I finally caught the first season of this critically acclaimed Steven Bochco series on DVD. It's a very good series with some flaws that was a bit ahead of its time in the pre-super Internet, DVD era.

The point of the show was to present one trial during its entire first season from the point of view of the defense--in this case, Hoffman and Associates' defense of movie star Neil Avedon for the murder of his teenage lover.

Let's start with the good. The lead, Daniel Benzali as Teddy Hoffman, is perfectly cast. Benzali is an intense if limited actor (I actually haven't liked him in much of his other work) who makes Hoffman into a likeable, honest, somewhat prickly, intimidating personality. While the show (especially at the beginning) goes a bit over the top in making Ted into such a "good guy," Benzali's slow burn and well chosen sarcasm makes his character very compelling.

A lot of the other regulars are well chosen too. Stanley Tucci is excellent as the sleazy millionaire Richard Cross. The audience KNOWS Cross is connected to the murder, but is never really sure how, even down to the last episode. Tucci is perfect at mixing Cross' personalities--the charming rogue, the over the top psycho, the vulnerable man. Jason Gedrick is also excellent as the defendant, really evolving as the case goes on from cocky superstar to pathetic drug addict to desperate defendant.

The show also does a good job in refraining from depicting the opposing side in negative terms, something which fouls up too many legal shows. The prosecutor (Barbara Bosson) is a smart, ethical adversary, and all of her scenes with Hoffman are compelling. While the lead detective (the always interesting Dylan Baker) initially seems like a prick, he's honest and we gradually realize he's a pretty decent, smart person. Only the head D.A. (Gregory Itzin, best known from playing Logan on 24) is venal and shifty. The positive depictions of these characters make the investigation and trial seem like a good matchup between intelligent adversaries and not some silly stage show.

Episodes also focusing on "mundane" aspects of the trial come off great. Two excellent episodes about jury selection, a few episodes which examine the personalities of the jurors, the defense's careful plan for organizing their game plan--these are all great touches and make for fascinating television.

There are still a bit of "only in TV" themes--some of the one episode plot points (the brief kidnapping of Hoffman's daughter, the death of his initial investigator) are interesting but come off as events that merely whet the viewers' appetite instead of logical events. I was also a bit disappointed at the deux ex machina videotape revealing the true killer--while I was also initially annoyed at the killer's revelation, it's at least a moderately logical suspect that had been brought up before. If the series was to keep going, I would have encouraged it to focus more on the trial itself and not about feeling the need to wrap everything up so neatly.

Now for the weaker parts. Ted's associates are kind of meh. This is a big problem in the early episodes which features subplots with them working on their own cases--most of these come off as sort of preachy, reveal little about the junior lawyers, and, if intended as comic relief, are not funny (that ghastly episode about the barking dog!). The show could have sped up some of the pre-trial parts by compressing these episodes or at least given the characters/subplots more thought.

As for the junior partners, the second chair, Chris (Michael Hayden), is bland. The actor isn't really a problem (he at times fills in for the audience), but the character is given nothing to do. He's having an affair with Lisa (Grace Phillips), unfortunately, a character even blander, meaning that any scenes they get alone descend into a black hole of bland-om. Arnold (J.C. MacKenzie) is a little more interesting, but he's one of those annoying "TV" characters--the awkward nerd who somehow has all these women after him. Justine (Mary McCormack) has an interesting subplot where her character is fired and ends up working for Richard Cross, but this comes off as a plot contrivance. I don't know if we're supposed to "like" either Arnold or Justine, but I don't--Arnold is a moralistic feeb who doesn't own up to his mistakes, while Justine is a liar who never takes responsibility for betraying a client and throwing the defense under the bus. It's okay to have dislikeable characters, but I don't get the feeling this is what the creators wanted.

The other flaw of the series is focusing on Hoffman's personal life. Patricia Clarkson is very good in the thankless role (in a lifetime of playing thankless roles) of Hoffman's wife, who ends up wanting a divorce. Benzali and Clarkson have no chemistry together--that may be the point, to show that their marriage is in trouble, but the sledgehammer point of seeing it fizzle, episode after episode, is tiresome. Donna Murphy, as Mrs. Cross and a woman Hoffman is attracted to, tries her best, but the character is a boring non-starter with even less chemistry with Hoffman than his wife, so their scenes together are probably the worst in the series.

I think if I were running this series today, I would focus on the prosecution a bit more, so we would be privy to both sides' strategies (almost like the troubled Law and Order: Trial by Jury tried to do). This would allow for less need for padding, so we wouldn't need to show the dumb side case scenes in the early episodes. While the first season has a great antagonist in Richard Cross and a compelling ending, I would not like to see the "big conspiracy web" plotline dragged out in every trial.