Love her or hate her, welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Ally McBeal, a mini-skirted (in fact micro-skirted), power-dressing neurotic with a law degree and conflicted ambitions. As she says, she wants it all, just the dreams of the everyday lawyer - career, marriage, babies and a place in human history. Clearly another child of the Me Decade, where everything is possible, nothing should be denied, and the Superwoman can have it all. She wants three kids, a devoted husband ("my one fish in the sea"), and a spectacular career. As she tells us, she is a victim of her own choices.

The first time we see Ally, she is staring out a window, recounting through flashbacks (in a typical "Ally" voiceover) how she and Billy became childhood sweethearts and then lovers. She came to Cage Fish & Associates following an unfortunate experience at her old law firm, where she was sexually harassed. And Ally's not the only woman in the firm who's single and none too happy about it - "I want to help save the world, but I just want to get married first".

What is immediately different is our entrée to Ally's interior life (as American therapists like to say). We know not only what she's thinking, but we can see it as well in some wild fantasy sequences in her Walter Mitty world. Does this seem disconcerting? Does it make you wonder at the goings-on in your own head? YES! In truth we are cringing at ourselves, at the endless conflicts and attachments that relentlessly invade our consciousness. How about the sequence where Ally wonders what she would look like with larger breasts and presto, there they are, Pamela Anderson in a waif-like frame. Her assistant seems "big headed"? Watch her head swell! How does she feel in a male dominated meeting? Watch her shrink to the size of a child.

It's all a bit incestuous at the small boutique Boston law firm of Cage Fish & Associates. Ally goes to work for the archetypal avaricious lawyer, Richard Fish, and finds herself in the same firm as her childhood sweetheart Billy (they played doctors in their younger days and graduated to lovers). She followed Billy to Harvard Law School, but he is now married to beautiful lawyer Georgia, whom Ally would love to hate but ends up liking (sort of). At the start of the second series the two women engage in a bit of fitness boxing, and as expected, all those pent up hostilities come to the fore with all the effectiveness of a pile-driver left hook.

When things get tough Ally heads for a night-club to be entertained by Vonda Shepard and take to the floor with the Dancing Twins - yes, identical twins who dance in perfect harmony.

Ally, Ally, Ally. She often falls over. She's painfully honest and emotionally vulnerable. Oh, hell, let's face it, Ally is a lot of things, usually in your face and all at once. It's instructive that Ally came into the law by accident - no, it wasn't the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition, but the result of following her childhood sweetheart Billy into Harvard Law School (where she did better, making the Law Review), though not an entirely inappropriate choice given that her father was also a lawyer. She was voted "most likely to become Julie Andrews" in high school. But is she Julie Andrews? Well, she slept with the model in her sculpting class on their second date, perhaps because he is particularly "well-endowed".

But don't forget she's a gun lawyer, involved in difficult cases and legal issues. In other words, Ally is a mass of contradictions and ambivalence. She challenges us to take us to take her as she is, strong on the outside and far less assured in reality - the inner reality we get to see in all its hallucinatory glory, in truth the flaws that we all share but rarely display. So there you have her, dressed in Armani or DKNY, yet struggling with dime store demons (sometimes in the shape of dancing babies). The bottom line is that Ally, like many of the breed of post-Seinfeld American television characters, is narcissistically obsessed with herself.

Ally likes to mutter platitudes and truisms. She calls these McBealisms. Some examples:

• Sometimes I'm tempted to become a street person, cut off from society. But then I couldn't get to wear my outfits;
• I'm actually luckier than most. I get to wake up each morning, glad to start a new day, grateful the last one is over;
• Sometimes I'm more persuasive when I lack conviction;
• The idea that when two people come together they stay together. I have to take that to bed with me every night;
• All I ever wanted was to be rich, and to be successful and to have three kids and have a husband at home to tickle my feet.

Richard Fish, co-founder of the firm, tells Ally, "I didn't become a lawyer because I like the law. The law sucks, the law is boring. But it can be used as a weapon". He's her boss, a smarmy legal assassin who sees some of the same in his recruit. Just as Ally has her McBealisms, Richard has his "Fishisms", for example "bygones", which Richard says when he wants to detach from an emotion. Or "a problem is just a bleak word for a challenge". Or "everyone is alone, it's just easier to take in a relationship". Or " there are no embarrassing ways to make money".

