Boston Legal has been a rowdy dowdy acrobat. David E. Kelly's mix of slapstick, satire and sentimentality is a highwire act that's forever at risk of falling flat on its face. Tonight it comes surprisingly close to swan-diving into a big vat of bad taste as Alan and Denny flirt with the idea of swinging with an old friend of Shirley's, a sex-crazed woman (why is it only women who are "sex crazed"?) who wants to sue her town to keep a nuclear plant from being built. Having morphed from naughty boy to liberal champion long ago, James Spader's Alan Shore is unconvincing and slightly creepy when he dips his wick back into the inkwell of genuine deviancy from which his character was originally drawn. Likewise, William Shatner's Denny Crane makes a more affectionate show-off than a leery-eyed lech. So, it's left to Leigh to provide the anticipated quota of laughs as she threatens Katie over her closeness to Jerry. Shirley, meantime, is torn when a teenage sweetheart comes back into her life as opposing council, reigniting old longings and alienating Carl. Not BL's finest or funniest hour.