In case you missed it the past couple weeks, there is a new show occupying the 10 p.m. Sunday time slot on ABC this fall.

Boston Legal, a new show from producer David E. Kelley, began its run Oct. 3. In what is a spin-off of sorts from Kelley's last show, The Practice, the new series stars James Spader and William Shatner as attorneys in an upscale Boston firm.

Both stars had been featured last season on The Practice, when the show received some of its highest ratings in years.

Naturally, given the high-viewer response to Spader's amoral attorney Alan Shore and Shatner's outlandish firm partner Denny Crane, ABC jumped at the opportunity to fashion a hit out of their characters.

The spin-off is a tricky thing to pull off. Networks, riding high on the success of original shows, feel as though everybody will buy into their new versions of the same characters. Viewers don't always feel the same. With Boston Legal, the two may finally be in agreement.

Judging from the funky grooves that come in between plot segments, the show thinks it is cool and hip. It just might be.

In the first episode alone we see Crane having an affair with a top client's wife, Shore taking the law into his own hands when the real thing won't do and Al Sharpton barking a racism rant.

Personally, I think the last one could have been a bit too far of a reach, but that's all part of the fun. If you're into the whole idea that TV is its own world where beautiful women run around like it's going out of style and people can get away with just about anything, this is the show for you.

I enjoy that world, and I enjoyed Boston Legal.

-- by Tim Wright