Law & Order-Year 3 (1992)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	994:08 (Case: 993)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Jace Alexander Gwen Arner Gabrielle Beaumont Steve Cohen
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Jerry Orbach Paul Sorvino Carolyn McCormick Steven Hill Michael Morairty Chris Noth Richard Brooks Dann Florek
Case	?
RPI	$79.95	Music	Mike Post

    "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups, the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who persecute the offenders. These are their stories."

    The Law & Order franchise is one of the most successful sets of TV series, both in the US & here in Australia. The flagship series, Law & Order, started in 1990 and is now in its 16th season with no signs of slowing down. There have now been 4 spin-off series from the original, including Special Victims Unit (SVU), Criminal Intent, a less successful reality based one, Crime & Punishment and new in 2005, Trial by Jury.

    This is the third season of the show which started it all. It presents realistic crimes from the perspective of the police officers trying to solve them and the District Attorneys trying to prosecute the perpetrators. It is set in New York City and focuses on two detectives in the homicide squad and the District Attorneys who work with them.. This series splits its time fairly evenly in most episodes between the work of the detectives and the District Attorneys which is different to both of the main spin-offs.

    This third season was first aired in 1992/93 in the US and the complete season is included on these six discs totalling 22 episodes. This is an excellent series of television; dramatic, challenging, well written and strongly acted.

    The main characters in this season are :

• Detective Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino) - An experienced officer who joined the show in Season 2. He appears in the first nine episodes of this season only.
• Detective Mike Logan (Chris Noth who is now appearing in Criminal Intent) - A younger detective who is a bit of a hot head.
• Detective Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) - One of the most famous characters ever in Law & Order who joins in Episode 9 of this series as a new partner for Mike Logan. He continued as this character up until 2004.
• Captain Don Cragan (Dann Florek) - The man to whom Cerreta, Logan and Briscoe report. The same character showed up many years later as the Captain in charge of the Special Victims Unit.
• Executive ADA Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) - The lead district attorney on cases investigated by the detectives. He is determined and honourable.
• ADA Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks) - Stone's right hand man. This is his last series on the show.
• DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill) - Stone's grumpy boss.
• Dr Elizabeth Olivet (Carolyn McCormick) - Criminal psychologist who assists in the prosecution of the crimes. She appears in most but not all episodes.

    In detail, the episodes included are:

1.Skin Deep - A great start to the new series sees the team investigating the death of a photographer/model agent who is found with scissors sticking out of his back. A very young Claire Danes guests.

2.Conspiracy - An  African American activist is shot during a rally. Guest : Joe Morton. Excellent episode.

3.Forgiveness - A woman is found dead in an alley after leaving a bon voyage party with her friends.

4.The Corporate Veil - A young man passes out while driving, crashes and dies of a heart attack.

5.Wedded Bliss - A fisherman finds a dead female body, handcuffed and weighted down with concrete blocks in the Hudson River.

6. Helpless - Elizabeth Olivet is sexually abused by her gynaecologist during an exam. Guest - A very different looking Felicity Huffman.

7.Self Defence - A tow truck driver finds a dead body in an abandoned car plus another body in a nearby building. Both had been shot.

8.Prince of Darkness - A hail of gunfire kills a married couple having dinner with their daughter. This is an excellent and dramatic episode which leads to the cast change mentioned above.

9.Point of View - A gambler and alcohol dealer is found shot dead in the street. Lennie Briscoe joins the squad as a supposedly temporary partner for  Logan.

10. Consultation - A pregnant woman arrives via plane from Nigeria. She gets sick in the cab on the way from the airport and dies.

11.Extended Family - A young girl disappears while at a market with her nanny. She is the daughter of a famous Broadway producer.

12.Right to Counsel - Painters find a 61 year old woman dead in her apartment.

13.Night & Fog - An old woman, Mrs Steinmetz, who was a holocaust survivor is found dead in her apartment. Her husband confesses to killing her.

14.Promises to Keep - Joggers find a strangled girl at night in the park. Her boyfriend and their psychiatrist seem suspicious.

15.Mother Love - Police bust into a crack house and find the dead body of a woman with a gun shot wound. Guest : Edie Falco.

16.Jurisdiction - Nurses find two of their colleagues with multiple stab wounds. One of them is dead, the other critical but alive. A jurisdiction issue comes up between New York boroughs.

17.Conduct Unbecoming - A party is being held in a hotel for sailors from the Navy. A female officer is found dead when the rooms are cleaned. Guest : Julianna Marguiles. Excellent episode.

18.Animal Instinct - Security guards at a university research lab find a scientist dead and animal rights slogans daubed on the walls.

19.Computer Virus - 6 diabetes patients die at the same time on the same hospital ward. The premise of this episode is now quite dated as the technology discussed seems quite antiquated these days.

20.Securitate - Girls are walking along a street at night and a car drives by and throws out the dead body of an Eastern European man.

21.Manhood - Confusion between the radio room and responding police officers results in the death of a cop who called for assistance.

22.Benevolence - A deaf university student is found murdered in an alley near her home.

    An excellent television series. Despite now being 13 years old, most episodes have not dated, despite the wild hairstyles. Highly recommended.

Video

    The video quality is good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was some background grain. The shadow detail was decent.

    The colour was generally quite reasonable but somewhat dull.

    From an artefacts perspective there was some occasional aliasing on hair, jackets and eyes amongst other things, some jagged edges, a few specks and flecks and some minor edge enhancement.

    There are subtitles available in three languages including English for the Hearing Impaired. They were clear and easy to read.

    The layer changes occur between episodes.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s and the same in French.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this series by Mike Post features the famous theme tune and other incidental music which is quite appropriate.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    No extras.

Menu

    The menus are still and silent allowing for the ability to select episodes, languages and subtitles. A play all option was available on each disc.

    The Region 4 version of this set, when compared to Region 1, misses out on;

• Deleted Scenes
• Cast/Crew Biographies
• Jerry Orbach Profile
• Jerry Orbach Tribute

    The Region 1 version of this set misses out on;

• Nothing

    On this basis the Region 1 version of the disc is clearly the winner. The Region 2 set is the same as ours.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good, doing everything this show requires.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall