The Practice will no longer be practicing. After the ouster of most of the cast (they only kept Eugene, Elanor, Jimmy, and Lucy from the old crew)…gone are Lindsey, Rebecca, Bobby, Helen…all the “big money people”. In came James Spader, and at first, I was amused by his character. After a bit, I grew tired of it. Apparently so did the people whose opinions make it in to the ratings factors.

It seems that this was like a “salary cap” issue. They axed several big contracts and replaced them all with rookies and one “free agent”, James Spader, who often , in his movie roles plays some snobby, stuck-up rich kid with an attitude to match. His role in the Pratice seemed to be the same. What he allowed to get away with (and finally now that they are cancelled, they’re finally getting rid of him…..or , another temporary- cliffhanger for a farewell, grabbing for those last few ad dollars).

Nearly every episode since Spader’s arrival was all him. I’m sure that the Eugene and Bobby charcters were not too pleased (or maybe they were just out looking for new roles/jobs….they were often very involved in plots, even when the big stars of the past (McDermott, Flynn-Boyle, and the others) were still there. It seems that the entire storylines all switched to follow the “entertainer”. The strategy backfired. Oh well, I enjoyed the series, for the most part, over the years (I started watching in about 1996)