My ORIGINAL REVIEW: This is becoming one of my favorite shows of all time, I can't believe I never watched it while it was still on TV.
The character acting is brilliant for the most part. The sexual tension between Bowen and Valley, between Spader and Bergen, holy cow. And the guest characters who endure for a span of 5 or 10 episodes like the "pee pee" peeping Tom, Bethany the spunky little person who Denny falls in love with, all the unique judges, the adorable romance between Claire and Clarence... For me this show is unforgettable. And more than any of these, Shatner as Denny Crane is full of brilliant one-liners and unstoppable charisma.
But what makes this show ten times better than any of the other impressive character dramas on TV is the writing. When Brad finds out that Denise's pregnancy is his child, his immediate response is "Have you thought about schools?" Almost every episode this show takes us somewhere I never would have expected. We hear passionate defenses from every end of the political spectrum, conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat, gay, white supremacist, foreigners, gun rights, abortion, homelessness, tons of cross-dressing, fetishism, throughout all the insanity the resounding theme is not who's right or what should be legal but "This is the human condition." There is some political pandering and point-making (Spader delivered one too many lines beginning, "Have we become a country of...?") but this show really endures several years off the air now. We see Denny Crane objectifying women and saying some of the most offensive things I've ever seen on TV and the script's written so well that we don't object to them. We see Denise wrap men around her little finger yet we somehow resist the urge to stop wanting the best for her. There's a hook here to catch anybody who happens to catch an episode and frankly I'm surprised it only lasted 5 seasons, though I guess every show realistically has its limits. This has become one of my favorites.
UPDATES: When I wrote the above, I was midway through season 3. Season 4 and Season 5 really took things downhill into leftwing political pontificating. I'm a liberal myself and it was unwatchable to even me. And what I absolutely HATED was that Jerry and Katie got together in the end. All throughout season 4 I was happy that there was a potential coupling but the writers resisted the urge to exploit it, and instead took it as an opportunity to examine a friendship between two coworkers of the opposite sex. Their friendship was beautiful in season 4. In the end, Katie decides to give Jerry a chance at romance, even though she's clearly never been attracted to him.
My opinion of the seasons, from best to worst: Season 3, 2, 1, 4, 5 (worst).
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