"Philly" - Steven Bochco's Best Failed ABC Television Series

One of the best failed television series in ABC history is "Philly"-cancelled after a single series run in the 2001- 2002 season. Don't watch it if you hate lawyers. I often tell people I hate lawyers, too, but I don't. I tend to hate lawyers who become politicians and then forget that public service is not self-service as they grow increasingly more enamored of the perks associated with the job.

Such lawyers view their constituents as a kind of jury which will acquit them as they serve out each term. Much time is spent trying to convince this constituent "jury" of things these lawyers do not themselves believe, thereby gaining "acquittal" and the mandate to serve another term.

Hate is not, perhaps, the right word. Applied to lawyers, it seems that any word would do and would sometimes apply. Even good words.

Which brings me to the reason I like "Philly" so much. Kim Delaney stars as defense attorney Kathleen Maguire, tough-minded, devoted to her clients, and with a compassionate heart that always seems to create problems for her.

That's formulaic, of course, but Kim Delaney is as convincing a "Philly girl" as Rick Hoffman is a middle-class "Long Island boy" trying to make his legal bones in Philadelphia. Delaney was born in Philadelphia, knows the turf, as much as Hoffman, born on Long Island, does his. Altogether, it's an urban east-coast sort of myth-newly hatched suburban adults making their way in sclerotic, cold arteries of the Big City.

"Philly" hits all the high notes and legal subtleties. Rick Hoffman always delivers his grating and occasionally noble performance as Terry Loomis. There is a colloquial saying in Pennsylvania which speaks of the advantages of having a "Philadelphia lawyer" and it's not meant to be a compliment. It would be hard to find anyone more suited to the mold. The voice deprecating, consciously nasal, and resonant at the same time that it bites into the skin, Terry Loomis is proud, disdainful, and self-righteous in his pursuit of criminal offenders.

The entanglements of the legal profession are legendary, and it's not uncommon in real life for conflicts of interest to compel people to operate at cross-purposes. The legal profession is a magnet for scandal, as the official records of many a town or city will attest.

In a recent episode, Kathleen's compassionate heart exposes her to ridicule when she lets a jailbird client crash on her couch. Kathleen's arranged for the con to turn himself next morning, but the cops get to him first. The con, dressed in the ill-fitting clothing left over from Kathleen's estranged husband, is taken down on the sidewalk outside Kathleen's Philly flat. Highly embarrassing!

You can't expect the ex-husband, an ambitious and prominent District Attorney, to appreciate a con sleeping at his ex-wife's house when there's a child involved, and shared custody. Enter ex-husband's girlfriend. Big-hearted Kathleen is not jealous of her ex-husband's new main squeeze but the girlfriend can't be half as magnanimous. She's also an assistant DA, the prosecutor by proxy, going for the jugular, trying to put Kathleen's client away for many years. There is not so much wonderment at who's sleeping with whom-it's more a matter of wonderment that decency appears in any characters at all, except in that of kind-hearted, and by fate despoiled, Kathleen.

Meanwhile, Kathleen has another jailed client who doesn't know when to fold 'em. Kim Delaney's "Kathleen Maguire" character has already plea bargained her client down to murder three instead of murder one for killing a senior citizen during a robbery. However, the perp won't take the great deal. The con's attitude is all wrong as he blames the victim and says the old doll was "asking for it."

That's another reason "Philly" is one of the best failed ABC television shows ever. The low-lifes are rarely possessed of the endearing qualities political correctness demands-especially when ethnic criminals are involved. It's far more effective drama when your perps look like the people you'd meet if you were to sit in the waiting room of a big city Probation Office, as I recently did (not on behalf of my own self). The "Philly" writers, and Director Steven Bochco, were not struck dumb by PC clichés which dictate that all perps must be victims of our evil society.

Only dull people watch television strictly for its plots. The attraction of "Philly" isn't in its plots. It's more that the show's plots fit into the real nature of American justice as it's meted out daily in courtrooms across the country where the bulk of criminal cases are disposed of without trial. Justice is often a matter of a better deal, played out against prosecutorial city budgets. Sometimes justice gets its appendages caught in the bureaucratic urban zipper.

"Philly" can be seen on DirecTV's CI channel 289. A great injustice was perpetrated on America when ABC cancelled the show after its single season.