s gotta be there for the guy. In life, Marshall Bagnell never met his father. His mother worked fulltime, leaving him home alone all day. He got involved early in drugs. There was nobody there to get him in treatment. His parents, his teachers, school principals, probation officers, people vested with the responsibility of caring for him a little: they didn't. And he became a drug addict. Now, I'm not gonna stand here and ask you to care for him. God forbid. But, what I will ask is for you to recognize that life hasn't been very fair to Marshall Bagnell. The irony is, by pulling that trigger three times; he gets thrown into a system that's required to treat him fairly. He gets a right to a fair trial. And if you afford him that right, he must necessarily be found, 'Not Guilty'. The supposed eye witness admitted she was watching television, her own words. She wasn't looking at the man, at the time my client drew his weapon. She told you that. She did not see. Now. What she did see supports precisely what Marshall told you. The victim was going for his gun. At that point, my client could only shoot, or be shot. That's self-defense. That's classic self-defense. And think about it. If Marshall Bagnell wasn’t acting in self-defense? Why did he not shoot Andrea Mills? Why did he leave behind this eyewitness? Perhaps, because she wasn't about to shoot him. Of course, you could choose to ignore all this, simply because you don't care. Not only about Marshall Bagnell, but also about the law you swore to uphold. Swore to, because what we do pretend to care about is the integrity of this system. We do believe in that cherished notion of a fair trial. We're fiercely loyal to the ideal that a prosecution must satisfy its burden of proof. They haven't done that here. As dearly as we'd all love to send Mr Bagnell to prison, we cannot know for a fact that the victim, a drug dealer, rumored to have killed somebody before, didn't draw his gun to shoot first. We cannot know beyond all reasonable doubt that Marshall Bagnell didn't fear for his life. And if he did reasonably fear for his life. If you believe it's possible that he feared for his life, you must find him 'Not Guilty'. Unless of course, you don't care.
Drug dealer's mother, while jury is deliberating: You're a big fraud. You know that? You do care about my son. You're not foolin' me.
"How It All Began - Denny Crane" contains Alan and Denny's first meeting and their first conversation about Denny's declining mental health. I also really enjoyed the video of Alan and Ellenor, which shows a strong male-female friendship and Alan's initial appearance on the show.
I keep happily going back and forth between the finale and Alan and Denny's first meeting scenes.