FORMAT AND PRESENTATION

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.