Quincy, M.E. Seasons 1 & 2 DVD Review:

Groundbreaking when it was first aired, Quincy, M.E. was the series which created the medical investigation genre. However formulaic the episodes may seem, from the conversations with the police to the relationship with his lady friend, the show itself is unique. It is a perfect blend of suspense and medicine, proving that the brain is always more powerful while occasionally allowing Dr. Quincy to find himself in a tussle at the end of an episode.

Jack Klugman stars as Dr. Quincy, a man who gave up a higher paying job so that he could become a medical examiner. This is bad news for criminals all around because Quincy often has hunches which provide evidence of foul play. The doctor always seems to be arguing that there is reason to believe a death is a homicide while the police are happier with other explanations. While this provides the show with a necessary amount of conflict, it also makes the police look like a bunch of bumbling idiots.

As well as upsetting the police with his obsessive desire to solve cases, Quincy also manages to ruin his own love life. Quincy is somewhat of a workaholic and even when he goes on vacation there is work to be done. It seems as if he is always leaving a girlfriend behind in the middle of a date while he performs an emergency autopsy. Somehow the women love him despite his obvious preference for a corpse.

Quincy aggressively fights for the truth in a way that is admirable and often overbearing. The show lacks the charisma of many that followed. Some of the only scenes with any charm are between Quincy and his lab assistant Sam Fujiyama. Sam is the only one who always has his back when nobody believes foul play has been employed.

The box set includes three double sided discs with the sixteen episodes of the first two seasons. All fifteen hours of the show look remarkably sharp, but the audio is not quite as sharp. Mostly the show is well preserved, at times too formulaic, but nonetheless rather groundbreaking.



Ryan Izay