"have you no sense of decency..."

washington post media critic rather harshly reviews the cbs movie Saving Milly, a movie based on Mort Kondracke's novel chronicling his relationship with his wife Milly and their shared struggle dealing with her parkinson's disease.

kondracke is a genuine 'good guy' in a increasingly politically charged atmosphere--not an overly shrill knee-jerk partisan--yet shales personally dismisses him as "increasingly bland". after a series of critiques (including an unnecessary allusion to watergate figures john and margaret mitchell), shales appears overly cynical, going so far as to mention michael j fox "obligingly" suffering from parkinson's disease.

shales appears to lose sight of a main goal of the film, evidencedy by his ad hominem attack of the drug companies. the narrative framing of the movie involves kondracke's congressional testimony pleading for better funding for parkinson's disease research with an appearance by michael j fox to cements this advocacy.

this continues an off-the-mark trend for shales, who recently praised law and order: trial by jury, a decidedly weak entry into the franchise. in fact, shales' critiques of "Saving Milly" appear more harsh and personal than those advanced by dan rather critics which prompted a shales defense.

while shales is in the critical minority, the ratings were ultimately not too kind.