Richard is what Americans might call a sleaze-oid, someone who never apologizes and knows how to get exactly what he wants - given his selfishness, arrogance and narcissism, what else could he be except a lawyer? This is a man who will use compromising photos of a client's ex-husband as a negotiation tool. His ambition as a lawyer? To make "piles and piles of money". Unfortunately he is prone to long and circuitous ramblings from the bar table, where his observations on everything from gender discrimination to the sexuality of his clients quite reasonably gets him into hot water. How did he become a lawyer - perhaps out of Wheeties box. He believes marriage is an insidious institution, and thinks it's important to make a lot of money before scruples have a chance to set in. His girlfriend is a judge with a good twenty years on him, but as he says, she has hair that "flows like an untamed river" and indulges his fetish for the wrinkled skin of the "senior" woman (yes, it's called the "wattle"). He also has something of a sexual fixation on U.S. Attorney-General Janet Reno. Considers himself "upper-ordinary" instead of extraordinary.

Georgia Thomas, wife of Billy, has a wonderfully ambivalent relationship with Ally. She's got what Ally wants (Billy), but the women don't seem to be able to really hate each other. There is most definitely some pressure there, and though Billy may be "technically faithful" with Ally, she is still concerned about their smouldering feelings for each other. And she's right to be wary. In this reviewer's mind it is Billy who's to blame for all this smouldering. The way he looks into her eyes, has intimate conversations in her office…

Billy Allan Thomas is the star litigator of the firm and the love interest in one very interesting romantic triangle. Should he stay with the exceptional Georgia (he thinks her voice is sexy), or return to his first love Ally? Who, by the way, he dumped in the worst way, perhaps contributing to her presently neurotic state of mind. We're not entirely sure what happened with Ally, we've only seen the development of their relationship in flashbacks, but apparently Billy thought it was too soon to make a lifetime commitment. Nowadays he remembers his lovemaking with Ally when he sees her sensuously devour her coffee. But this reviewer is a little sick of his ambivalence - surely he could forget his past love and concentrate on his wife, or leave her to pursue Ally. It seems this view, by the beginning of the third series, has gotten through to the producers.

John Cage is the co-founder of the firm with Richard Fish. He got his nickname "The Little Biscuit" in high school, at the time that he suffered from a stutter. Nowadays he has learnt to control it by singing when he gets nervous. Lately he has been saying the words "Poughkeepsie" instead of the tune. He is a master at distracting his opponents, in and out of court, with patented little techniques like pouring and drinking water, asking the jury to repeat phrases with him, and interrupting his opposing counsel's arguments when it hurts the most (this reviewer would throttle him).

In one show he used a clicker in court to make objections because he had a sore throat. He is often disturbed at various happenings, and then needs "to take a moment". He plays the bagpipes and has been known to leave the unisex bathroom without his pants on. When caught with a prostitute, he calls the office staff together to claim that he has too much respect for women to sleep with them just for sex, so he hires a prostitute instead. He's the type of guy who then circulates a questionnaire amongst the staff for a critique of his explanation (was it sincere, well-delivered, sympathetic?). Nowadays he gets his inspiration from Barry White (see "The Facts" below) and his bedroom companions have included the luscious Nelle. His courtroom tip for our lawyer-type readers: button your jacket as you rise to speak in court as a sign of respect for the judge.

Renee Radick is Ally's best friend and roommate, and works as a Deputy District Attorney. Renee appeals to most viewers. She's a strong woman who also happens to be quite beautiful. She's confident where Ally is not, particularly with men, and thinks she is pretty hot - she believes in visualising her esteem in her breasts, which she knows are attractive to men. She's inclined to give Ally advice on her love life. And its advice worth taking, she knows Ally and is the one who exhibits real common sense. When Ally insists that she doesn't love Bill any longer, Renee shoots back, "that's why you're in the bathroom changing lip liner and wishing your breasts were bigger".

Elaine Vassal is Ally's assistant and resident office busybody. She really wants to be a mother (part of a theme in this show), and while she's biding her time she's always got some project on the boil. Mainly she's a frustrated lawyer who lives to big-note herself as the font of all legal knowledge in the office, which is quite galling to Ally. At these times Ally sees Elaine's head expanding in direct proportion to her bragging. She will always find a way to be included in anything of importance taking place in the office, and is often found in the thick of things in the unisex bathroom.

