Review for LA Law: Season 5

Introduction

I still occasionally watch broadcast television, set my evenings around the schedules, and make a note of those shows that I simply have to watch. There are still shows that I tune in for religiously, anticipate each new season. The problem is that after six to eight months of waiting, they tend to slip my mind, and I wind up having to chase after episode one of the latest series on a plus one channel, hope for a repeat later in the week, or as a last resort see if it’s online. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’, as my grandpa used to say. It’s the same with DVD releases it turns out. I’ve been revisiting the eighties and nineties through the window of LA Law, and have been gratefully partaking of the sets as they have been released by Revelation Films. This time, there has been a six month gap between Seasons 4 and 5, and this latest release just slipped my mind, until the wayback machine on the front page of the site reminded me that I last reviewed LA Law Season 4 six months previously. That’s my excuse as to why this review is late, and I’m sticking with it.


LA Law follows the trials and tribulations of a firm of lawyers, McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney, Kuzak & Becker. The cases that they pursue vary from the meaningful to the trivial, the personal to the whimsical, covering all aspect of law from criminal to civil, divorce to tax, corporate to entertainment. They have a diverse portfolio of lawyers in their ranks, ranging from the eager and idealistic defenders of justice, to the cynical mercenaries, and of course the occasional lawyer that has harassed clients quoting from Shakespeare. These varied personalities don’t always get along in the boardroom, but they’re always sure to make an impact in the courtroom!


Season 5 of LA Law is presented by Revelation Films across 6 discs totalling 22 episodes, and in this season, Stuart hits a midlife crisis following a heart attack that threatens his marriage to Anne, Arnie continues a midlife crisis that does end his marriage, Leland has something of a late-midlife crisis thanks to Rosalind Shays that seriously undermines his judgement as senior partner, and Michael doesn’t have a midlife crisis, but his actions threaten the very existence of the firm. On the bright side they do hire a couple of new lawyers in C.J. Lamb and Tommy Mullaney.


Disc 1
1. The Bitch is Back
2. Happy Trails
3. Lie Harder
4. Armand’s Hammer

Disc 2
5. Smoke Gets in Your Thighs
6. Vowel Play
7. New Kidney on the Block
8. God Rest Ye Murray Gentleman

Disc 3
9. Splatoon
10. Pump It Up
11. Rest in Pieces
12. He’s A Crowd


Disc 4
13. Dances With Sharks
14. The Gods Must Be Lawyers
15. The Beverly Hills Hangers
16. Good to the Last Drop

Disc 5
17. Mutinies on the Banzai
18. As God is my Co-Defendant
19. Speak, Lawyers, For Me
20. There Goes the Judge

Disc 6
21. On the Toad Again
22. Since I Fell For You

Picture

LA Law Season 5 gets a similar 4:3 transfer to the previous season. It’s an NTSC-PAL conversion, from the video tape era of US television, but the image is clear enough throughout, without any obvious flaw, artefact or glitch. You get to see all those shiny power suits in all their designer label glory.

Sound

LA Law Season 5 gets a DD 2.0 audio track, which I believe has a smidge of stereo to it. The important thing is that the dialogue is clear throughout, but this time around there was a bit more in the way of hiss to deal with especially on disc 1. It never gets bad enough to mar the show though. A bigger issue would be some annoying distortion towards the end of episode 4, and again in the final two minutes of episode 8. There are also a few squawks of distortion in episode 13. Once more there are no subtitles on this release.

Extras

We have extra features for season 5, or rather an extra feature. As always the LA Law discs present their content with animated menus, although there is a minor issue with disc 1, in that the episode select screen fails to highlight episodes 1 and 2 when trying to select them individually. They are selected; it’s just that the cursor doesn’t appear over the choices. Press Enter and you have a 50/50 chance of starting the episode you want.


But the big extra on Disc 6 is the 100th Episode Celebration Show, which lasts 46 minutes. It takes us behind the scenes of the show, and has interviews with the cast and the creators. It’s an enjoyable, if rather light and congratulatory piece. It would be nice if there was some more recent material to go with the show that looks at LA Law through the nostalgia and critical response of 20-odd years.

