ABC's "NYPD Blue" generated most of the media buzz last season,only to be upset by "Picket Fences" at the Emmy ceremony inSeptember. This year, NBC's "ER" has become the hottest new drama,adored by critics and viewers.
Can the moderately popular "Picket" come from behind again andscore an Emmy threepeat? Does David E. Kelley's quirky creationdeserve to win against "ER," "Homicide: Life on the Street," "Law &Order," "The X-Files," "NYPD Blue" and "Chicago Hope," Kelley's newhospital drama?
With tonight's "Final Judgment" episode, writer-producer Kelleyreaffirms the vitality of his strange, confrontational,issue-oriented series. Set in the small, fictional city of Rome,Wis. - where Middle America intersects with "Twin Peaks" - "PicketFences" continues to raise hard questions on hot-button topics.
This season, Kelley's characters have offered eloquent, equallyper suasive arguments for and against court-ordered busing to ensureschool integration, the legal rights of murder suspects and convictedchild molesters, biogenetic experiments involving human fetuses,euthanasia and the existence of God.
"Things in this town are never what they appear," saysexasperated Sheriff Jimmy Brock, a conservative pillar of integrityplayed with strength and conviction by Tom Skerritt. He won the bestactor Emmy for his intelligent, uncompromising work in the first"Picket" season.
In last week's "Without Mercy" episode, Dr. Jill Brock (Jimmy'scompassionate wife) was convicted of manslaughter in a test caseinvolving physician-assisted suicide. At 9 tonight on Channel 2, thedoctor's lawyers move to overturn the jury's verdict on the groundsthat the law against physician-assisted suicide is unconstitutional.An ironic subplot involves serial swan killers roaming through Rome.
Kelley devotes the bulk of "Final Judgment" to the pros and consof the law against euthanasia. Jill could have avoided her arrest bylying about her reasons for increasing the morphine dosage to asuffering man dying of cancer.
"This hypocrisy has gone too damn far," the doctor says. "Whenare we going to start telling the truth?" Now she faces a prisonterm because she told the truth about what she believed to be an actof mercy.
Capturing Jill's fear and indignation as a doctor, mother, wifeand humanitarian, Kathy Baker builds a convincing case for her second"Picket Fences" Emmy for best actress. Kelley gives Baker a movingspeech as Jill makes a closing argument in defense of her action.
"When you're looking into the eyes of a dying man, it's tough toconcentrate on the big societal picture," she tells Judge Henry Bone(Ray Walston). "When a patient begs you for peace, it's hard toprioritize the integrity of the law over the dignity of that man'slife. . . . The law says that I should have let him suffer."
Episodes like "Final Judgment" leave viewers with more than foodfor thought. Kelley's dramas are banquets for the brain. That's why"Picket Fences" still deserves your attention - and the seriousconsideration of Emmy voters.
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