The best TV shows seem to revolve around an ensemble cast, and this is exemplified in this show.

Calista Flockhart was constantly on the move as a child. She's keeping her age a secret, but she's probably about five years older than Ally's 27. Following high school she attended Rutgers University in New Jersey where she studied acting. She got her big break on Broadway in Tennessee Williams's "The Glass Menagerie", in which she was a sensation. This role is notoriously difficult, vulnerable yet not evoking the sort of pity that would be dismissed by the audience. She received similar plaudits for her work as Irena in "The Three Sisters". Before "Ally" she was the fiancée of Robin William's son in the excellent "Birdcage"; in "Fathers" with Ethan Hawke and "Pretty Woman" Director Garry Marshall's "Wrong Turn at Lungfish".

Where do reality and fantasy intersect? Who knows the truth, but Flockhart claims to be single and concerned about a future alone, a la her famous alter ego. And yes, the biological clock is ticking.

Remarkably, she doesn't watch television.

Lisa Nicole Carson finds herself with two hit shows on her hands - as Ally McBeal's roommate on the show of the same name, and the world's most successful program, "ER", where she is the mother of the angst-ridden Dr. Benton's child. She was also in the movie "Devil In A Blue Dress" with Denzel Washington. Lisa was born in Brooklyn, NY.

Coutney Thorne-Smith will be known to more of you than will admit to it. Why? Because she has starred in that guilty pleasure "Melrose Place", which many yuppie viewers watch late at night with the blinds drawn, much the same as a diabetic might sneak a chocolate. There have now been two Billys in Thorne-Smith's career, as wife to Billy Allan Thomas on "Ally" and nearly married to the ever-so-serious Billy on "Melrose". So she is a graduate of the school of desperate looks and breathless encounters. Let's face it, if she can deal with Heather Locklear's character, she can deal with Ally and a dysfunctional law firm.

Thorne-Smith is 32, and began her career in her home town of Mill Valley California, and despite her relatively young age has already been in a few series prior to "Ally". But her break was in "LA Law", perhaps not coincidentally also the coming out for then very youthful David E Kelley. Then a few mostly forgettable movies, distinguished by the interesting "Lucas" with Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder. She also shared space with Julia Loius-Dreyfus in "Day by Day", from which both have ventured into more successful territory, Louis-Dreyfuss in the most successful show of the 90's, "Seinfeld".

Peter MacNicoll plays the co-founder of the law firm John Cage, and is well known to both television and movie viewers. In movies, he initially made his mark in the brilliant "Sophie's Choice", where he played the young novelist thrust into the midst of a psychodrama. You will also have seen him in "Ghostbusters" (in a very funny turn), "Addams Family Values", "Housesitter" and "Heat". He was also in the incredibly successful movie adaptation of the British television show "Bean". And let's not forget his character Alan Birch on "Chicago Hope", another Kelley vehicle in which he also played a lawyer who met a very grisly end. He directed the third episode of "Ally's" second season. And the Jim Henson Company has optioned a pilot based on a concept written by Peter. He will be seen in "Baby Genius" with Christopher Lloyd ("Back to the Future") and Dom DeLuise.

Jane Krakowski plays Ally's bouncy secretary Elaine. She is very surprised to find herself in a hit series, particularly after she was pipped for the role of Rachael in "Friends". It's hard, though, to understand her sense of awe, because success has come her way from a young age. In her mid teens she was in the soapie "Search for Tomorrow"; at 21 she was nominated for a Tony in the musical "Grand Hotel", for which she received critical and commercially plaudits. Beside "Ally", she is slated to record her first CD, and will soon star in the movie "Dance With Me" (she's featured in a number of Broadway original cast recordings).

Greg German plays Richard Fish, the eccentric co-founder of the law firm. He has most recently been seen in the underrated "Ned and Stacey" as Eric, Ned's best friend. You might also have seen him in "Tour of Duty" (see it if it comes on Pay-TV) and "LA Law", and the movie "Conduct Unbecoming". Also worth noting are "IQ" (good Sunday night video), "Clear and Present Danger" (with Harrison Ford), the watchable "Miss Firecracker", and even the very funny "I Married An Axe Murderer" (he was the desk clerk). He has also directed a short film "Pete's Garden". Interestingly, he wrote an award winning play "The Observatory".

