Bloopers (and mini rants)

What's with this? It seems everyone (except James…so far) who is connected with Legal Services gets paired off like an animal boarding Noah's Ark.

I saw the Nick-Lulu thing coming a mile away. Anyone who's watched any television, read any contemporary books, seen any plays, could have seen that coming. I'm already resigned to the fact that Nick and Lulu will be Ross-and-Racheled or Mulder-and-Scullied or Buffy-and-Angeled for however long "The Guardian" is in production. I'm resigned to the fact that Nick and Lulu will have sex one night. She will 1. get pregnant, have the baby on her own and begin a relationship with James , or 2. get pregnant and find out her baby has some weird telekinetic powers highly valued by UFO groups and secret government agencies or 3. won't get pregnant but learns she has to kill Nick with a sword to save the world…well, er…hmmmm…. okay maybe not with a sword. I'm resigned to the fact that after their "moment of true happiness" Nick will 1. become a totally emasculated character slack-jawed as Lulu embarks on a relationship with James, or 2. go into hiding from the government in order to protect Lulu and their baby, or 3. revert to evil Nicholas who hangs with his vamp friends, Spike and Drusilla, and will spend the season trying to kill Buffy, I mean, Lulu. Yawn…been there, seen that.

I'll admit that the Barbara-Jake relationship is cute. That's a relationship that could go a number of ways. It's based upon mutual respect and a fondness for each other's company. But Alvin and Laurie???? Come on! We are given the history that Alvin and Laurie have known and worked with each other for twenty-odd years. So they work together one more time and BOOOMM!, Alvin realizes Laurie is such a hottie that he gets all Pepe LePew over her. PUH-leeze! Because I like the series so much, I can tolerate the minor continuity problems with the series, but this?

What's next? Will we have gratuitous Alvin-Laurie make-out scenes? Will there be the ever-so stereotypic love triangle? Will there be a relationship and Laurie will break it off, crushing Alvin? Afterall, Kathleen Chalfont is slated to appear on another CBS drama this year? Better yet, will Hollander take a page from the "Buffy" series and pattern Alvin-Laurie after the Giles-Jenny story? If he does, then expect Laurie to betray Nick and to be found dead on Alvin's bed. Note to self: keep all things that can be thrown at tv out of reach while watching future "Guardians".

And another thing…I admit I keep rather to myself in my neighborhood, but I do recognize my neighbors, especially the ones who have a daily regimen of walking or jogging. So why did it take this long for Nick to meet Judge Stanton in the neighborhood? Geez-louise! Is Nick that much of an isolationist that doesn't notice these things? If so, I hope he won't join the Neighborhood Watch Program!

During Lesley Walker's custody trial, Judge Dansen asks Nick if he had ever been in a "long-term relationship". Nick shakes his head indicating 'no' to that question. Nick is under oath during this head shake. Fast forward to "Solidarity". Nick, we learn, was in a relationship with Lynnette an actress, when he was working at Swann and Cranston in New York City. According to Lynnette, they were apartment hunting and had a pretty committed relationship when he decided to take the job at F & A.

Okay, I'll concede that "long-term" is relative to definition. If Nick had revealed that he ditched a committed relationship to work with his father, it may have jeopardized his bid to adopt Lesley.

In "Indian Summer", Alvin confides that he used to represent adults, but switched to representing children. He cites a case in which he represented a couple trying to get custody of their seven years old daughter. Alvin succeeds. Some time later, the child is found dead in the attic of her home.
Fast forward a few episodes to "Causality". Here we learn of the Kurtz case, another custodial case in which Alvin succeeds. Again, the parent is unfit and the result is the death of a child.

So what case was it? That can be the beginnings of a good debate. Let's look at the Kurtz case. Laurie Solt figures out that this was the case that made him switch. Alvin neither confirms nor denies that. Yet, Alvin does confirm the attic case. I happen to think that it was a culmination of similar cases that convinced Alvin to represent only children. Taking into consideration that Alvin was probably idealistic in the early days of the clinic, it's pretty easy to see how that idealism can shatter and become embittered with a set (or perhaps a group) of similar cases with similar results.

Burton's personnel file is legible. It lists his birth date as 9/13/27, height as 5 ft 2 in, hair color as "brown" and marital status as "Married" with "dependents. For more see Clayton Steel
Picked up by "T" and "Janet" from The Guardian CBS YahooGroup.

In "Paternity", she would have been 59 years old had she lived. Yet, her tombstone in "Causality" lists her year of birth as 1940, making her 61 years old. For her to have been "59 years old" as mentioned in "Paternity", she would have had to been born in 1942.

Mini rant about Liz's and Anne's age In "Family" we are again reminded that Anne would have been 59 years old in "Paternity" and again shown her tombstone from "Causality". Reminding us again, that there's big math mistake. Here's the another twist of the monkey wrench. Liz's age. In "Family", we are informed that Liz was a teenager during the Burton-Anne marriage breakdown occurring in the late 1970s (They divorced in 1980). For Anne to have been a "teenager" in the late 1970s (1978-1980), meaning she was between the ages of 13 and 19, Liz would have been born between 1959 to 1967. This would have made the age difference between Anne and Liz to be 19 to 27 years !!! At her youngest, Liz is only 3 years older than Nick!
I don't think Liz was a young teenager (13-15 years)during that time. At least I hope not. If she was then the readings on the 'yuck! meter' has gone into the danger zone concerning the poolside flirtation with Burton!

"Causality" ends with a bar fight on the night of Alvin's birthday. Throughout the episode, we are told that Alvin's birthday is Friday. "Privilege" begins with Nick waking up from his drunken stupor the next morning in Burton's kitchen. At the funeral, Nick speaks to James on the telephone asking him to fill-in for him on a placement hearing that morning for a 9 year old girl. The next scene is Nick arriving at Legal Services. He apologizes to Lulu for his advances "last night" (another clue that it is Saturday morning)
Extra nitpick: How could Nick have been assigned a case when Alvin tells him in "Causality" that the cases for the week were already assigned?