Law & Order: Season 14 (2003)

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Law & Order: Season 14 appeared on DVD in the late summer of 2004, just months after that season finished its original network broadcast and way out of order with the rest of the series (which was only up to Season Two on DVD as of the spring of 2004). It seems to be unrelated to the decision to release it, but Season 14 was the final one for Jerry Orbach as a regular cast member, after 11 years, a fact that producer Dick Wolf acknowledges in a special note. The 24 episodes have their strong points, including "C.O.D." (which owes a bit to Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train), "Payback," "Vendetta," and "Gaijin," although they aren't the best in the series' history; even the weaker ones usually raise enough hot-button social or legal issues so that, where the writing isn't quite up to standard, they still justify the viewing, and even more than one look. Each episode gets four chapters, paralleling the main commercial breaks. All shows and bonus features are presented full-screen (1.33:1), four episodes to a side on three double-sided discs; each opens automatically to an easy-to-use menu that includes chapter-access and a "play all" function.

The bonus features are all confined to side B of the third disc. Jesse L. Martin gets an extended profile, which is mostly him talking engagingly about his career for 13 minutes (supported by a clip from a commercial for Lean Cuisine from a while back and his first appearance on the series), telling of his work on Guiding Light and One Life to Live and discussing his meeting with the Law & Order producers and the first day's shooting, in which he couldn't stop shaking. Out of character, Martin is an engaging figure on-camera, and his segment bears repeated viewing for his cleverness and the depth of his observations. Fred Thompson gets a more complex profile in his six minutes onscreen, his performing clips and interviews intercut with his stint as a United States senator. His acting career turns out to have been a fluky outgrowth of his legal career and a meeting with director Roger Donaldson. He was enticed into Law & Order by producer Dick Wolf, who promised the former Republican senator some substantive dialogue sequences about legal philosophy. Jerry Orbach has some fun stepping out of character and taking us on a tour of the set -- the precinct, the DA's offices, the judge's chambers, the courtrooms, the forensic laboratories, the hospital, etc. And, finally, saving the best for last, forensic scientist Dr. Park Dietz -- whose work (in which he admits taking great pleasure) has included investigating the Jeffrey Dahmer case and serves on a technical advisor on the series -- explains precisely what it is that he does, in terms of working with the writers and producers, and recent developments in the forensic field. He also raises his concern that the forensic information revealed on the series may help would-be offenders get away with their crimes. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time:

1045 mins

Categories:

Television

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