Great Love or No Love

Did you ever watch something for entertainment and suddenly feel like you’re getting to know yourself better?

Pandemic + Ally McBeal Binge = Me.

I watched this series about a 20-something lawyer in Boston back when it came out in 1997. I was in my late 30s then and I recall enjoying the show and the subsequent water cooler conversations about it.

The show’s writer and creator, David E. Kelley, assembled a quirky, compelling cast of characters, but one of the other reasons it was popular was the way the show used cartoonish, outsized moments to effect. Something obvious and awkward happening in a conference room? Kelley puts an actual elephant in the room for a split second. Jarringly funny. And perhaps most famously, the unique way he portrayed Ally’s ticking biological clock — the Ooga-Chaka dancing baby.

Watching the show as a 58-year-old, it turns out, is a much different experience.

First of all, viewing it through the lens of #MeToo is almost distracting. I found I just had to put those sensibilities aside. The law office, Cage and Fish, is oozing with sex and inappropriate workplace behavior. But, interestingly, it also brings to the forefront through litigation all measure of sexual harassment and relationship issues. The lawyers, working on cases on annulment or alienation of affection, shine in…