Boston Legal in Canada!

I've never watched Boston Legal before, even though the William "the Shat-Man" Shatner is in it. But I made myself watch the latest episode called "Finding Nimmo". No that's no a typo. Two of the main characters, Denny Crane (the Shat Man) and Alan Shore (James Spader), took some time off after Alan's girlfriend dumped him. And she didn't dump him for the old boyfriend that showed up, she just had to "move on". Whatever that means; we're not told. All I know is that her character was leaving the show and apparently this was the most convenient way to write her off.

So why did I watch this episode? Why am I making a post about it? The show spends part of its time in Canada. Yes, it is the subplot but still, they came to Canada. It was also surprisingly funny for a legal show. Shatner takes Spader to BC where they go fishing at Nimmo Bay to do some male bonding and forget about the girlfriend dumping incident. There are some beautiful shots of BC, the mountains and the rivers, all the stereotypical stuff you expect to see.

Spader tells Shatner about this book he's been reading about fish farming and how it's hurting the wild stocks. Blah blah, sea lice breed on the farmed fish and then get transferred to the wild stock when they swim upstream. One problem with the episode is that the writers tried to parcel the issue of fish farming into something nice and neat that the American audience would understand. They tried to pass it off as if sea lice were the only reason for the dwindling wild stocks.

Someone obviously didn't do their research. Wild stocks have been falling for years, thanks to illegal fishing in the off season and industrial developement near or on rivers like dams, etc. Also, there's still debate going on whether or not fish farms are actually breeding areas for sea-lice and if they transfer to wild stocks and how much of an affect they have on the fish. As of now, I'm not aware of any definitive answer. If anyone has a better idea, let me know.

Some of the memorable moments from the episode:

When Mr. Shatner got fed up with fishing and shot a steelhead with the gun intended to scare away Grizzlies.

Spader mentions that sea-lice are called cling-ons and Shatner says, "Did you say Klingons?"

When Shatner and Spader walk into a court room, dressed in hipwaders, gowns and costume palace wigs. The judge says, "We don't wear wigs in Canada."

Another story in the series has the company secretary killing a murderer she befriended.
"I was convinced he was evil and would kill again if he wasn't stopped. So I whacked him over the head with his skillet."
"You what?"
"I killed him with a frying pan."