Back Bay at Sunset

Sometimes Boston looks as magical as it always did at the end of an Ally McBeal episode, as Ally walked home in a thoughtful mood from her law firm, Cage & Fish.

Undernourished, underdressed, neurotic, and lovelorn, our heroine rambled down lamplit streets suggesting Beacon Hill or Back Bay. Every night without fail, they glistened from a recent shower. My husband pointed out this cinematographer's trick, or it might have flown right past me, season after season.

One can almost hear Vonda Shepard crooning in the background.

Those Hollywood sets never captured the romance of a real Boston sunset.