Glenda Cooper disagrees: the series has many quirky assets and interesting characters, she argues. It’s just that Ally McBeal herself is not one of them

She’s everything we wish to be. That’s why I like her, says Kate le Vann – and perhaps why you hate her.
Here’s why I like Ally McBeal She’s smart and plucky She believes in true love and she can’t dance. And the show is the closest we’ve come to a primetime musical since The Kids From Fame Most of my girlfriends hate her “She’s self-obsessed and whiny,” they say. “Those skirts,” they say.While it’s true that Ally has clocked up the single largest first person pronoun count in television history, most of these come from her endearing repetition of the first syllable of each sentence, which is only “I” about half the time.

And it seems unfair that the same dress-sense that made This Life’s Anna strident and ballsy makes Ally a subservient wimp.Even her faults don’t meet conventional female-angst specifications, which is what makes Ally refreshing. She’s indecisive, insecure, a little naive – nothing men would find unattractive. But then, male fantasies frequently make great women: Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction, Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. When women write for women, we get Meg Ryan movies.A recent survey showed that the only female characters in US sitcoms that British women identified with were Rebecca from Cheers and Frasier’s Roz.

Rebecca, who has never been bettered, was a gorgeous mess – she may have had the body of a strong and confident woman, but she had the heart and stomach of a loser Roz is another smart cookie who makes foolish choices. Feisty and sexy, she picks all the wrong men, who usually reach fourth base, but seldom a second date.For women, it’s all down to having the right neuroses; like Bridget Jones Bridget struggles with calories Score one Ally is effortlessly skinny Minus four. Bridget drinks and smokes too much, showing healthy disregard for her body Score five. Ally would never smoke – this is America! – and she certainly doesn’t get pissed Even on bad dates Minus seven. And what about those bad dates? Bridget’s boss treats her like crap, and her boyfriend blows hot and cold Go to double figures.

Everyone is in love with Ally, even when she doesn’t know it, even when she’s dithering and stuttering and being thin all the time You do the maths. Bridget works at being irresistible to men while Ally just is, without even being aware of it.It’s not hard to see why cool women won’t warm to her. Be honest, though – isn’t part of the irritation just physical prejudice? Wouldn’t you hate Ally less if she didn’t look like even Natalie Imbruglia could kick her butt?It’s easy to like characters who share our flaws, because if they’re sexy, it lets us believe maybe our hang-ups are sexy too. But with her limp hair and bad suits, the fixation with that drippy tease of an ex- boyfriend – Ally has problems worth bonding with She may not be one of us, but she’s on our side. Bridget may represent us as we are, but Ally shows us as we would be if we got everything we wished for. Still screwing it up, but doing it in size 8 jeans.Ally McBeal knows that being rich and thin doesn’t give you the answers By my reckoning, that makes her a step forward. “Even if I get past all my problems,” she says, “I’m just going to go out and get new ones.” Here’s a hint, Ally: a bit of cellulite is always very popular.As a series, it’s great fun, says Glenda Cooper Just get that irritating woman out of it.WAAARGH That was my reaction when Ally McBeal admitted her age: 27.