Although it only lasted one season on television, Law and Order: Trial By Jury is still worth watching for fans of the long running Law and Order series, and does manage to create interesting characters and plots in the thirteen episodes collected in the set.
Trial By Jury (which was the third spin-off from Law and Order after SVU and Criminal Intent) was meant to show you a different side of the series - focusing more on the trial and covering all aspects including the defense side and the jury process. After the first few episodes, it fails to distinguish itself from the original Law and Order, and falls into the same formula that made the first series such a long running hit.
While following what made Law and Order a hit isn’t necessary bad for fans of the original show, Trial By Jury really never brought anything new to attract viewers who didn’t already like the Law and Order formula. With that said, I still enjoyed the series, and I think it would have found an audience if it had been given more time. SVU and Criminal Intent both took a little bit of time to find a solid audience, but both of those series managed to have a different look and feel than Law and Order.
Trial By Jury has a good main cast of character actors – including Bebe Neuwirth as A.D.A. Tracey Kibreand, Amy Carlson as A.D.A. Kelly Gaffney, Kirk Acevedo as D.A. Investigator Hector Salazar, Scott Cohen as Detective Chris Ravell, and Fred Dalton Thompson as D.A. Arthur Branch. The series also managed to get some big names for guest starring roles - including Angela Lansbury, Ron Silver, Lorraine Bracco, Candice Bergen, Sam Waterston, Annabella Sciorra and Alfred Molina.
The first two episodes benefit from having Jerry Orbach’s Detective Lennie Briscoe character, but sadly the actor died of prostate cancer after filming the two episodes. For many fans (including myself), he was one of the main reasons to give the new series a chance, and his presence has been greatly missed in Law and Order.
The actors in the show do a good job in making their characters different from what we have seen in past series, but also keeping the same kind of feel that has made Law and Order such a long running success. The series never really focuses on the characters’ personal lives, but instead stays grounded in the crimes and trials.
Jerry Obrach’s character helped draw viewers for the first two episodes
Neuwirth does an excellent job in her role, and creates a character that isn’t too easily liked by the viewer. She is determined to win her cases and even willing to bend the law from time to time to get the job done. While her character isn’t a complete departure from what we have seen before (there are shades of Waterston’s Jack McCoy there), Neuwirth is interesting enough to keep you watching the series. Acevedo’s Salazar is a soft spoken detective, and does a good job of being different from the styles of cops we have seen on the other series. I would have liked to see his character used more, but the series was meant to focus on the trials and not the investigations.
Disc One (of the three disc set) contains the first four episodes and does a good job of showing how the series will be somewhat different from other Law and Order shows. The series focuses more on the trial with little involvement in solving the case before trial. It also takes considerable time to go into the defense’s side of the story and their plan for winning. We are able to see how the defense plans to spin the truth to fit their version of how the crime happened - which in episodes like Forty-One Shots and The Abominable Showman is far from the real truth.
Disc Two contains five episodes (one is a crossover episode from Law and Order even though the first Law and Order part isn’t included), and we start to see the show slipping a bit. Unlike the first four episodes, the second disc’s episodes begin to fall into the same formula used in Law and Order. They also begin to loose some of the elements that helped separate Trial By Jury from the original series. All of the episodes are good, but they start to lack any real reason to watch this show over the other Law and Order offerings.
Disc Three has five episodes - including the crossover SVU episode “Night,” and the unaired final episode Eros In The Upper Eighties. By the third disc, the series has completely fallen into the standard Law and Order formula, and is a bit repetitive. The cases are almost always solved by the final five minutes and through brilliant cross by Neuwirth. The SVU bonus episode is good, but makes you wonder why they couldn’t include the Law and Order episode to go along with the crossover on Disc Two.
Neuwirth was willing to do whatever it took to win a case
The set is a little light on special features – which are located on the first disc. They include a few deleted scenes for the Disc One episodes, and a behind the scenes look at the show called “A Different Look at Law and Order.” The featurette is pretty interesting and has interviews with the cast. It also has a nice tribute to Orbach where the actors discuss what he meant to the show, and the type of actor that he was. The deleted scenes are interesting for the most part, and were clearly cut due to time constraints.
Overall, I enjoyed Trial By Jury and would have liked to see the series continue. Unfortunately, it was canceled before it was really able to capture an audience and establish itself from the other Law and Order shows. Fans of the series will want to pick this set up. If you never caught it on television, Trial By Jury is worth giving a try.
Law and Order: Trial By Jury is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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