Law & Order – The
Fourth Year: 1993 - 1994
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B-
With all the Law & Order spin-offs going on and
the show becoming a very belated hit after NBC stuck behind the Universal
Television hit for so long, it is easy to forget the original series and that
it is still alive and kicking. However,
the original is still on the air and this new Fourth Year set is from
the 1993 – 1994 season. The
late, great Jerry Orbach leads the cast that includes Steven Hill (Mission:
Impossible), Michael Moriarty, Chris Noth, Jill Hennessy and S. Epatha
Merkerson.
This set continues to offer Dick Wolf’s big hit in three
double-sided DVDs and is the kind of long-running show that becomes such a
belated hit because of its quality.
Like The FBI, Perry Mason, Murder, She Wrote and Hawaii
5-0 before it, the series became one of those dramatic workhorse crime hits
that just hung in and hung in there.
Though the pop trivialization, constant broadcasts and convenience of
having such a show makes audiences take it for granted, it is the kind of rare
show networks secretly dream of all the time because they are the rare kind of
show that invented appointment television and are always a credit to a
network’s standing in general. But even
its predecessors did not have the spin-off success this series did. Now in transition trying to get back to
being the #1 network, all the Law & Order series are helping NBC
rebuild. It is a solid season like this
that made that possible over a decade later.
The 1.33 x 1 image is not bad, but as with the spin-off
set we looked at, has detail and Video Black limits. The materials used are basically clean and clear otherwise. It is done in the standard style of
non-challenging shots the series is known for camera wise, with some slightly
shaky camerawork typical of all these series that is not as obnoxious as the
likes of a Blair Witch Project.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo does not have Pro Logic surrounds, though
spin-offs and later shows have. Extras
this time offer 43 deleted and extended scenes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
