Notes on The Practice Season Two and Three
Fall 1998: Congratulations are in order. The Practice
won the Best Drama Emmy, and Camryn Mannheim won the Best Supporting Actress in a
Drama emmy.
Season Three:
9/27/98 So I settle in on the couch for the
Season Premier, see Bobby walk down the street, sigh, then BAM, and I am screaming
"Call 911!" then commercial. So Lindsay is soo perceptive of nonverbal communication and
you see her following Bobby like a shadow. That is foreshadowing methinks. Rebecca passed the
bar and everyone is rolling their eyes at her novice legal ways. We finally meet Bobby's
dad whom he passes off as a big time lawyer uptown but he really is the janitor there.
Men exchange deep feelings for each other (and we know how hard that is for them).
Looks like we are off to a great start this season. They are letting his hair grow out. Good.
10/4/98 Helen and Lindsay are roommates now? The ad says "They should make great
roommates. They both have Bobby in common." Becca wins her first case with Jimmy
wringing his hands. The office has a new legal secretary, Lucy, young, fashionable,
and speaks her mind. Lindsay is her usual snoopy self always appearing in the door
way whenever Bobby is upset. 10/11/98...Courtroom drama a plenty. Good reaction shots.
Can you say a podiatrist with a woman's head in a bag comes into the office? eeewww.
Wot to do? Defend him of course. Dylan threatens a witness "Want to read that as
a threat? Go ahead." Nasty but effective and that's all that counts. 10/25/98...
11/8/98 to get the client off Eugene accuses the brother on the stand, it worked
but the victim's father was not too happy about the method used, Ellenor throws
Helen the DA a fast one, making her testify for an off the cuff remark she had
made earlier, Helen was not too pleased. 11/15/98 Lindsay and Bobby get thrown in jail
for contempt of court hey who knew the judge would get mad for getting a brief
thrown at her head, Eugene takes another blow to his ego (maybe it's lucky it wasn't his head again
like last week), the firm gets slapped with a $30 million lawsuit for accusing the
brother of murder in the headless case which their client was found innocent of last week.
Lindsay's tenacity in the face of everyone including Pearson wanting to back down
and throw themselves on the mercy of the judge, she gets his sentence reduced to
manslaughter. woohoo, you go girl. Lucy is young but astute and promises not to touch
Bobby's hair. hee. Eleanor stands up to the lawyer suing them and promising to get ugly.
11/22/98 Jimmy chairs the lawsuit defense and wins. Lucy holds a christmas party.
She wanted to quit but Bobby said "NO! You are working out here." He still dances
around the whole Lindsay question in typical male confusion about gasp feelings.
Confesses to Rebecca that he kissed Lucy and Lindsay and she swats him. Helen tells
Lindsay if you are waiting for him to get over me it will never happen. 1/10/98
Great episode. Bobby in an ethical dilemma when a friend calls him to tell
him his young daughter gave birth in the house and the infant was found dead
(a live birth) in a clothes hamper. What to do? Helen has her hands full
prosecuting a man for assisted suicide. One of her favorite hot issues.
The office is in an uproar that Lindsay is getting special treatment
from Bobby coz of her girlfriend status. Helen has a new haircut on
the advice of Lindsay (meddlesome woman she is) and I hate it. She
looks like a frump. It is shorter, bangs with hair that is straight
and tucks under at the shoulders. 1/17/99 A woman judge in her well, ahem, dottage is hot for Bobby is even
tells him that during a trial he is chairing she is judging. Hot Water.
Bobby comes to Lindsay as a colleague and she replies as the girlfriend.
Can you say confusing. At the end of the show the judge is seen penciling
out Lindsay's face in a pic of her and Bobby together outside a courthouse.
Can you say "obsessed?". 2/7/99 ok Helen's hair is a little easier to deal with now.
Eugene needs something to do besides look after his son's puppy love for Lucy
(of all people). Ellenor goes to bat for a junkie who she knows is innocent
of drug dealing charges, Bobby gets help from Lindsay to unmask a lawyer
using a fictitious client to cover up for his real whereabouts in a murder
trial in which a young prostitute is on trial, Lindsay I gotta give her credit
for finding holes in the law to try different unusual tactics. Jimmy as only
he can playacts during a bitter divorce settlement to make both sides
feel they have won and gotten revenge on the other. Rebecca is horrified. 2/21/99
Sparks fly when Lindsay lunges at Elleanor's scathing remark in the boardroom,
and as it spills out into the offices a client seeing the spectacle says "it's none
of my business but you people have a morale problem". Elleanor is out for blood
when she finds out Lindsay makes twice as much as she does a year. Well, personally
I want to know why these people are living where they live and what are they doing
with all that money (6 figures), never take a vacation, rent don't own, I mean is it all tied
up in stock options or what????? I loved it when Bobby cross examines Lindsay's motives
as a means of foreplay in his office. ooh la la. and Yay Helen for sticking up for
jail time for the cat murderer. It's only a cat indeed. 2/28/98 Wow, I was
impressed with the plot of this episode. What a tangled web this firm weaves.
