Jewish World Review June 10, 1998 / 16 Sivan, 5758
ABC's The Practice
insightful, inciteful
By Elliot B. Gertel
DAVID E. KELLEY'S latest series, The Practice, about a fledgling law firm in
Boston, has had many fine moments. It definitely showcases Kelley at his
best --- serious yet witty, insightful yet affecting. Even my initial
concerns about the program glorifying skilled managers at the expense of
highlighting thinking and idealistic judges and attorneys, subside in the
face of a genuine wrestling with moral issues and concerns about integrity
which The Practice somehow delivers more effectively than Kelley's other
impressive outings.
Monday evening's episode about a doctor accused of mercy killing is an outstanding
case in point. Another episode about a doctor trying to force a woman to
give birth by Caesarian section, and whose husband sides with the doctor
against religious beliefs, is also memorable.
Yet for some inexplicable reason, The Practice continues to distract itself
and its viewers with gratuitous "Jewish" issues and characters. Since the
earliest episodes, law partner Ellenor Frutt (effectively played by Camryn
Manheim) has represented the overweight and graceless woman trying to make
it in the workplace and in life. In one of the series' first episodes,
Ellenor's pampered cousin wants to sue her travel agent because sloppy
arrangements for a honeymoon trip caused this cousin "sexual frustration
and aggravation." Ellenor is shocked that her cousin would be willing to
subject her new husband to the embarrassment of a trial in order to get her
"day in court."
At first, Ellenor is polite and helpful, despite her obvious disdain for
her pretty and selfish relative. But her cousin crosses the line when,
frustrated with Ellenor's reluctance to bring the matter to trial, she
castigates Ellenor with comments about how the latter is incapable of
long-term relationships, anyway, will probably never have a honeymoon, and
thus "can't accept the importance of sex." The sequence ends with Ellenor
punching her cousin and knocking her out.
Punching someone out is a device that Kelley uses from time to time with
obvious relish. Statistically speaking however, we may find that it is used
most often for Jewish characters who overdo it --- being Jewish, that is. On
Picket Fences, the only one punched out in this way was the rabbi. Here, on
The Practice, the punch is reserved for a stereotype, a "Jewish American
Princess," and the suggestion is that it is all right to "punch the JAP" if
her Jewish cousin does so in a bid for sympathy from the audience.
It is significant, also, that in the same episode, the self-serving Jewish
woman is not the only object of ridicule. She shares that "honor" with a
Jewish man in the main plot, which is the trial of a black man who pushes a guard through a store window out of the indignity of being accused of shoplifting. During the trial, a Dr. Alvin Traub, a "leading urban anthropologist," is called in by the defense to testify that black
men can't be held psychologically responsible while "in a pack;" that they
can easily fly "off balance" in a group.
Even the defense attorneys, especially the black lawyer, are
offended by this argument. It is, in fact, the black partner who
asks why the argument was not use, of a father in a previous case, a
physician who shot his daughter's murderer, that he behaved that way
because he was Jewish. The response from his colleague is that that case
was about a father's outrage because his daughter was killed.
Why this fixation on Jews? Could it be that Kelley is not using these
characters in a gratuitous way at all, but rather that he regards Jews as
"scriptural," or prototypical, of universal foibles, like Jacob and King
David? Still, we would have to ask why it is that the Jews on this
"paradigmatic" episode are all arrogant, litigious, and also interested in
profiting off these traits? (It comes out during cross-examination by the
prosecution that the Jewish "urban anthropologist" demands a fee of $10,000
for testifying at such trials.) The only impressive character in that
particular episode was the possibly Jewish judge, Zoey Miller.
One can, I suppose, argue that Ellenor is intended to represent a
sympathetic paradigm of the unattractive, brutally honest female
professional who not only doesn't get her man, but who provokes negative
responses from most men --- judges and clients and dates alike.
True, Ellenor can be most supportive and helpful to clients and colleagues.
But she also happens to be, to my knowledge at least, the only female
character in TV history who was sued by a one-time date for fraud and
intentional affliction of emotional distress. She had been rude and had
mistreated a blind date she met through a personals column, a podiatrist by
the name of George Vogelman, obviously another litigious Jew, and one who
had a greater fury than hell when scorned. During the testimony, she very
cruelly remarks that she thought he was a loser, and didn't want to play
"the fat girl by the punch bowl who leaves with the nerd." No less cruel,
he reduces Ellenor to tears when he testifies: "Imagine what it's like to
be the nerd who can't even get the fat girl by the punch bowl." He says he
felt that he was desperate, but hurt to find that she "wasn't that
desperate."
Now Kelley does say many insightful and noteworthy things here about the
way people treat each other on dates. He correctly and thoughtfully
suggests that ethics should apply to dating, too. But I wonder whether he
is, even subconsciously manufacturing "scriptural Jews" in the process. For
this Jewish viewer, at least, it is hard to tell which is more
disconcerting: when Kelley's "scriptural Jews" are obnoxious and
self-serving, or when they are nothing more than victims or doormats, as is
the case in three episodes about a homicidal homosexual (played by John
Larroquette) who gets away twice with stabbing to death his (Jewish)
lovers.
One gets the impression nowadays that Kelley is not so much fixated on Jews
as on scriptural and religious issues. Among the best episodes on The
Practice are those that focus on the Catholic Church. These demonstrate an
earnestness and a sense of reverence that was not evident in Kelley's
earlier work, particularly Picket Fences, even when the Catholic Church was
the topic.
But I was deeply impressed by an episode on The Practice about a
priest who performed an exorcism on a woman without the permission of the
archbishop, resulting in the heart attack death of that woman. The
principal of the law firm, Bobby McDonnell (well-played by Dylan
McDermott), is determined to help the priest through the legal inquiries
just as the latter helped Bobby through the death of his mother. In one
scene, he advises the priest in a confession booth. Far from detracting
from the sanctity of that chamber in church theology, the scenario implies
an expression of the layman's gratitude for the church and its sacraments
by being able to assist the church. The episode is quite honest and
touching in his conclusion that a decent and honorable priest has the right
to be troubled by the methods and processes of the legal profession, even
when that profession is used to assist the church out of the most sincere
and pious motives.
"I don't question what you have done for me" the priest tells Bobby at the
end. "I do question what I have done for you." If a parishioner, a lawyer,
is successful at a craft which may entail deceit and guile, then has his
priest been effective, even if he is "saved" by that craft? It is an
important question brilliantly handled on that episode. And in one of The
Practice's most riveting episodes, about Bobby tipping off a client with
information he learns while spending the night with the D.A., and thus
being responsible for the ambush deaths of several policemen, the symbol of
the cross is effectively used in a closing scene that suggests the need to
turn to abiding truths in the face of the ambiguous politics and laws of
people.
At one point in the exorcism episode, the priest takes a lie detector test
to prove that he did not contribute to the woman's death on purpose. The
man administering the test asks him, "Are you Jewish?" He responds with a
rather adamant, "No."
And so, for whatever reason, the "Jewish" theme comes up again. Is it too
much to request that Kelley show the same respect to Jews and Judaism that
he has rightly come to show to the Catholic Church? That would mean, I
suppose, not using Jews "scripturally" as paradigms for personality
problems and as fodder for gratuitous laughs.
Contributing writer Elliot B. Gertel is JWR's resident media
maven. He is based at the National Jewish Post and Opinion.