Comments on: Anthony Trollope on Lawyer TV Shows

By: Bauer not Bower

Bauer not Bower — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 03:22:36 +0000

Isn’t it Jack Bauer?

By: NBO

NBO — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 05:57:37 +0000

anon: In context it is pretty clear that Trollope is talking about legal elements in his plot, as at this point in the novel the hero has studied to become a barrister and has just been delivered from legal difficulties.

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 04:44:24 +0000

I find it hard to believe you were reading Phineas Phinn, Nate. . . Tell me more. (Actually, if you want to listen, we should talk. . . .)

By: Jack Bauer

Jack Bauer — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 03:16:47 +0000

It’s Bauer not Bower.

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 21:55:23 +0000

Insert “legal” before “consequences” in that last sentence.

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 21:52:27 +0000

Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m not sure that excerpt from the novel says what you think. When I read it, my impression is that he is saying:

1) it’s difficult to be accurate in his “description of things in general,”

2) those inaccuracies might be the grounds for a potential lawsuit.

I don’t know the context, but it doesn’t seem to me that he is focusing on the profession of law, but rather the consequences of factual inaccuracies about almost any subject.

By: Bruce Boyden

Bruce Boyden — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:01:04 +0000

I had become absolutely insufferable as a partner for watching “Law & Order” because I kept saying things like “That isn’t really how it works…”

You’re a lot more restrained than me. I scream at the television, “Object! Object, you idiot, object! Move to strike!”

By: C

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:40:46 +0000

Wasn’t the protaganist in Grisham’s “The Firm” a transactional (tax) attorney?

By: Patrick S. O'Donnell

Patrick S. O'Donnell — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:00:25 +0000

I’ve yet to see this show about the mathematician, but after learning one of the characters names is Amita Ramanujan, I wonder how many viewers get the reference to Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan (1887-1920), the brilliant Indian mathematician who left us too soon.

By: John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:55:14 +0000

Thank God almost none of us mathematicians want to be Charlie Eppes. Jack McCoy is a great character, but at leat he’s not a caricature.

By: Patrick S. O'Donnell

Patrick S. O'Donnell — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 07:52:47 +0000

They ALL want to be Jack? I would think that at least some women might refrain from such aspiration, especially given Jack’s penchant for affairs with his Assistant DAs. I’ve always thought Jamie Ross was a strong character for women (perhaps I’m wrong, female readers will have to chime in here) when she was the Assistant District Attorney: I had rather hoped she might become the Executive Asst. District Attorney. I found Nora Lewin to be rather weak in comparison to Adam Schiff or Arthur Branch. Which of course leaves women with Lieutenant Van Buren, who has a fondness for the poetry of Langston Hughes and sued her dept. for racial discrimination after not receiving a promotion: maybe not a character women lawyers would want to be, but certainly one they could admire and respect….