Practice - The Lawyers Vol. 1 - DVD

Content: Former attorney David E. Kelley is the undisputed master of the American courtroom series. Whether as a writer for L.A. Law or as the creator of Ally McBeal and Boston Legal, time and again Kelley has skillfully blended his former profession with crowd-pleasing entertainment. Compelling cases that have sometimes sparked controversy are just as important to him as sometimes very quirky humor and accessible characters. Even in his series not directly set in court (Boston Public, Picket Fences or Chicago Hope), justice and court cases have been a recurring theme.

Also in Practice - The Lawyers, Kelley showed his great talent for involving stories and well-drawn characters for eight seasons. Slightly less playful than Ally McBeal and more serious than its direct sequel Boston Legal, the series is devoted to the day-to-day struggle of Bobby Donnell's (Dylan McDermott) law firm to get justice for their clients. Whether murder, robbery, dog bites or drug offenses, the law firm is no case too small or too big to reject - as long as the lawyers are convinced of the innocence of their clients.

Nearly 17 years after the first episode has run on U.S. television, now finally appears the first DVD box set in Germany. On it is not only the complete, very short first season, but also the first episodes of the second season included. The series does not spend much time introducing the characters and the dramaturgy. Instead, the viewer is thrust directly into the hectic professional life of the dedicated lawyers and in this way gets to know Bobby Donnell and his colleagues with all their professional strengths and personal weaknesses. And it also establishes the basic tone of the series right from the first episode, which is gradually refined. While some cases deal with very difficult issues and raise fundamental questions about morality and justice, other moments are much more relaxed and downright humorous.

The good character drawing that also makes up this David E. Kelley series only becomes apparent over the course of several episodes. But what is already revealed in the pilot episode are the strong dialogues, which hardly lose anything of their quality in the successful German dubbing. So it is then little wonder that the pleas often belong to the strongest moments of each episode, as here also the expertise of series creator Kelley is positively noticeable.

While most episodes deal with self-contained cases, there are also some negotiations that drag on over several episodes. The same goes for the lawyers' personal lives, which also play an important role within the series. The intermingling of the professional and private sides of the characters makes for a very engaging overall picture, due to which the series has been awarded 15 Emmys and 3 Golden Globes over the course of its eight seasons. Even if the series does not quite reach the quality at the beginning, which has fully unfolded in the course of the second and third season, it is already very clear in this first DVD box that Practice - The Lawyers has more than earned each of these awards. If you like US lawyer series and appreciate the style of David E. Kelley, you should definitely get this one. Absolutely recommended!

Image + Sound: The age of the series is definitely noticeable in the audio-visual realization. The picture, which is in the original 1.33:1 full frame format, looks rather soft-edged overall and has only a few moments to offer where the picture is really sharp. In addition, a certain amount of coarse grain can be detected in many scenes, and here and there you can also make out some slight image noise. Overall, the picture is somewhat on par with the TV broadcast. The same applies to the stereo sound, which transports the dialogue well understandable and powerful from the speakers, but otherwise sounds rather muffled. For a 17-year-old TV series, however, this is alright overall, which is why the bottom line is a good.

Extras: The only extra is a featurette (approx. 17 min.) about the creation and production of the series that is worth watching. Not much, but for fans of the series a worthwhile encore!

Conclusion:With Practice - The Lawyers David E. Kelley created another great lawyer series, which provided good entertainment and exciting stories for eight seasons between 1997 and 2004. Now finally the first thirteen episodes come out on DVD, in which the series has not quite found its later quality, but in which it is already very well clear what the strengths of the Boston Legal predecessor. Good actors and cases that always inspire interesting discussions and a successful mix of drama, suspense and humor make Vol. 1 of Practice - The Lawyers an absolute must for all lovers of first-class law series. Fortunately, Vol. 2 is not long in coming! Absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp