To Enjoy TV, Suppress Your Inner JD

Concurring Opinion's Jon Siegel has a great post about all of the legal frailties that occur in the TV series "House."  The post helps to explain why attorneys may find themselves watching TV alone at home --it can be difficult to resist the urge to tell your couchmates exactly how the show's writers are ignoring important and fundamental legal principles.  While I was a practicing health care lawyer, I had a hard time watching TV shows with either a medical or legal theme for this very reason.  I found myself jumping off the couch every time a show depicted all of the physicians on the medical staff of a non-Kaiser California hospital as hospital employees, berating the TV show's writers for their ignorance of California's corporate practice of medicine laws.  I was a new associate when Ally McBeal aired, and I used to try to count the actual number of billable hours that Ally racked up during each episode (it was usually no more than a .2 or .3).  Surprisingly, my husband is rarely grateful for these legal insights, so I've learned to suppress my inner JD while we watch TV.