Conclusion

Season 4 of LA Law was a disappointment for me. While the story arcs were just as gripping as ever, particularly when it came to the cases that the lawyers of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney, Kuzak and Becker had to deal with, the character arcs were truly disappointing. There was a stop start feel to the season that was only redeemed by the presence of the loathsome (for me at any rate) Rosalind Shays, the rainmaker brought in to spruce the firm up. I had hoped for Season 5 to get back up to the standards of the first three seasons. It doesn’t. It outstrips them. Season 5 of LA Law is the best season yet, and the writers are at the top of their game, both when it comes to the courtroom antics, the boardroom politics, and the bedroom shenanigans. And this is also the season where Dr Pulaski falls down the liftshaft, the first series of LA Law I actually watched as broadcast, and the first inkling I had that legal drama could be just as electrifying as any other genre of television. Rumpole of the Bailey this was not!


The cases are just as engrossing as ever, and once more LA Law stays topical and engaging with the subjects that it examines, as well as throwing in some of the more humorous legal actions brought before judges. You have to recall that this series was on television around the time of Rodney King and the LA riots, so it’s no surprise that race relations play a significant part in proceedings. We begin with a case about a white policeman shooting a black kid by mistake. It’s a case that stretches over the opening episodes of the season, but it has lasting consequences, not least when Jonathan Rollins becomes a victim of police racism, and again when he defends a client who has suffered the same. There’s a somewhat prescient case about equal rights for gay couples, a case about second hand smoke causing lung cancer, health insurance companies refusing to cover AIDS treatment, a soldier following his conscience before obeying orders, and Christian Scientist parents who refused to seek treatment for their dying child.


Of course the lighter side of things is represented by toupees, toads, spitting soul singers (a bit of an Ally McBeal ending to that particular episode), overweight bus accident victims, a tax evader who read George Bush’s lips and was let down, and a colourful judge who enters the courtroom to his personal anthem.


But it’s really the character arcs that shine in this series, and it’s because Season 5 shifts the balance a little away from the courtroom, and pays more attention to the characters’ personal lives that I feel that it’s actually better. Rosalind Shays is still a significant presence in this season, even though she’s been ousted as senior partner, and has even won a case for unfair dismissal against the firm. The fact that she and Leland develop a personal relationship has ramifications through the series. Arnie Becker’s eternal midlife crisis continues and intensifies in these episodes, as he sets about sabotaging his own marriage. It seems that he finally has to face what it is that drives him to behave in such a self destructive way, but by the end of the series it seems he’s back to his old self again. Victor and Grace develop a relationship over these episodes, but as you would expect, it isn’t all smooth sailing. Stuart’s suffering of a heart attack on the other hand threatens to derail his marriage to Anne, although it does lead to the brilliant Splatoon episode.


There’s far greater drama in the boardroom this time around, as Leland’s continued acquaintance with Rosalind draws into question his competence in running the firm. Somehow the decisions that he makes are borne out by results, but as the show progresses, the arbitrary decisions do begin to rankle among the other partners, and resentment slowly builds up to the point where the firm faces its most trying crisis yet. That is most evident in Michael Kuzak, whose growing disillusionment with the firm that he’s been at the heart of for fourteen years increasingly his relationships with his colleagues. It unleashes a degree of vindictiveness and acrimony among the staff that is only resolved when the effect it has on people is made clear. Still, some changes are irrevocable, and Season 5 of LA Law is the last with the ‘classic cast’.


Some idea of the new direction of the show becomes apparent early on with the arrival of new characters both in the firm and outside of it. The firm takes on two new lawyers in C.J. Lamb as played by Amanda Donohoe, and Tommy Mullaney as played by John Spencer. The big thing back when this was first broadcast was the screen kiss between two women on prime time TV. Looking back at it now, the CJ and Abby arc seems half-hearted and non-committal. Of course 90’s television was a wholly different arena than it is today. But I always loved the character of Tommy Mullaney, earnest, heartfelt, and yet with a slight air of deviousness, and that's apparent from the character’s first scenes here. There was always a side of LA Law that dealt with the politics at the district attorney’s office, and that comes to a head in this season with some big changes there. That also includes the character of Zoey Clemmons, who in a way slots into the role that Grace Van Owen had a few years back. She also happens to be Tommy’s ex-wife, and that also makes for some interesting drama.


Above all, what I really appreciate about Season 5 is the focus that it brings on the dilemma that lawyers face, the conflict between their ethics and their morals, having to argue cases that they patently do not believe, having to use what appear to be underhand tactics to win their cases. It’s in a murder trial where Anne Kelsey illustrates the point most vocally, in that it becomes less about getting justice for the client than it about the feeling of winning the case. This season is replete with moments like that, and that makes LA Law still after all these years, one of the best television dramas around.