It might have been just me, but it seemed they always had a few people on the prosecutors’ side and the detectives’ side who randomly appeared without much explanation. Sometimes there would be ten to a room, including the main characters on both sides. Law And Order benefited from having a lot of to do with a small ensemble. Here it felt like they had invited a small but noticeable portion of the audience in for the ride.
As for the episodes, they all seemed too fast and too hurried to judgment on cases. Suspects were guilty either because victims and/or relatives said so or because they were hiding it all along. The proof was barely existent and assembled sloppily in the name of putting the focus on the jury. As I said, they were only given a few minutes, even if the name of the show was Trial By Jury.
I didn’t bother with the special features of the DVD set. I’m pretty sure even Special Victims Unit’s cast could out-act the cast of TBJ (The episode “Night” features two members of the former cast working with the latter). “A Different Look at Law and Order” is the usual public relations fluff piece. I’m sure the Deleted Scenes would be of no interest to me when the scenes they put in were bad.
I will say, the saving grace for the series – in it’s original and the spin-off’s – has to be composer Mike Post. He knows how to set the tone for what a day of New York’s law enforcement is like (he did so several other times, including Hill Street Blues). Sadly, that wasn’t enough for me to finish watching the rest of the short-lived series.
Article comments
1 - Brent
The show's major flaw for me was always that it was the unadulterated embodiment of what happens in most of the "Law & Order" series. The cops always get the right man, the prosecutors always clad themselves in the armour of righteousness, and the only thing lower than the criminals are the attorneys who defend them despite knowing that they're guilty Guilty GUILTY. Real life isn't as clear cut as Nancy Grace and Dick Wolf seem to think it is.
2 - Matthew Milam
That's the problem with most Crime TV. They should take a page from the British.