Ally McLGBTQ with Cheese

The series momentum seems to slow and almost stop completely in season four of Ally McBeal. The Robert Downey Jr. character has so little going on that it makes the whole show feel inert. It makes me notice some problems that really had been cropping up even early.

I read a criticism that Ally herself isn't shown to be a competent lawyer. I didn't understand that criticism in the first couple seasons but I see it now. Since some time in the middle of the third season it's rare to see any character other than John, Mark, and now Larry (Robert Downey Jr.'s character) actually try a case. Not just Ally but all the female characters are always in support positions.

I have slightly more complicated feelings about the show's increased focus on LGBTQ characters and issues. It's a bit off-putting when Ally rejects a guy entirely because he's bisexual but she does acknowledge it is her own irrational bias. It's work remembering this show was made twenty-five years ago. Of course I've seen people call for certain episodes to be removed from Disney+ but I'd say these are useful reminders of just how much society has changed in the last twenty-five years. Progressives have a tendency to pretend the right sort of people never at any point in history ever had the wrong sort of opinion. It's ironic for those called "progressive" not to what to mark progress or make an effort to understand it through observation.

Season four has a trans character named Cindy, a trans woman played by cisgender actress Lisa Edelstein. I can see arguments for both sides of the issue of whether cis actors should play trans characters. It may help the viewer see the trans character in a way that agrees with that character's self-perception. But I tend to feel any useful narrative on the trans experience would include the anxiety the trans person may feel at being able to "pass".

There is something ironic about "trans-visibility" in that many trans people for a long time wished not to be seen as trans but as simply men and women. The trans people who tend to show up in supporting roles on Disney and Netflix shows now seem like they might be more accurately called "gender fluid" and many do self-describe that way.

Mark, like Larry, often seem like a pointless character. I really had no idea why he was introduced except maybe to fill Billy's role in scripts that had already been written. His relationship with Cindy is the first time he seemed to serve any particular function.

The best part of the episode I watched last night, "Love on Holiday" from December 4, 2000 is the subplot about Nelle who auctions herself off for a date. The winner ends up being a guy about to be sentenced for life in prison for euthanasia. This was a nice meeting of an intellectual moral quandary with a short tragic romance plot.