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Anybody Here Seen/Watch Ally McBeal?

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Tricky I Shadow

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I watch pretty much zero T.V now days, but the other night I put it on in my room and pretty much ignored it until at 12:30 at night the first episode of Ally McBeal came on and caught my eye. I’ve heard of the show before but I've never watched any of it before. Umm, colour me impressed! The characters have so much charm and it’s actually funny! I’m about 5 episodes in and it’s still very good stuff, I’m actually very surprised! I think it’s the third episode? When Ally was in a grocery store and wanted the last bag of chips and was fighting a customer for it and then when she decided to trip her at the end of the argument....I was in stiches! The way she fell with cans falling on her and Ally's reaction was hilarious!

So has anyone else watched this? What do you think of it? I know that it went for 5 seasons before it got cancelled, but apparently it goes down hill at season 3. And does season 5 just kinda get cut off or does it have a decent wrap up?
 
Season 5 doesn't really get cut off so much. Things get tied up just fine. The only thing is that the actual impetus for tying things up sort of comes out of nowhere in the second half of the fifth season. I'd like to say that was Kelley making a commentary on how life sneaks up on you sometimes, but it really wasn't :p

In terms of going downhill, I wouldn't necessarily say that. The thing is that they basically resolve the major conflict of the series fairly early on. That's fine, because you can always make up a new arc. The problem is that the new arc was Robert Downey Jr. who ended up going to jail and thus getting fired from the show. The show never really recovers momentum after then. It's still funny and episode-on-episode it's still good.

(I've got the whole series on DVD.)
 
i'm curious if FRIENDS holds up, too. i stopped watching it when i was little, but the prospect of ten seasons of good, charming television is too alluring.
 
Isn't this the show they are using as reason to be concerned about the Wonder Woman tv show? Bad female stereotypes or something? I remember my sister watching this show back in the day and every time I looked up some female was crying.
 
Trent Strong said:
I used to watch it. It was pretty good. Calista Flockhart was really cute back then.
Click to expand...

Yep...I’m not the biggest fan of Calista Flockhart but I think she's absolutely fantastic in this! Very lovable! Her acting is really great in it too. Some of her expressions are spot on!

I’m just really shocked at how well made it is. The fact that no one I know ever mentions it or the fact that I had never seen 1 second from an episode before feels strange to me.
 
beelzebozo said:
i'm curious if FRIENDS holds up, too. i stopped watching it when i was little, but the prospect of ten seasons of good, charming television is too alluring.
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first bunch of seasons are actually really funny

goes off a cliff though
 
beelzebozo said:
i'm curious if FRIENDS holds up, too. i stopped watching it when i was little, but the prospect of ten seasons of good, charming television is too alluring.
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It doesn't because it was never very good.
 
My wife loved this show and I thought it was decent enough. Didn't care for the courtroom antics and the Peter McNichol character was Urkell'd into the show which made it a little too farcical.

My favortie part of the show was Ally and her whacky antics but less so on the actual legal aspects, which were over the top even by David E. Kelly standards.
 
beelzebozo said:
i'm curious if FRIENDS holds up, too. i stopped watching it when i was little, but the prospect of ten seasons of good, charming television is too alluring.
Click to expand...
Friends definitely holds up. I've watched it a lot recently and episodes I saw when I was young have all new meaning now, and still have me laughing out loud all the way through.
 
dancing_babyrmz0.gif
 
beelzebozo said:
i'm curious if FRIENDS holds up, too. i stopped watching it when i was little, but the prospect of ten seasons of good, charming television is too alluring.
Click to expand...

It still holds up decently, I'd say. Seinfeld has probably held up better.

As for Ally McBeal, I never thought it was funny at all. Didn't help that I always thought Calista Flockhart looked.. strange. Sort of.
 
We find the defendant vulnerable, yet spunky!

It's very, very 1990s. Rich people with relationship problems. Flashy, upbeat and quirky. Which also makes it quite dated, in my opinion.

(edit: got the Futurama quote wrong, for shame.)
 
Absolutely LOVE the show, but I like to do as if Season 5 doesn't exist. Also, it cemented my deep mancrush towards Robert Downey Jr.

I own all of the DVDs (except season 5, of course) and it's a huge guilty pleasure of mine. I watch the whole show every summer and then have Vonda Shepard playing songs in my head bluntly related to whatever is going on in my life for a month or so.

And then everything goes back to normal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a_nYNtFuO4
 
Combichristoffersen said:
Didn't help that I always thought Calista Flockhart looked.. strange. Sort of.
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LOL! You’re not the only one! I think that too.

Anyway.....I gotta say I’m surprised by the comments in this thread. I was bracing myself for complete negativity or simply just getting ignored! : p

Damn, I feel like I’ve been missing out all these years! I’m definitely going to keep watching! A show like this is exactly what I need at the moment!


J. M. Romeo said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a_nYNtFuO4
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LOOOL, seriously what the hell did I just watch!?! <3
 
my mom used to love this show.... 6? 8? 10? years ago. i would watch it with her for 10 minutes at a time, kinda amusing. maybe ill check it again
 
Always was disappointed that Jane Krakowski and Portia de Rossi had no plotlines ever. I started watching Arrested Development and 30 Rock because of those two.
 
Never watched it religiously, but my aunt had taped the first 2/3 seasons on tapes, and over the years I've watched quite of few of them.


It's pretty damn good. The sheer insanity of some characters and moments is hilarious. The good thing about video tapes was that I could fast forward the boring and corny stuff: the love affairs, the walking on street in deep thoughts, the Vonda Shepard music in the bar, ...
 
