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Man-love, bromance, male-lationship, whatever you like to call it, Denny and Alan have it going on.  Can you believe that the famous balcony scene  (where most of the serious man-loving goes on) wasn’t written into the original script for Boston Legal?  Rather, at the end of filming, somebody realised they hadn’t made use of the balcony part of the set and lo and behold, David E Kelley, wrote the first of the balcony scenes that have come to define the show.

They are not first TV male couple to have a bromance (I’m thinking Chandler and Joey!) but probably because of Kelley’s amazing writing and skillful character development, Denny and Alan do it best.  Why does it work and why is it so captivating? I imagine it’s because Denny and Alan represent the impossible, two people worlds apart  (one  a Democrat and the other a Republican) and on completely different moral planes (one  a hotshot lawyer for the money, the other in it to fight injustice) who despite their differences still come together at the end of the day to bear witness to each others lives.

These two guys shouldn’t ever get along, but they do so maybe it’s a case of opposites attract. I think it’s more complex than that. Despite those differences Denny and Alan have many similarites. Both are irreverent when it comes to authority and are self-assured  about their own greatness, which Denny shows by repeating his name regularly and Alan more subtely with a silent stare complete with chin in the air.  Both are skirt chasers, and the irreverence they show for authority also spills over into their attitudes to women, which probably explains why they can never manage to keep one … and here comes the clue to why their man-love works so well for them.

Strip away all the politics, the money, the misadventures with women and what’s left  is two people sharing their humanity.  It’s like, if you can accept me for all our differences, well then you deserve to know me and here I am on the balcony sharing myself with you. It’s a remarkable gift Denny and Alan give each other. Together they witness each others lives without judgement.

They have the perfect relationship, uncomplicated by sex.  In fact, their adventures with women are often short lived or unfulfilling. Their womanly liasons are akin to the extra marital affairs -condoned and encouraged by each other. At the end of the day they do the important stuff, they come together as perfect soul mates to laugh together, affirm each other, hug, dream and smoke cigars. Now, who wouldn’t want that?

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