A few years back a friend and I met this young lady who said she wanted to be a J.A.G. She, of course, meant that she wanted to be in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. We asked her for more details, our ill-bred Canadian minds never having heard such a thing, and she promptly told us that her dream to be a J.A.G. was because of the television series with the same name. I remember how ridiculous I thought that was. Having never seen the show, we simply laughed it off and moved on with our day.
Some time later I would see JAG on TV and I remember wanting urgently to join the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, Canadian or not. And I remember exactly why: Catherine Bell.
Fast-forward several years later and JAG is now making the rounds on DVD. The show ran for 10 seasons with a total of 227 episodes. It even sprouted a spinoff in NCIS. JAG was a sort of A Few Good Men mixed with a little subdued television mystery. Endorsed by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps, I’m told that JAG “gets it right” in terms of many of the procedural elements and technical aspects.
But does JAG “get it right” in terms of entertainment?
JAG stars David James Elliot as Harmon Rabb, the show’s lead protagonist. He’s a Judge Advocate and his job is to serve as legal representation to various military men and women who find themselves in some sort of trouble. His partner for the bulk of the series’ run is Lieutenant Colonel Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie (Bell). The relationship between Rabb and Mac is often explored throughout the run of the series, with romantic tension and comical situations peppering the cases they work on together.
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