Own the rights?
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
(This review definitely contains spoilers!) Two words come to mind about this episode: dumb and hypocritical. First, the dumb: One case involves a teenager who was molested and wants to take a pill to forget it happened. Incredibly, her mother wants to refuse her this treatment. More incredibly, Shirley takes the mother's side, only after the molestation incident is first joked about using an anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish slur that I will not repeat. Finally, the judge in the case (who is clearly showing signs of senility) rules in Shirley's favor ignoring the law, logic, and common decency, as well as the wishes of the victim and her father. Apparently he buys Shirley's logic that we're the sum of all our experiences so why should we be allowed to forget the traumatic ones even if they will scar us for life? The other case involves a judge who believes that he has a condition that makes him think he's gay, and wants to sue a program that failed to "cure" him. The program's attorney makes a coherent closing about the facts of her case, including that the judge did not stick to the program, which was successful with other people. Then Alan gets on his soapbox (literally) and delivers a jovial monologue about there being too may diseases these days, which has virtually nothing to do with his case. Of course, he wins the case anyway – this is TV, not reality. He evens get to have sex with the female judge afterward, who once slept with Alan and apparently felt that gave him carte blanche to do anything he wished in court.Now the hypocritical: Not too many episodes back, Shirley sued and condemned a hospital for not giving a teenage girl a "morning after pill" to prevent a pregnancy. Now, she's not allowing another girl to take a pill to simply erase one traumatic memory. So, it's okay to destroy an unborn baby, but not a memory? On the other case, Alan repeatedly condemns those who are opposed to homosexual behavior as intolerant toward a whole race of people. Yet, it seems perfectly okay for him to attack conservatives, Republicans and anyone who has religious beliefs – lumping the latter all together as "big religion." Finally, I almost had to laugh when Shirley referred to that forgetting pill as a form of "brainwashing." Isn't this whole show a less than subtle attempt at brainwashing? There was a nice scene between Claire and Clarence, and Bethany got to see some courtroom action, which is why I gave this episode a two instead of a one.
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