Wait, I just realized that Tracey the shrink, is Tracey Ullman, from the Tracey Ullman show, where The Simpsons first appeared on. Cool. :)
 
It's a pretty good show. My sister bought the entire series on DVD two years ago, and we watched all the episodes. Some of them were a little too melodramatic for my taste, but for the most part it was a funny show with really good characters.

The thing I didn't like though was the revolving door of cast members around Seasons 4 and 5. The way they had to
rewrite the season 4 finale with Robert Downey Jr. leaving instead of marrying Allie really set the show up for a crappy fifth season, imo.
 
beelzebozo said:
i'm curious if FRIENDS holds up, too. i stopped watching it when i was little, but the prospect of ten seasons of good, charming television is too alluring.
Click to expand...
You're good for 4, maybe 5 seasons. It had REALLY run it's course by season 10, oh boy.
 
I watched Ally McBeal when it was originally airing. The first four seasons are good but I bailed during the fifth because it got so bad.
 
I watched the first few seasons when it originally aired. It was pretty original for its time, back when FOX was known as the risk-taking network.

I have to say that I liked Calista Flockhart a whole lot, too...
 
Duki said:
first bunch of seasons are actually really funny

goes off a cliff though
Click to expand...

Solo said:
It doesn't because it was never very good.
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ramyeon said:
Friends definitely holds up. I've watched it a lot recently and episodes I saw when I was young have all new meaning now, and still have me laughing out loud all the way through.
Click to expand...

BitchTits said:
You're good for 4, maybe 5 seasons. It had REALLY run it's course by season 10, oh boy.
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sounds like it's worth a shot for at least a season or two. i remember being charmed by it when i was ten at least! i wanted to be ross. what was i thinking?

thanks guys.
 
Watched it cuz I too thought Calista was cute, and that awkwar character who had a crush on her was funny and unfortunately a tad relatable
 
Loved this back in the day. Seasons 1 to 4 are pretty damn good. Each has their own appeal such as Barry White, sexist Billy and finally Larry that helped make the show fairly unique and amusing. Shame that the series ended up being a bit of a mess towards the end.
 
I remember watching this show with my mother. Though the only thing I can remember about the show is that scene with the dancing baby. Man, this thread makes me wanna watch it now. What have you done, OP?! What have you done?
 
J. M. Romeo said:
Absolutely LOVE the show, but I like to do as if Season 5 doesn't exist. Also, it cemented my deep mancrush towards Robert Downey Jr.

I own all of the DVDs (except season 5, of course) and it's a huge guilty pleasure of mine. I watch the whole show every summer and then have Vonda Shepard playing songs in my head bluntly related to whatever is going on in my life for a month or so.

And then everything goes back to normal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a_nYNtFuO4
Click to expand...

Damn that clip is hilarious. Just watching that makes me want to start this show.
 
Just watched episode 6!

The part when the big guy collapsed and Ally started doing CPR on him using her hands only to realize she was too small and he was too big for it to have any effect...

So then she turns around and uses her butt on his chest sitting up and down on him. That was seriously hilarious! This show had too many awesome moments in it! <3
 
Wifey loves it.. I watch it with her sometimes.. Pretty good show on the whole

Wifey has watched the series so mannnny times
 
I just remember seeing a clip of it where a woman wishes the main character a happy 30th birthday.

Then it cuts to an imaginary scene of her shooting her with an Uzi. Pretty sure my jaw dropped because it was my first time seeing the show and I had no idea it was a comedy. And I was probably still in my early teens at the time. Haha.
 
soultron said:
I just remember seeing a clip of it where a woman wishes the main character a happy 30th birthday.

Then it cuts to an imaginary scene of her shooting her with an Uzi. Pretty sure my jaw dropped because it was my first time seeing the show and I had no idea it was a comedy. And I was probably still in my early teens at the time. Haha.
Click to expand...

LOL!
 
The only reason I use to watch it was because of that big tit gorgeous black girl. I don't even remember the premise of the show but I remember her and that dancing baby.
 
Ceebs said:
Lucy Liu is 100% pure sexiness once she shows up. I think Season 2 is probably the high point though.
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Agreed

LQX said:
The only reason I use to watch it was because of that big tit gorgeous black girl. I don't even remember the premise of the show but I remember her and that dancing baby.
Click to expand...

Almost the same for me I don't remember much at all, I know it was the first time I saw Lucy Liu on tv, until I remembered seeing her on an episode of Hercules!


edit: I looked up Lisa Nicole Carson wondering why she has done nothing since Ally Mcbeal and read she suffers from either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Real shame I honestly thought she was a good black actress compared to most.


sorry if the pics are OT
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Q8vK3.gif
 
soultron said:
I just remember seeing a clip of it where a woman wishes the main character a happy 30th birthday.

Then it cuts to an imaginary scene of her shooting her with an Uzi. Pretty sure my jaw dropped because it was my first time seeing the show and I had no idea it was a comedy. And I was probably still in my early teens at the time. Haha.
Click to expand...
Tricky I Shadow said:
Just watched episode 6!

The part when the big guy collapsed and Ally started doing CPR on him using her hands only to realize she was too small and he was too big for it to have any effect...

So then she turns around and uses her butt on his chest sitting up and down on him. That was seriously hilarious! This show had too many awesome moments in it! <3
Click to expand...
These two described scenes just show how funny this series could be. The fact that it was a melodramatic series, but it was crammed with utterly ridiculous stuff made it enjoyable to watch.

And yeah, the series had lots of hot women in it.
 
It got stereotyped as some kind of fem-drama but in fact is a really well written and acted show with some fantastic characters. And on top of it, it also somehow manages to pull off topical irreverence, which is pretty rare.
 
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