Do not look to The Practice, the L.A. Law for the new millennium, for realism. In this top-10 show's sophomore season, the story lines have included the following: - A physician "finds" a human head in his medical bag; after interminable plot twists, it turns out that, yes, he really did dress up as a nun and murder people.
- Henry Winkler appears as a dentist with a "crush fetish" (he likes seeing women stomp on bugs); after a murder, a suicide, and a prison rape, the attorneys cut a deal for him with the DA.
- Jimmy, the blue-collar criminal-defense attorney (and purportedly faithful Catholic), goes to court to try to help his mother marry her lesbian lover.
- The Boston lawyers travel to L.A. to defend a murder suspect-and one of the lawyers has a brainstorm during closing arguments; she proves that the suspect's wife framed him, because the wife's eyeglasses are just like the victim's eyeglasses. Don't forget the geriatric, nymphomaniac judge, who has her own nun outfit; the ever angry police detectives who spend their time either fabricating evidence or lying on the witness stand; and the parade of sleazy criminal clients who, every week, force the lawyers to rethink their commitment to criminal-defense work and the legitimacy of the legal system. Week in and week out. The series has become both tired and tiring-even Entertainment Weekly asked last month, "When did The Practice turn into such a screechy, contrived shouting match of a show?" Truth is, it was never anything but. And if the plot lines get any more ridiculous, it will be downright criminal.
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