This review is about the second season of this longest running primetime drama in the United States. I am going to include some of the background information and comments related to the show as a whole and build in opinions and observations on this particular season.

Law & Order is a police and legal drama with its background set in New York City and actually filmed in the New York City. The show's success has led to two spin off programmes so far: Law & Order Special Victims' Unit and Law and Order Criminal Intent. The second season was on from 1991 to 1992.

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 showing segments 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 usually 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/psychologist 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 the one who killed his partner, Max Greevey, in the final episode of the first season. I thought about mentioning this ending for Greevey in the review on Season 1 but decided not to spoil it for guys who have not seen it.

Logan has a hard time coping with the death of his partner and adjusting to his new partner, Sergeant Cerreta, who is given the task of investigating the death of Sergeant Greevey. Initially, he was critical and sceptical of Cerreta's approach. He undertakes counselling with the department psychiatrist/psychologist, Dr. Elizabeth Olivet and gradually come to terms with it. His relationship with his new partner also improves at the same time. He comes to trust Sergeant Cerreta and the two develop a close working relationship.

Senior detective: Sergeant Phil Cerreta portrayed by Paul Sorvino

Logan's senior partner in the first season, Max Greevey, was killed by a criminal he was investigating at the time right outside his home. Sergeant Phil Cerreta fills his post after that.

Albeit both more experienced and open-minded than their junior partner, Cerreta is very different from Greevey in a way that Cerreta appears to be warmer, more approachable and courteous. When questioning suspects or talking to reluctant witnesses, he uses manners, understanding and empathy to win them over. The same traits help Logan get over the death of Greevey and improve their relationship. Unlike both Logan and Greevey, he does not seem to be seriously affected by his personal beliefs. In a conversation with Logan, he reveals that he is married with five children.

Towards the end of the season, Cerreta went undercover to make a deal with a suspect with the aim to bring down a big criminal organisation behind this dealer. He was shot and seriously injured in the process but he is going to survive.

Supervising Officer: Captain Donald Cragon played by Dann Florek

Donald Cragon is still their Captain. Nothing much has happened to him. He 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 figure 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 is an African American who grew up in Harlem but 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. In the first season, we saw him reflect and redefine himself in cases where racial conflict and hatred is involved. He seems to be sharper and quicker in this season presumably due to the experience he accumulated over time.

In this season, he seems more mature and creative in his investigative skills in a subtle way. When Ben Stone feels challenged by a defence who beat him on a case in the past, he is able to give Stone the right kind of support but not afraid to bring it up to Stone when he feels that Stone has been affected by his personal feelings.

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 does not have many facial expressions. In fact, he always seems to have a straight face and even when he is amused, he would probably raise his eyebrows with a scant smile on his face. 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.

In the second season, Stone comes to face a slimy but sharp defence attorney to whom Stone lost a case a few years back. Although Stone explains that the failure was largely due to an oversight caused by the defence's endless bombardment to the prosecution with motions and paperwork to overburden the already understaffed prosecution office, he still shows signs of being personally affected and agitated.

District Attorney: Adam Schiff played by Steven Hill

Adam Schiff is a stern but fair boss. He is usually calm and level headed although he often has clever and sarcastic remarks on cases or situaitons. 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.

We get to see a major personal dilemma in Schiff at the end of this season when one of the suspects turns out to be an old friend of his. He is torn and has to deal with the enormous press attention at the same time but able to stand firm.

Department Psychiatrist/Psychologist: Dr Elizabeth Olivet played by Carolyn McCormick

Dr Olivet is first introduced in the first episode of this season when Det. Logan needs counselling to cope with the death of Sergeant Greevey. Dr. Olivet seems to be called a psychiatrist on some occasions and a psychologist on the others. This could be because she got both qualifications or reflects the common confusion people have about these two groups of professionals and misrepresentations of the two by some TV shows. I'm not entirely sure about the American system. It could be that psychiatrists there are likely to have more in-depth training in psychology and psychotherapy, whereas in Britain, the boundaries between these two seem clearer.

She is usually called upon by the prosecution to see if a suspect is legally sane and sometimes to help with profiling. She seems down to earth, empathetic and compassionate. When the conditions are too complicated to draw firm conclusions, she is not afraid to admit it. This sometimes frustrates legal professionals who need something concrete to argue their cases. Her professional judgements sometimes clash with cases the prosecution tries to build but she always stands by her professional opinions. Again, this frustrates Stone but at the end of the day, he respects her professionalism and integrity. Her involvement gets more and more over time, peaking in the next season. If I write a review for Season 3, I'll definitely come back to this character.

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 as the show goes on. The ensemble is fine but still doesn't wow me in this season even after a change of the senior detective and the addition of a psychiatrist/psychologist, who is the only female in the cast.

STORY OVERVIEW

I am not describing stories for individual episodes but list episode titles at the end of this section. Episode descriptions can be found at various websites such as http://www.tv.com/law-and-order/show/180/episode_guide.html?season=2&tag=se ason_dropdown;dropdown;1

This season of the show carries on exploring controversial scenarios. Examples of new areas shown in this season include parents denying medical treatment due to their religious beliefs, foetal murder and the fight between two Prosecution Offices in different States because of victim's family's wishes for the defendant to be tried in the State with death penalty. We can see how police detectives are vulnerable and how a death of a colleague affects their work. We also get to see more of how the system and laws are manipulated by especially defence lawyers and in one case, the defendants, some of whom border on abusing the system.

The writing itself is good - gripping and interesting enough. I'd say it gets better over time. 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 these 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.

2- 1 Confession
2- 2 The Wages of Love
2- 3 Aria
2- 4 Asylum
2- 5 God Bless the Child
2- 6 Misconception
2- 7 In Memory Of
2- 8 Out of Control
2- 9 Renunciation
2-10 Heaven
2-11 His Hour Upon the Stage
2-12 Star Struck
2-13 Severance
2-14 Blood is Thicker...
2-15 Trust
2-16 Vengeance
2-17 Sisters of Mercy
2-18 Cradle to Grave
2-19 The Fertile Fields
2-20 Intolerance
2-21 Silence
2-22 The Working Stiff

SPECIAL FEATURES

I don't usually comment on special features because I'm not that bothered as long as it's got the languages I can understand unless it's big films or superb TV dramas. However, one thing very noticeable about Law and Order DVDs that actually got my attention is the apparent lack of the special feature (ironic, isn't it). It's even only available in English (audio and subtitles) and there is no commentaries or added bits whatsoever. So this could be a downside for those who care more about this aspect.

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

Thanks for reading.