Law And Order - Series 1 - Complete (DVD)

Law & Order is the longest primetime drama in the United States. It's currently running its 17th season. It's a police and legal drama with its background set in New York City. The first season started in 1990 and the show's success has led to two spin off programmes so far: Law & Order Special Victims' Unit and Law and Order Criminal Intent.

This review is about the first season.

FORMAT AND PRESENTATION

...focused. I don't know the law enough to comment on whether they are all presented correctly down to the last detail but it looks like the main principles are there.

Overall, I'd say this is a very enjoyable show if you like crime drama.

1- 1 Prescription for Death
1- 2 Subterranean Homeboy Blues
1- 3 The Reaper's Helper
1- 4 Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die
1- 5 Happily Ever After
... more

Law & Order is the longest primetime drama in the United States. It's currently running its 17th season. It's a police and legal drama with its background set in New York City. The first season started in 1990 and the show's success has led to two spin off programmes so far: Law & Order Special Victims' Unit and Law and Order Criminal Intent.

This review is about the first season.

FORMAT AND PRESENTATION

The show is centred around the work by homicide detectives in the 27th precinct in the New York Police Department. They usually investigate homicide cases but sometimes deal with other serious crimes. Every episode opens with segments showing typical New York life such as walking in Central Park or buying food at a local deli until the characters unexpectedly become victims or witnesses of a crime or discover a body/crime scene. Then it would go straight into police and/or ambulance attending the scene, gathering evidence and talking to witnesses. The rest of the episode has always been structured in two parts: first the police investigation and followed by prosecution. Occasionally, it focuses on the process of indictment or grand jury rather than a trial. Another unique feature of the show is a 'card' showing time, date and place before a major scene change. Most of the episodes are independent of each other. You can pick up any disc and don't have to watch them in order.

This show focuses on the cases. The private lives of the main characters are never shown and only revealed in their conversations.

MAIN CHARACTERS/ACTORS

The main characters are naturally the police team and the prosecution office. There are also recurring characters such as judges, medical examiners, crime lab technicians, police department psychiatrist and defence lawyers.

Junior detective: Detective Mike Logan played by Chris Noth

Mike Logan is a strong and capable detective with various personal issues from an early age. He could appear to be overly confident and sometimes lets his personal bias and prejudice cloud his judgement on situations. He's also got a short temper, which results in him getting into physical fights with suspects or defendants and nearly killing one of them.

Senior detective: Sergeant Max Greevey played by George Dzundza

Max Greevey is Mike's senior partner, an experienced and open-minded detective. He is happily married with three children and a conservative Catholic. He and Mike have a close relationship, with him often providing advice and being the one Mike could really talk to. He often provides more balanced views and arguments when Mike gets biased or too involved with the case. When he tries to make a point, he often starts by talking about something he experienced in a detached way as if it happened to someone else and he can be subtly sarcastic. However, he cannot help judging victims whose lifestyle clashes with his own religious beliefs.

Supervising Officer: Captain Donald Cragon played by Dann Florek

Donald Cragon was a veteran and became a homicide detective. As a captain, he appears to be stern but fair and understanding. He seems somewhat of a father to young detectives he supervises. He used to have issues with alcohol to cope with the horrible cases he saw at work.

Assistant District Attorney: Paul Robinette played by Richard Brooks

Paul Robinette is hardworking, quick and practical. He was an African American raised in Harlem and did not take advantage of 'affirmative action' (the policy that secure certain intake of ethnic minority in the USA) at university entry. He promotes racial equality through equal treatment and punish at his work through which he comes to realise this had a lot to do with why he chose to practice law. During this season, we can see him reflect and redefine himself in cases where racial conflict and hatred is involved.

Executive District Attorney: Benjamin Stone played by Michael Moriarty

Ben Stone is strict and fair. He always tries to uphold principles and never bends rules to secure a conviction, which sometimes frustrates detectives, although he can be creative within firm boundaries. He is usually soft spoken and not terribly expressive. Assistant District Attorney working with him respects him as a mentor. District Attorney (his boss) trusts him to do the right things although he sometimes has to remind Stone not to lose the whole case by being too rigid with the principles.

District Attorney: Adam Schiff played by Steven Hill

Adam Schiff is a stern but fair boss. He is usually calm and level headed. He often has to present more practical arguments to some of his somewhat overly idealistic staff. He gets on very well with Ben Stone and their interaction is more like father and son.

PERFORMANCE

I personally think the acting of those actors is good overall. Some could be a bit unnatural at times (i.e. they were really 'acting') and some seemed a bit flat and wooden. But it gets better. The ensemble is fine but doesn't wow me for some reason. One thing you'd probably notice by now is that this is an all male cast in this season. They do have a female psychiatrist that is called upon from time to time but the weight of her work is not significant in this season.

STORY OVERVIEW

I am not describing stories for individual episodes but list episode titles at the very end of this review. Episode descriptions can be found at various websites such as http://www.tv.com/law-and-order/show/180/episode.html

This season of the show does not only deal with homicides in the more usual and straightforward scenarios such as infidelity, insurance claims, marital disputes or organised crime but also explore more controversial issues such as medical negligence, racial inequality, homosexuality, anti-abortion vs. pro choice arguments, under age children committing brutal murders or illegal organ transplants. We can see how professionals may be confronted with cases which challenge their personal beliefs or trigger the painful memories of their past. We also get a glimpse of how the system and laws are manipulated by certain professionals. In this season, there is not much clever lawyering jeopardising justice yet. Most professionals work by principles.

The writing itself is good - gripping and interesting enough but not as good as later seasons. The style of conversations between police detectives is clever and snappy. That of prosecution and defence is more on the formal side but quick and intellectual. The pace of the show is good - not too fast, not too slow. It doesn't get tedious going from one clue to another but you don't have to watch it more than once to get certain points either like I find myself do with the West Wing or NCIS. One thing I would point out is the speed of which each case progress. Normally, a legal case can go on for years but in this show, every case gets concluded quite quickly. It also gives the impression that those professionals work on one case at a time when in reality, there are always a lot of cases going on at the same time. Also, I find it unusual to have the same detectives working with the same district attorney all the time. I think the above unrealistic arrangements are deliberate to make the show focused. I don't know the law enough to comment on whether they are all presented correctly down to the last detail but it looks like the main principles are there.

Overall, I'd say this is a very enjoyable show if you like crime drama.

1- 1 Prescription for Death
1- 2 Subterranean Homeboy Blues
1- 3 The Reaper's Helper
1- 4 Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die
1- 5 Happily Ever After
1- 6 Everybody's Favorite Bagman
1- 7 By Hooker, By Crook
1- 8 Poison Ivy
1- 9 Indifference
1-10 Prisoner of Love
1-11 Out of the Half-Light
1-12 Life Choice
1-13 A Death in the Family
1-14 The Violence of Summer
1-15 The Torrents of Greed (Part 1)
1-16 The Torrents of Greed (Part 2)
1-17 Mushrooms
1-18 The Secret Sharers
1-19 The Serpent's Tooth
1-20 The Troubles
1-21 Sonata For a Solo Organ
1-22 The Blue Wall  

...less