Paper Chase,The S2

Several years after its initial run on CBS, THE PAPER CHASE was revived on the Showtime cable channel. John Houseman returned in the role of Professor Kingsfield, along with James Stephens as Hart, Tom Fitzsimmons as Ford and James Keane as Bell. The characters of Logan and Anderson disappeared and were replaced by an assortment of new faces, most notably Jane Kaczmarek as Hart's girlfriend.
Those who never saw the episodes produced for Showtime in the early 80's are probably wondering how they compare to the first-year CBS segments. Actually the producers did an excellent job of continuing the series in the same spirit while making logical changes to mirror the progress of the students as they advanced through law school. The biggest surprise (or disappointment) about the episodes produced for cable is that while they were quite well done, the stories weren't significantly more dramatic or insightful than those done for CBS. One would have thought that the writers, freed from the constraints of network television, would have become more bold and produced some truly daring and thought-provoking scripts. Unfortunately, they more often than not focused on the romantic relationships of the characters (been there, done that) rather than exploring some of the more intriguing aspects of law and legal education.
The good news, though, is that when the Showtime productions were good, they were outstanding. A couple of the second season episodes, in fact, stand as two of the all-time best of the series. "Hart Goes Home" is an excellent story about Hart making a trip back to Minnesota for his sister's wedding, only to find that he can't escape his responsibilities back at school. Equally great is "My Dinner With Kingsfield", in which the professor gets stranded at Hart's apartment during a storm. The episode features some marvelous dialogue and gives new and fascinating insight into the two main characters.
As for Shout Factory's DVD presentation of the second year, the set is nicely packaged and the picture quality is excellent. The box states that four of the episodes are "edited" because the original Showtime presentations could not be "sourced". However, I compared the running times of the four segments with recordings made from the old Showtime airings, and the length is just the same, so I'm not exactly sure what is missing or altered. In any case, it's great to see THE PAPER CHASE - THE SECOND YEAR finally out on DVD. It's a superb drama and a welcome addition to anyone's collection of classic TV.

In England the first 8 episodes of this, the second season, were shown on the BBC in the '80s, the remaining 11 episodes being relegated to an afternoon timeslot, which was a shame because the episodes - many of which were written by John Jay Osborne Jr, the creator of the original source novel - were great television. It was later shown on Satellite channel Sky 1, but edited in order to fit ads in. Another shame.

I only hope that if seasons 3 and 4 are released by Shout Factory (soon, please!) they will be in a combined 2-season box, because season 3 consisted of only 12 episodes and season 4 only 6. There are 19 season 2 episodes here, however.

This show really is something special. I've been quoting it as my all-time favourite series for years... but so few people seem to remember it outside of the US.

At a time when the World saw most '80s American TV as "chewing gum for the eyes" this proved that quality was possible.

Imo, (Disk 1) of the 2nd season lacked all the sparkle of Season 1. I was disappointed to find that since the 1L's Study Group never finished their first season, nor said goodbye, there was no ending. Season 2 just began with three former students from 1L already moved into 2L's. At least 2 members of the study group, Logan and Anderson were permanently gone, no goodbyes, and were never spoken of again which was a big disappointment to me, and rather curious. Hart and Ford moved into an apartment, Bell was still living in the dorm as an organizer for the new 1L students. (The last student you would think of.) But he has matured some what and his part was interesting.

Hart has a girlfriend, whom I've seen before. She struck me as a Soap Opera character, (in fact the whole story line between Hart and Connie was like a Soap Opera) but Hart fell in love with her. She was having problems with Contracts and tried to borrow Hart's outlines. He loaned them to her, but after doing so, Hart caught her trying to copy them. She returned them to Hart, angrily. She apologized with a note, he forgave her, and unfortunately, they became lovers. She appeared quite a bit older than other 1L's. No doubt, she hung around Hart mainly because of his significant reputation, his apartment, and Hart's having made Law Review and gotten an A from Kingsfield, unheard of. She was also very manipulative, trying all her sweet sexy ways to get what she wanted, among practically living in Ford and Hart's apartment, (she hated the dorms) using his TV whenever she felt like it, and getting rid of Ford, by eating his food and interrupting Ford's time with his date. Her true colors came out when she got a Rhodes Scholarship, and she took it, playing the sad lover, but I think we all knew (or hoped) she'd definitely leave Hart, who was quite upset about her departure. I, on the other hand was not. She didn't have any of Logan's great personality, in fact she had little personality at all. With her sexy smile and sweet talk, I thought she was a user from day one and was sorry they cast her with Hart. yuk.

Also missed Anderson, Logan and Ernie. But did not miss the soap operas placed in Season I. That is stories about characters interwoven with the school characters. Married couples and their problems, or a girlfriend of Hart's, whose father is murdered after we find out he's a member of the "syndicate". Silly story and out of place.

Bell has matured in his 2nd year, but still retained his comic personality.
I do think shows Bell's studies in Law have improved, though when pushed in his first year, his intelligence came out in Moot Ct. Hart has left most of his beloved innocence behind, which shows up when he went home for his sister's wedding and ignored his family by staying on the phone to Law Review most of the time, upsetting his sister who was so glad he came home. Ford seems a bit less serious, and frankly I thought he put up with a lot from Hart and Connie.

In the 2nd season, instead of students being the main characters, much older characters stepped in, and they, not the students seemed to be taking over the story line. But that was just the first 4 segments. It improved as the story went on.

I did watch the 2nd segment (Disk 2) of the Paper Chase Part II later and found a tremendous improvement in the story lines, both in the writing and each of the characters. For one thing, Connie, Hart's love interest, had left the story,(thank goodness) and Hart dealt with other problems in school. Golden, the editor of Law Review, was very good, in fact the running of Law Review was fascinating. The episodes about the Wonks was interesting and funny, and brought some comedy to a serious show. The actors in the Wonks portrayal were terrific! Kingsfield was Kingsfield and I thought the episode trying to convince him to run for the Supreme Ct. was a bad idea. He was almost 80 years old. Wish I could see the rest of the stories, but they don't seem to be available.

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