‘Practice’ Makes Close to Perfect

As 1997 segued into 1998, all was not well on the set of ABC’s legal drama “The Practice.” On the air for less than a year, the series had been collecting kudos from critics, but ratings remained anemic. As it hobbled along midway through its second season, TV Guide summed up the situation on its Jan. 17 cover: “ ‘The Practice’: The Best Show You’re Not Watching.”

Yet just when it appeared that the series might end up as another of TV’s promising failures, the show began finding its audience.

And so, as improbable as it might have seemed in early ‘98, “The Practice” opens its seventh season Sunday at 9 p.m. with a dandy of an episode titled “The Privilege.”

Written by series creator David E. Kelley and directed by Dennis Smith, the show picks up where last season’s kooky cliffhanger (Larry King as himself?) left off: Attorney Lindsay Dole (Kelli Williams) has her day in court for the slaying of her former serial-murdering, victim-chomping client. And when a jailed Lindsay is visited by husband Bobby (Dylan McDermott) and their young son, keep the tissues handy.

Then there’s the newest member of the firm, perky Jamie Stringer (Jessica Capshaw, daughter of Kate and stepdaughter of Steven Spielberg), who gets off on the wrong foot in a big way with another lawyer in the firm, Ellenor (Cameron Manheim).

But a walk-in client who wants to make amends anonymously for the long-ago kidnapping of an infant presents the stickiest wicket. The infant is now her 16-year-old daughter, and she has $70,000 in guilt money for both the girl’s real mother and the woman suspected by police but never charged with the kidnapping.

It’s a lot to chew on, but in this season debut, “The Practice” is just about perfect.