I'm watching LA Law and I'm so depressed

I've never seen this movie, must add it to my list. I feel as though LA Law (and I didn't watch much of this show when it aired), was a romanticised portrayal of the law, where as The Practice was a more realistic portrayal of how the law in the US really works. The West Wing is to me perhaps a portrayal of what many US citizens might wish their government is/was. Where as a show like House of Cards was perhaps a realistic look at how politics really works in the US. I can't know for sure if this was the intention of the writers of these shows and given that I am an Australian and I don't have much knowledge of how the law and politics work in the US. This is the impression these shows left on me.