DVD Review: Ally McBeal - The Complete First Season

Release Date: October 6th, 2009
Running Time: 969 minutes

The Show

While the show was on the air Ally McBeal was a pop culture phenomenon, garnering critical praise for its unique nature and condemnation from feminist groups who despised the lead character. For such a popular show it’s strange that it is only now debuting on DVD, but the release was delayed for years due to music licensing issues. Now that the wait is over the question remains—does Ally McBeal still pack the same punch? Though the DVD set of The Complete First Season is pretty shoddy, the show’s quirky wit is as poignant as ever.

Calista Flockhart stars as Ally McBeal, a spastic Harvard Law graduate who is fired from her firm after reporting sexual harassment. Her career is salvaged when she collides with an old friend, Richard Fish (Greg Germann), who hires her at his firm Cage & Fish. The firm is a unique beast (with a unisex bathroom!) that toys with ethics on a daily basis and is full of strange characters. Partner John Cage (Peter MacNicol), aka the Biscuit, is a odd little man and a beast in the courtroom while partner Fish is a money-hungry chauvinist with a fetish for women’s “wattles” and zero skills in the courtroom. Things are also complicated since Ally’s ex-lover, Billy (Gil Bellows) works at the firm with his wife Georgia Thomas (Courtney Thorne-Smith). Rounding out the office crew is the ultra-sexual attention monger, Elaine (Jane Krakowski).

The first season is very introductory, establishing the tone of the show and the characters. The biggest ongoing plot thread is a developing love triangle between Ally, Billy, and Georgia. Some of the strange cases seen in the season include: Ally representing a Jewish woman who wants to get a spiritual divorce from her comatose husband; Fish suing his Uncle’s church for discrimination against short people; and three people looking to get a legally binding three-way marriage. When not in the office or courtroom, the characters relax at a nearby bar where Vonda Shepard provided musical entertainment.

I enjoyed Ally McBeal because there was simply nothing else like it on television. The show walked a careful line between drama and comedy to perfection, embracing the quirkiness of its characters. Most notable was the creative use of CGI in fantasy sequences to divulge characters’ thoughts, such as Ally’s continued hallucinations of the dancing baby. Unflinching voice over moments provided a deeper look into Ally’s persona as well. Like her or hate her, Ally was unlike any other female lead character on television.

The consistently talented ensemble cast brought the unique characters to life, placing just as much importance on their lives as the cases, if not more. The strange, oddball cases they take on lead to unrealistic courtroom drama full of strange events that would never fly in real life but are always entertaining. With the case content often paralleling the characters’ own conflicts, some sort of outlandish outburst was practically guaranteed in every episode. Ally McBeal was the show that took the legal drama and dared to throw the rules out of the window, understanding that pure entertainment always trumps dull reality.

The six-disc set contains all 23 episodes from the first season: “Pilot,” “Compromising Positions,” “The Kiss,” “The Affair,” “One Hundred Tears Away,” “The Promise,” “The Attitude,” “Drawing the Lines,” “The Dirty Joke,” “Boy To The World,” “Silver Bells,” “Cro-Magnon,” “The Blame Game,” “Body Language,” “Once In A Lifetime,” “Forbidden Fruits,” “Theme of Life,” “The Playing Field,” “Happy Birthday Baby,” “The Inmates,” “Being There,” “Alone Again,” and “These Are The Days.”

The DVDs

The video is presented in a 1.33:1 transfer that is average at best. Colors are relatively accurate but the image still has a muted look compared to newer shows. Fine detail is all over the board with many scenes looking soft while others are noticeably sharper. A hefty layer of grain doesn’t help the clarity either. Compression artifacts are somewhat of an issue, and the print displays some occasional damage. After watching shows on Blu-ray this transfer looks awful by comparison, but for a twelve-year-old show presented in standard definition it looks about as good as I expected.

The audio is offered in English/French Dolby Digital Surround Sound and Spanish Stereo with English/French/Spanish subtitles. The show is mostly front-loaded and dialogue-heavy. The dialogue remains crisp but seems a touch out of balance with the voice over. The show hardly offers anything that would require true surround sound so the mix ultimately sounds like it did when the episodes originally aired. The rear channels occasionally kick in for some random effects, but the majority of the effects are spread across the front channels. The music, which plays a large role in the series, opens up the soundstage and has more weight to it than any of the other effects. Like the video, this mix is exactly what I expected from an older show—nothing more, nothing less.

The Extras

Zip. Nada. Zero. Unfortunately you’ll have to purchase the complete series if you want any sort of extra content.

Final Thoughts

With no special features and a very average technical presentation, Ally McBeal: The Complete First Season is a tough sell to anyone other than die-hard fans who would probably purchase the complete series anyway. This set is best saved for a rental if you find yourself wanting to revisit the series.