Review of Law And Order (Season 4 Box Set)

Introduction

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.

So begins every episode of this season the longest running US drama series(of this series anyhow). This Dick Wolf created series is one of the major TV franchises and has since spawned two other successful series in Law And Order: SVU and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. This is the daddy though.

Each show runs through the same format. People unrelated to the main plot will either witness an incident or discover a body. The NYPD will despatch two of it`s finest to investigate; in this case Detectives Lennie Briscoe (the lame lamented Jerry Orbach) and Mike Logan (Chris Noth). These two, along with superior officer Lt Van Buren (S.Epatha Merkerson), will investigate the crime and come up with a suspect and evidence.

The case is then passed to the District Attorney`s office run by DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill), a political heavyweight who just sits in his office and argues with the people who work for him. Doing all the running are Executive Assistant DA Ben Stone (Michael Moriaty) and ADA Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy). The DA`s office bring the case to trial and do all the investigating from hereon in, only involving the police again on the rare occasions they need to.

It`s not quite a show of two halves though. Sometimes the investigation is over quickly and most of the episode is dedicated to the legal process, whereas occasionally the majority of the episode is given over to Briscoe and partner.

This series has been nominated for and won more awards than many series have episodes, and the quality shows no sign of stopping.

Video

Picture is good for a TV series as old as this (early 90`s), occasional artefact but generally fine.

Audio

Dolby 2.0 Stereo soundtrack but once more no subtitles. Get on it, Playback, there`s no excuse. This season also has a very annoying jazzy theme tune to it, not one of Mike Post`s best that is thankfully missing from the later seasons.

Features

Some Deleted/Extended scenes from some of the episodes, but not all - nothing that really affects the story too much, just items cut for time and having faith that your viewers can join the dots.

Obviously it would be too much to ask that these are accessible from the Main Menu, so the only way you know they are there is by going into the episode selection menu. Seeing as I hit Play All, I didn`t notice these until a misplaced button press on disc 5.

One thing is really annoying, however. Just what is the point of putting up a warning notice re. comments heard in commentary or interviews as not being the view of the studio when there are NO commentaries or interviews included. Makes me think that R2 is being short changed again...

Conclusion

I came to Law & Order late on. My wife was always a big fan of this, watching it on Hallmark and the like, but it never appealed to me until I actually sat and watched an episode at what would be near the end of the Benjamin Bratt era. What got me was the quality of the acting, particularly Waterston and Orbach, with the rapport between Orbach and Bratt a major contributing factor. Since then I`ve watched all three of the L&O franchise as part of my regular Channel Five viewing habits.

It was odd coming all the way back to Season 4 as I`d never seen any of these episodes and the only characters I was familiar with were Van Buren, Briscoe and Schiff. I didn`t like this older version at first, especially as each episode started with that really annoying voiceover and then that really bad plucked bass theme tune. Luckily the quality of the writing and the acting put paid to those misgivings and I got caught up in the series. I never quite got to like Moriarty`s EADA Ben Stone and was a trifle relieved when he finally resigned, but quite warmed to Chris Noth`s somewhat misogynistic Mike Logan. The two older jaded cops have a good rapport, although it`s clear that Orbach is the more dominant one (despite Orbach actually being the junior partner in terms of times served on the series at this point). Their wisecracks generally have me chuckling and their no-nonsense professional approach to police work makes me hope that our police forces are filled with similar individuals, despite their somewhat obvious faults at times.

The justice portion of the tale could quite easily have been very boring, and it`s still certainly very procedural. Normally the only lawyers that TV viewers are exposed to are the heroic defense lawyers that expose incompetent public officials and District Attorneys, winning the day at the last minute. Here you see the DA`s Office do it`s day job and be opposed by an array of both good and bad lawyers. Not every case is won, good guys get sent to jail, bad guys get off. It`s not all roses on-screen here. The stories are varied and interesting, and I learn something of US law and attitudes every time I watch an episode. I despair of some of the arguments presented by both prosecuting and defence lawyers, but I understand why they do it. It`s a fine line they all tread to ensure that a fair trial is ensured, and sometimes someone who is clearly guilty will get off because of a mistake somewhere in the process or lack of substantial evidence. Just like real life.

Quality stuff, and long may it continue.