Product Description

Set in Boston, The Practice centers on a firm of passionate attorneys to whom every case is important and every client worth a fight to the end. Pursuing justice, however, sometimes means crossing the line...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13219 in DVD
• Brand: MCDERMOTT,DYLAN
• Released on: 2007-06-12
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish, French
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 584 minutes

Amazon.com

Defense attorney Bobby Donnell could've had his pick of high-paying jobs at any number of fancy Boston law firms. Instead, he chose to be his own boss. The Practice: Volume One combines all six episodes from the debut mini season in 1997, along with seven episodes from the sophomore year. Though it would've been a more cohesive collection if entire two seasons were included on this four-disc DVD set, it's still a welcome addition for fans of this David E. Kelley drama. Starring Dylan McDermott as Bobby, the cast also includes Kelli Williams as uber-attorney Lindsay Dole, Emmy Award winner Camryn Manheim as Ellenor Frutt, and former cop-turned-defense attorney Eugene Young (Steve Harris). Then there's their friend--and also foil--prosecutor Helen Gamble (Lara Flynn Boyle), who admires the team's tenacity but stops at nothing to beat them in court. During the early seasons, Donnell's firm doesn't bring in enough money to decorate their offices, which are filthy--just like many of their clients. But as they slowly build a reputation as the go-to firm for clients who most likely are guilty but want to be set free, they begin to wrestle with moral dilemmas. As can be expected from a Kelley series, the cases presented here are fabulously sensationalist. But they also touch on human emotions, such as when they represent a client who was fired for being unattractive. The lawyers also have bittersweet moments as they realize they have surpassed their former legal mentors, some of whom have been seduced by the promise of big money. The most compelling episodes involve Dole--a brilliant but unseasoned attorney--who slowly and methodically tackles the tobacco industry. While the opponent has teams of senior attorneys, associates, paralegals, and interns at its disposal, Dole tirelessly works the case and refuses to give in, even when the outcome seems inevitable. The end result isn't believable in the least, but her passion sets the groundwork for one of the show's most watchable characters. --Jae-Ha Kim

The Practice: Volume One Extras

View a clip of David E. Kelley speaking about the creation of The Practice.

Beyond The Practice: Volume One

More From David E. Kelley

More TV Dramas

More From 20th Century Fox

Stills from The Practice: Volume One

Customer Reviews

The first baker's dozen episodes of David E. Kelley's "The Practice"
David E. Kelley created "The Practice" to be the flip side of "L.A. Law," the show for which he wrote 67 episodes and won his first Emmys. Bobby Donell and his partners are not a prestigious law firm in Hollywood, they are scrambling to stay solvent in Bean Town and do it defending clients who are so obviously guilty it is painful. The series lasted eight episodes before it morphed into "Boston Legal," and the keystone for the series was how both sides were always passionate about their positions, and somtimes too passionate. Cold logic is rarely the key to courtroom success in this series, which is just as well because you have clients that run the spectrum from "Free Willy," who likes to expose himself in public, to Gerald Braun, who murders his daughter's killer with the approval of his rabbi. Not surprisingly, these cases take multiple episodes to resolve.

Pay attention to the fact that this is "The Practice: Volume One" and not "The Practice: Season One." The show was a replacement series that first aired on March 4, 1997, and the first season was just six episodes. The second season was a whopping 28 episodes, so the first seven are included in this set of 4-discs. That still leaves 21 episodes from the second season to make up "Volume Two" down the road. This line of demarcation strikes me as strange because 20 episodes on five discs would seem to make more sense, but once we see the next volume the rationale should become clear.

Watching these early episodes again it was interesting to see how Kelley takes advantage of what is a large cast for a "small" law firm. Having a favorite is problematic because they might not have a case go to trial for a while (Eleanor always seems to be second chair early on). But everybody pretty gets their chance to shine: Bobby defending Rachel Reynolds in the "Pilot," Lindsey takes on the tobacco company defended by her law professor ("Part IV"), Eugene making a bet with a prosecutor on the case of Steven Frenault arrested for armed robbery ("Part V"), Jimmy with a little girl bit by a dog ("Dog Bite"), and Eleanor sued by George Vogleman ("Sex, Lies, and Monkeys").

This is a show where the judges matter, with Linda Hunt as Judge Zoey Hiller clearly standing out along with Ed Asner as Judge Matlin Pratt in "The Blessing." One of the fun things is seeing familiar faces as judges, from Ron Glass to Armin Shimerman, but what the judges have to say about the lawyers (on both sides) is part of the equation. Sometimes the clients take over the show, of which there is no better example than John Larroquette as Joey Heric in "Betrayal," although I also remember John Carroll Lynch as Dr. Robert Larson in "Search and Seizure," the final episode in this collection. Obviously, those who caught all eight seasons watch these early ones knowing what is going to happen with Vogleman, Heric, and other memorable clients as well as with the lawyers who defend them. Kelley made sure his shows were always watchable, but I have a slight preference for these early episodes when the cases were smaller and not always at the nexus of a whole bunch of issues.

Finally, Finally, Finally!!!
I have been waiting for the release of this tv show on DVD for a long time. This was one of the best-written, best-performed shows of its time.

Written by David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, Boston Legal...) it was a very serious, thought-provoking series. All the actors were superb,and the story lines were well written.

I hope it doesn't take long to release the remaining seasons.

The Best of the Best...but where are the rest of the seasons?????
The Practice is far and away one of the best courtroom dramas ever on TV. It is also has the smartest writing, storylines, dialogue, et al. I loved this show from the first episode until the last. Even when the cast went through an `upheaval', I stuck with the show for the remaining characters and also, to see how the new ones would turn out. I would love to buy the fist season on DVD, but I am afraid that what has happened to me with Cagney & Lacey, Here Come The Brides, Alias Smith & Jones to name a few. I have had the first seasons for quite some time now and the additional seasons are nowhere on the horizon. For those of us who loved these classic TV shows I wish the studios would just offer the entire series at once. In the long run it would save them money. I would rather pay $200 for an entire series of The Practice than wait years and have to keep handing over $30 or $40 for each season as they dribble out ...Now can someone explain why shows that are currently on TV have vastly more seasons out then the classic shows? Shows currently on: Two & a Half Men, Weeds, Friday Night Lights, Californication, The Closer, Burn Notice, Army Wives, Boston Legal, The Office, Rescue Me...That is 10 TV shows currently on TV with first run episodes, yet the past seasons are coming out on DVD at a very frequent rate but we must be made to wait a year or two, or in some cases (which it looks like for this great show) forever for additional seasons of the classic shows- If the studio heads are listening ...get with it guys & gals, don't make us wait a lifetime for great shows to be put on DVD!