Gil Bellows is Ally's long time love interest Billy. Born and bred in Vancouver, he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Art in Los Angeles. He has previously featured in the excellent "Law and Order" and the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie "Going to Extremes". He has acted in the movies "The Shawshank Redemption" (a must-see on video, quite brilliant), "White Lies" and the Al Pacino directed "Richard III".

Dyan Cannon is Richard's girlfriend Judge Whipper Cone. She's about 60, and beside her more substantial achievements, is well known as an ex-wife of the one and only Cary Grant, and is the mother of his only child. She has been nominated three times for Academy Awards, for "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice" (now dated), "Heaven Can Wait" (a very good night's entertainment) and a short film. You might have seen her more recently in "Out to Sea" with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Cannon has something of a reputation for eccentricity, and could put to shame many women half her age in the body department.

Is it any wonder that this show provokes controversy and public comment? After all, it's created by that master of the emotional hook, David E Kelley. The creator of some great shows, including "Chicago Hope", "The Practice", and "Picket Fences", he brings his oblique view of life to another show about the legal profession. Kelley has now accumulated enough television history to have an identifiable creative persona: quirky, at times surreal, and a willingness to take chances. Try and predict where Ally will be in a few years. Kelley's middle initial should be "I" for "innovation". It is a credit to Kelley's ingenuity and intelligence that he is able to craft this telling portrait of a post-modern corporate woman.

Kelley is legendary for his ability to write the majority of the product that bears his name. Who can forget all those "Picket Fences" episodes that week after week bore the name of its creator as the writer? If there's one word that applies to Kelley, it's "prolific". How does he do it?

Remember when Arnie and Roxanne crashed through the ceiling in "LA Law"? Rosalind stepping into the elevator shaft? The Potato Man on "Picket Fences"? Jerry Seinfeld paid him the ultimate compliment when he noted that Kelley "has actually done things". It's simply not possible to credibly say where these zany characterisations, full of whimsy and heart, really come from. Often we see into their darkest souls, their most intimate secrets, and most of all their tremendous vulnerabilities. Who else could have invented the unisex bathroom on "Ally" (now there's a goldmine for a Freudian).

Flockhart makes it clear that she is bemused by the media's interest in her as a role model. As she points out, are male TV stars expected to be the leaders of a cultural revolution?

The show won 1998 Golden Globe Awards for best comedy (is it only a comedy) and best actress for Flockhart.

Time magazine had Ally on the cover as "Woman of the Year".

This is a show inspired by demographics, especially the 25-39 group with a high disposable income.

In the episode "The Kiss", Ally tells us that her favourite book is "Henderson the Rain King". If you're looking for it, the author is Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow.

There is a unisex bathroom at the law firm - why? Who knows? Check out the remote control flushers! But this is the place to go if you're interested in office gossip.

Vonda Shepard, the singer featured in the night club scenes, used to be Jackson Browne's backup singer. And by the way, here at Law In The Lounge we just love Jackson Browne. Some featured songs (besides the ones she has written herself) are "It's In His Kiss", "Walk Away Renee" (check out Ricki Lee Jones's version), "Seachin' My Soul" (the theme song), "Hooked On A Feeling" (watch the dancing babies), and "Wedding Bell Blues".

The Ally McBeal soundtrack has sold over a million copies.

"Ally McBeal" received ten Emmy nominations in 1998, including Lead Actress, Outstanding Comedy Series, and Writing in a Comedy Series.

Judge Whipper Cone turns up on Kelley's other show about lawyers, "The Practice". And watch for Ally to turn up on her sibling show as well.

Look for a new lawyer from Australia in series two.

If you saw the pilot you would remember the poor chump who's head was bitten off by Ally ("Sorry? Don't say sorry unless you mean it!!!") That was Jeffrey Kramer, the co-executive producer of the show.

In truth, it's more important that Ally is Ally rather than a lawyer. The law is really the wallpaper here, a backdrop to the relatiohsips that take place at the firm.

