Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
And wrapping up his truly heroic coverage for this Monday morning, it's HERC with a look at David E. Kelly's latest series. All I know is, this guy spends his energies TOTALLY different than I would if married to Michelle Pfeiffer. But, hey... different strokes, right? This one might be worth checking out, based on what our man from Greece has to say below. Check it out...
BOSTON PUBLIC 1.1 FAQ
ISN’T “BOSTON PUBLIC” THAT HORRIBLE NBC SITCOM WITH ANTHONY CLARK?
No, you’re thinking of “Boston Common.” “Boston Public” is the nifty new comedy-drama from prolific writer-producer David E. Kelley (“The Practice,” “Ally McBeal”). It airs just before “Ally” 8 p.m. Mondays, beginning tonight.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
The faculty of an unnamed middle-class public high school, and its struggles to lend guidance to students even as the faculty itself tends to careen wildly out of control.
ANY GOOD?
Darn good. Concerns that Kelley has lost his talent for forging riveting drama or (especially) biting, character-driven comedy may be premature. “Ally” may have floundered in whimsy last season, but “Public’s” Kelley-scripted pilot, with a fresh new set of characters for its creator to explore, may turn out to be the best school-set series this side of “Buffy.”
HOW ABOUT A RUN-DOWN OF THE CHARACTERS?
LAUREN DAVIS (Jessalyn Gilsig) is the hot little blonde who heads the school’s social studies department. No one in the faculty seems more committed to propriety than Ms. Davis, but she’s not above getting rattled when she learns that a Web site poll ranks her only seventh among the teachers the male students would most like to sleep with.
STEVEN HARPER (Chi McBride) is the school’s principal and the physical opposite of Davis: massive, black and bald. His approach to the school’s many crises is generally patient, well-mannered and soft-spoken, but he is not above mashing a bully into a set of lockers if said bully puts a much smaller student into the hospital with an off-campus beating. Had someone like Harper been principal of Columbine two years ago, we probably wouldn’t be listening now to every politician in Washington screaming about how R-rated movies caused Harris and Klebold to kill their classmates.
SCOTT GUBER (Anthony Heald) is the vice principal and a perfect demonstration of Kelley’s cunning facility for confounding expectations. At first we’re impressed with Guber, because he seems to be the only school official feared by all the kids (even those in “the dungeon,” the school’s holding facility for incorrigible future felons). Then we hate him for the smarmy way he corners Ms. Davis into attending a New York Philharmonic concert with him. Then we like him when -- after he learns of Ms. Davis’ mixed feelings about their “date” -- he employs a completely unexpected reservoir of selflessness and tact to let her off the hook.
HARRY SENATE (Nicky Katt) is a teacher who carries scars from the first time he had to substitute teach in “the dungeon.” When Guber asks him to return, he balks. “I couldn’t even get them to turn off their boom boxes. They’re animals.” When Guber insists, Mr. Senate precipitates the pilot’s most dramatic scene when he carries a pistol into the dungeon and fires it repeatedly, ordering the students to remain on the ground until he says they can get up.
HARVEY LIPSHULTZ (Fyvush Finkel) recently lost his wife and may also be losing his mind. He freely complains about absence of bras on the coeds and the surliness of “desegs” (students made cranky, he says, by the long bus rides mandated by school desegregation). Though Lipshultz doesn’t have much to do in the pilot, it’s fun to see Finkel reteamed with Kelley, with whom he collaborated to great effect on “Picket Fences.”
CHERYL HALL is a Daria-like honors student who precipitates all manner of consternation with her Web site, which already employs 90. Administered outside the school and therefor free of its censorship, the site has emerged as a must-read for both students and teachers with its “teacher you’d most like to sleep with” poll, inflammatory animations and gossipy tales of faculty misbehavior.
DANA POOLE (Sarah Thompson) is a student sexpot who parades around school without a bra, humiliates a homely lit instructor (Joey Slotnick) by pretending to flirt with him, and – we learn late in the episode – sleeps with teacher Harry Senate. She uses this last fact to blackmail Senate into giving a school football star the undeserved passing grade that will keep him on the team.
There’s more – including a regular “dungeon”-mistress (Loretta Devine) who goes off her medication, a football coach (Thomas McBride) living in the shadow of a recently-deceased predecessor, and the teacher (Sharon Leal) who comes in first in the Web poll – who we may or may not see more of as the series progresses.
IS THIS THE BEST PILOT YOU’VE SEEN THIS FALL, HERC?
No, I’d have to say the pilot for WB’s exceptional “Gilmore Girls” gets that nod, but “Boston Public” comes damn close.
(Thanks to “The Monk” for the tape!!)
HERC’S RATING FOR “BOSTON PUBLIC” 1.1?
***1/2
The Hercules T. Strong Rating System:
**** better than most motion pictures
*** actually worth your valuable time
** as horrible as most stuff on TV
* makes you quietly pray for bulletins
I will teach you not to defy me!