Ellenor has her comeupance when she is abruptly accused of heroin possession
and concealing evidence (namely remember the head in the bag guy --the
knife used in the murder). Lindsay and Rebecca come to the rescue. The
whole team pulls together. A fast-paced, well-written ep. Ellenor and Lindsay
make up when it's all over. We wish life were so tidy. 3/14/99 The ep is mostly
devoted to Eugene in a custody battle with his wife over his son's recent
foray into drug peddling at school and his bad example of a father for keeping
criminals out of jail. Bobby goes to bat swinging hard. DUCK. 3/21/99
Wow a rousing performance by Lindsay and Helen who have to try (pun?)
to outsmart each other in a case against a nasty alleged murderer of
women. Helen gives Lindsay the rub about how can she look at herself
and try to get these people off. Lindsay was handed the case by the
judge to try so she had little choice, and Bobby made sure she gave
it her best no matter how disgusted she was by the client's alleged
apartment living. Fighting, yelling, points of constitutional law,
moral dilemmas, Bobby's blue eyes, ..who could ask for anything more in a tv show.
Season finale: Lindsay recovering in hospital and Bobby tells Helen to get lost.
She refuses so he is forced to ask Lindsay to marry him in front of Helen.
Priceless. And we find out the real identity of the "NUN" but I wont
spoil that surprise!
1997-98 Season Comments. All subjective ramblings.
The romance element definitely heated up a few epidodes ago. His character, Bobby Donnell,
is the head of a law firm in Boston. Bobby went from no women on the show to two.
I have fallen off my chair! More than once. And did you see
the shower scene with the Asst. D.A. Helen. Steamy??? OH MY GOD! I nearly went blind,
well my glasses went flying off my face at the shock to my system! Then there was
a recent show where Dylan and Helen are in bed and the camera pans up their body
and neither has any clothes on. Ok bordering on softporn but who's complaining?
A recent episode has Bobby and Helen in the kitchen. TV Guide article said the
scene originally included a part where he yells "BASTE ME!" Unfortunately the show
which aired recently had that part cut. In the most recent episode...Well, Poor Helen!
What she has to put up with that Bobby. Now he is throwing her over for some $1 million
retainer. MEN!!!!! And now we see the plot take another turn when he appears more
concerned for Rebecca's life than Helen's with the convenience store murderer's
pending conviction. I just love the deadpan look on his face when women drop some
verbal bomb. He just stands there, says nothing. Maybe wiser than we thought.
My friend DB thinks Bobby has some major issues with intimacy perhaps relating
back to having to turn the vent off on his dying mother. Bobby and Helen are
fighting again now. Well that always happens when they don't "do it" regularly.
OH MY! Now Lindsey dropped ye olde bombshell that she is in love with him. Why
else would she put up with so much? Bobby can be a bit clueless, as if we could not
see that coming. Deirdre is convinced he and Helen just were in it for hot sex.
4/6...Well, Bobby broke down and let the others have a piece of The Practice. I loved
the line where he says he is sick of trying to please everyone. That's a hard
lesson to learn. But he was clear to them about what he would and would not accept.
The art of negotiations. Lindsay definitely is in love with Bobby. Don't ya just
hate when you are in love with someone and you can't control it? Helen said she'll
step aside. Love those suits Bobby is wearing these days. Nice cut of clothes.
Nice cut of something else. HMMMMMMMM......Ok, Ally McBeal and Bobby. uh...hmm.
She is a bit of a spaz. And Helen does not like her. Could make things interesting.
She seems to read him real well. Maybe she'll get him out more and he will ground her
to be less neurotic? OH that Lindsey, I love the line "The wanting is more fun than
the having." What a great employer to work for. If you try to kill his worker he
will hold you out the window and threaten you with imminent death unless you confess.
I wish my employers stood up for me if I needed them. I would be blamed for being shot
more like! "why didn't you duck the bullet?" uh.. anyway! (5/11) Bobby stands up for his
principles yet again. What a man. Gotta love a guy with conviction. Can't wait to see what David Kelley cooks up for next seasons show.
Email me with comments on The Practice
Back to Dylan McDermott MainPage
This page last updated September 11, 1999 using CuteFTP.