At Harvard Ally made the Law Review (and Billy didn't). She's justifiably proud of this achievement, but what's the Law Review? It's a student organization that publishes a journal of legal scholarship. To be appointed to the Law Review is a great honour, and you have to be an exceptional student to get there.

In the pilot Ally sues a former senior attorney of her law firm for sexual harassment (he squeezed Ally's buttocks). What would amount to sexual harassment in Australia? Sexual harrassment is a form of sex discrimination, and covers a number of offences: suggestive behaviour, leering, sexual jokes, phyisical contact, sexually offensive gestures etc. The harrassment can take place in the workplace, educational institutions, the provision of services etc. One of the laws that cover this type of behaviour is the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act. In the "Ally" episode the lawyer turns Ally's complaint on its ears by claiming he is the real victim of discrimination because he claims he has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and asserts that he can't stop squeezing women's buttocks! He cleverly files a claim under the Federal Disabilities Act against his firm, at which point the partners decide they would prefer to be sued by Ally.

And what about the episode "The Kiss", in which former television news anchor Barbara Cooker is suing her ex-employer for sex discrimination, because they acknowledged dismissing her because she was getting older and, according to polling, less attractive to male viewers. What would the situation be in Australia? Could it be age discrimination? In general, an act is discriminatory if treats a person unfairly because they belong to a specific group - in this case older persons. Anti-discrimination laws in Australia cover every aspect of the workplace. So, for example, in Australia it is against the law to advertise for a position as requiring applicants to be of a certain age (of course there are exceptions, e.g. the employment of juniors at lower wages). It would certainly be discriminatory to fire someone because of their age when it had no bearing on their job performance.

Did you see the last episode of "Seinfeld"? The NBC producers describe "Jerry" (the fictitious show within the fictitious show that is about Seinfeld and his friends) as a water cooler show - people get together at the water cooler the next morning to discuss the show. "Ally McBeal" is a water cooler show. Why? Because many of us can identify with her fears, neuroses, low self-esteem, and frustrations. In other words, she's real, if not a little eccentric. And there will be many times you just want to say, "can you believe what happened on that show last night?"

This is neither drama nor comedy. It's not the show to visit for the dark foreboding of "ER", or the weekly crises of "NYPD Blue", or the angst of "State Coroner". There is a lighter touch here. As anyone who works in a smallish office well knows, the corporate environment is a hotbed of intrigue, politics, romance and conflicting ideologies. Like all offices, Cage Fish is dysfunctional in the manner of its employees. And if you don't believe that office gossip is a potent weapon, then you haven't worked in an office.

Ally is not Scully of the "X-Files", in fact they're just about the opposite. Where Scully is assured, Ally is ambivalent; where Scully is suspicious about everything, Ally can be convinced of most things; where Scully hardly turns a hair at the supernatural carryings-on of aliens and vampires, Ally is shocked, bewildered and embarrassed at many things, most especially her own behaviour. And Scully also has a dignity and belief in her own worth that Ally could learn a lot from. Kelley expects Flockhart, and his audience, to walk the fine line between the pouting Ally and the courtroom Ally; the sexy Ally and the lost little girl Ally; the Ally in control and the Ally prey to her most bizarre fantasies.

Ally featured on a "Time" cover under the heading, "Is Feminism Dead?" What does this make the Spice Girls, leaders of the revolution? Give us a break, this show does no more than what it sets out to do, which is entertain. It's not a polemic, nor should Ally be saddled with the responsibility of waving the flag for professional women. She's inexperienced, confused, successful and immature. What else should she be at 27, Gloria Steinem in a mini-skirt? Why should Ally be expected to be a politically correct role model just because she's a woman? And anyway, she seems to spend a fair amount of time bucking the expectations her colleagues have of her as a stereotype.

A lot of the pre-publicity for this show suggested weighty issues handled with a certain whimsy, but this is unfair. In fact it's a lot less profound than much of "Northern Exposure", less stuffy than "LA Law", and a lot more fun than "NYPD Blue" (which we love). This is intelligent but carefree entertainment, and to judge it as a banner for the new millennium (let alone the new feminism) is just plain silly. It should not have been unexpected that in the 1999 Emmys the show was nominated for (and won) Best Comedy - well, what should we expect? Surely we take ourselves just that little bit too seriously if we believe it is a drama. Perhaps surreal, but never drama.