Law and Order: The Second Year

Law and Order's frequent plot reversals started off as an attempt to avoid lawsuits (change a few plot lines to avoid libel) but is now a cornerstone of the series. As in season 1, however, season 2 has slightly less complicated plot lines that allow for more development. The overall pace is thus a nice shift; Chris Noth and Paul Sorvino have longer conversations with witnesses than the standard confirm time and location grilling. Less plot drama allows for more reality too; one note is the courtroom sessions in general actually make an attempt to follow true trial rules on testimony, and giving Steven Hill more lines than "make the deal" is good to watch. Guest stars like William Macy, Nick Turturro, and Jerry Orbach (as an attorney pouring his first cup of L&O coffee meeting with Stone as opposing counsel!) make the watching-for-future stars aspect of the early years fun.

As far as subject, where season 1 had Dick Wolf being able to pick and choose from how many years of New York crime, season 2 seems to have more current events. Still, some very good episodes on things like blackmail, divorce, stalking a star, and other crimes from the early 90s that are still relevant today. Not limiting the crime to murder (part of the cost of the spinoffs) also helps. Besides the nicely retro hair of Robinette, you almost get a sense of nostalgia watching people with their early 90s complaints - the economy of that era stinking, crime waves ripping through previously good neighborhoods, and cops without cell phones and laptops pulling over to use the payphone.

The quality of the transfer is a lot better than the first year where flecking was a major problem, even though Universal has crowded 8 episodes onto each DVD. Bonus features, however, cost this a star. There's a nice 30 minute movie on the first three seasons of Law and Order with every major actor (except Hill) from that era of the series showing up to discuss it. There are certainly interesting tidbits, like the tension among the cast, George Dzundza and Sorvino discussing why they left, Noth floating the idea of himself as the veteran cop rather than Orbach, and some good cracks about how present and former cast got off paying tickets at times. However, there is absolutely no commentary from directors or writers during the episodes, or for that matter from other parties that might be interesting (like real law enforcement types comparing the cases they were based on to the episode) that could have easily been accomplished without too much cost and effort. (For that matter, any commentary on the second season rather than a retrospective on the first three would have been a lot more appropriate). At least there's no ad for a new Law and Order game as in the season 1 DVD, but Universal could do a lot better on something that you can see in reruns constantly.

Still, very much worth having for the L&O fan, and for those who aren't big current L&O fans a pretty good way to be converted.

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