Law & Order: The Third Year (1992-1993 Season) DVD Review:

This is the show which began it all. Combining the classic detective show with the lawyer show and creating a new genre out of the two old, Law and Order was already a success by its third year. Since then the cast and costumes have changed, but the structure has carried on for over a decade. At times the show has a questionable and often translucent approach to telling the stories, but it obviously has not affected the success of the series or any of the spin-off series either.

Law and Order made waves when it combined the two genres. The first half of the show follows the police investigation of a specific crime, and the second half of the show followed the case into the courtroom as the suspect is prosecuted. It is almost always a guarantee that the case is not as simple as it seems in the first half of the show, which doesn’t bode well on the detectives.

In the third season, it seems that Law and Order really hit its stride. This is the season in which Jerry Orbach was introduced as Detective Lenny Briscoe, adding humor to the show when Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino) is injured. Orbach was actually in the first season as well, but this season he joins the cast permanently. At first Briscoe and Logan don’t seem to get along together, but soon they are working flawlessly as partners.

The third season of Law and Order seems particularly focused on Jerry Orbach, with nearly all of the special features having to do with him. There is a Jerry Orbach tribute and a Jerry Orbach Profile. Surprisingly there are also deleted scenes, however brief they may be. While these special features are not very good it is more than the past seasons have seen. Fans may be frustrated at this, always hoping for the next season to be filled with more features, but at this rate it seems as though this may never happen.

The video and audio looks fairly good considering the episodes are over ten years old, but there is some graininess to the picture and the color looks a little bit flat. The season has all been fit onto three double sided discs in slim disc-cases, which will make the set small enough to fit onto any shelf.



Ryan Izay