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New Street Law - The Complete First Season
Koch Vision // Unrated // December 4, 2007
List Price: $39.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
There's nothing particularly new about "New Street Law," the legal drama that ran for two seasons on BBC One beginning in 2006. It is instead a fine example of solid genre work, a program that operates within the realm of the expected to create tight, cracking drama. The show's first season (or "series", if you prefer) is highly addictive stuff, featuring sharp character work and a keen sense of episodic drama.
John Hannah stars as Jack Roper, a renegade barrister working out of Manchester. Jack refuses to take on prosecution cases, having soured on the idea years ago when he worked as a pupil under Laurence Scammel (Paul Freeman). Now the two share a building: Laurence's high-price chambers are in the fancy offices upstairs; Jack and his ragtag crew struggle to get by in the unimpressive basement offices below.
The symbolism is a bit obvious, but it works. Here we have a clash of ideals, the wealthy and powerful vs. the small but determined. Both sides are shown to have firm ideals about the good the law can do, and Laurence isn't so much a villain as an embodiment of the elite - later episodes show him playing the political game, while his wife, Honor (Penny Downie), who also works upstairs, is often shown being more concerned with appearances than with personal relationships. (Their daughter, Laura - played by Lisa Faulkner - is the third member of their legal team. Her young idealism and frustration over being repeatedly excluded from Laurence's "boys' club" politics will push her to the end of her rope, and one of the season's major subplots watches the family fall slowly apart.)
Not all is better downstairs, however. These young defenders find themselves without paychecks for abysmally long periods of time, the cost of being so quixotic in their efforts. The lack of pay puts a heavy strain on the team's relationships, both in and out of chambers. Jack's final-say authority, a stern leadership at the cost of more profitable cases and a more unified chambers, increasingly angers the team. It's an anger that backfires in a way in one episode, when Jack reluctantly agrees to a case he doesn't want, defending an abusive father. This episode strips away the black-and-white morality of the series and sends its characters marching into grayer territory for the rest of the season.
"New Street Law" works finest as an ensemble piece. Each episode splits its action over two or three cases, giving every cast member a chance to shine. Charlie Darling (John Thomson) is the flirtatious windbag of the team, a guy who balances his principles with his knack for conniving. Annie Quick (Lara Cazalet) finds her marriage collapsing the more time she devotes to her cases. Joe Stevens (Lee Williams) is the cocky rookie, eager to hit the big time. Sally Benn (Jayne Ashbourne) is Jack's former flame and the team member who keeps him grounded. And Al Ware (Chris Gascoyne) is the smarmy clerk responsible for the barristers' court assignments.
It's a cast just crowded enough to keep things busy without overloading the episodes. The scripts, led by series co-creator Matthew Hall, juggle the personal with the legally adventurous. Each episode is highlighted by a major case that plays as a ripping mystery, although the cast doesn't play detective (there's no Matlock-esque sleuthing) as much as they practice the power of debate, pushing the courtroom examinations until, as they say, "the truth will out." Smaller secondary cases allow for breezy comic relief and/or stirring personal asides. And while the season begins with episodes that work as self-contained one-offs, the writing staff eventually allows the barristers' own stories to grow from episode to episode, bringing a nice amount of personal drama to the mix.
To American audiences, "New Street Law" can also work as a peek inside a legal system that's familiar enough to follow but foreign enough to intrigue, although the dramatics are sharp enough that the finer points of British law don't overwhelm the personal.
A second season was filmed later in 2006, although the BBC held off on airing it until February 2007. Low ratings caused the network to juggle it around the schedule; despite a cliffhanger finale, the show was announced in July 2007 as being cancelled. I have not yet seen the second season, but if the excellent first season is an indication, then this was a cancellation that was definitely undeserved.
The DVD
Koch Vision collects all eight one-hour episodes of the first season of "New Street Law" onto a three-disc box set. The discs are housed in a three-panel digipak that slips into a glossy cardboard cover. Discs One and Two contain three episodes each (there are no episode titles); Disc Three contains the final two episodes.
Video & Audio
The anamorphic widescreen (1.77:1) transfer is adequate for a British television production that relies on a fair amount of location work and an intentionally "gritty" look. There's a constant amount of grain throughout, especially in darker scenes. The soundtrack is a simple but serviceable Dolby 2.0. No subtitles are provided.
Extras
Found on Disc Three, a collection of outtakes is about as low-key as bloopers ever get: this rough, unedited footage shows long single takes of dialogue, each ending with only the smallest verbal flub. These outtakes, why, they're downright polite. As such, they work more as slight behind-the-scenes on-set footage than as hilarious cut-'em-ups.
Final Thoughts
A wonderful ensemble experience, "New Street Law" is Recommended to legal drama junkies as well as fans of intelligent character drama.
John Hannah stars as Jack Roper, a renegade barrister working out of Manchester. Jack refuses to take on prosecution cases, having soured on the idea years ago when he worked as a pupil under Laurence Scammel (Paul Freeman). Now the two share a building: Laurence's high-price chambers are in the fancy offices upstairs; Jack and his ragtag crew struggle to get by in the unimpressive basement offices below.
The symbolism is a bit obvious, but it works. Here we have a clash of ideals, the wealthy and powerful vs. the small but determined. Both sides are shown to have firm ideals about the good the law can do, and Laurence isn't so much a villain as an embodiment of the elite - later episodes show him playing the political game, while his wife, Honor (Penny Downie), who also works upstairs, is often shown being more concerned with appearances than with personal relationships. (Their daughter, Laura - played by Lisa Faulkner - is the third member of their legal team. Her young idealism and frustration over being repeatedly excluded from Laurence's "boys' club" politics will push her to the end of her rope, and one of the season's major subplots watches the family fall slowly apart.)
Not all is better downstairs, however. These young defenders find themselves without paychecks for abysmally long periods of time, the cost of being so quixotic in their efforts. The lack of pay puts a heavy strain on the team's relationships, both in and out of chambers. Jack's final-say authority, a stern leadership at the cost of more profitable cases and a more unified chambers, increasingly angers the team. It's an anger that backfires in a way in one episode, when Jack reluctantly agrees to a case he doesn't want, defending an abusive father. This episode strips away the black-and-white morality of the series and sends its characters marching into grayer territory for the rest of the season.
"New Street Law" works finest as an ensemble piece. Each episode splits its action over two or three cases, giving every cast member a chance to shine. Charlie Darling (John Thomson) is the flirtatious windbag of the team, a guy who balances his principles with his knack for conniving. Annie Quick (Lara Cazalet) finds her marriage collapsing the more time she devotes to her cases. Joe Stevens (Lee Williams) is the cocky rookie, eager to hit the big time. Sally Benn (Jayne Ashbourne) is Jack's former flame and the team member who keeps him grounded. And Al Ware (Chris Gascoyne) is the smarmy clerk responsible for the barristers' court assignments.
It's a cast just crowded enough to keep things busy without overloading the episodes. The scripts, led by series co-creator Matthew Hall, juggle the personal with the legally adventurous. Each episode is highlighted by a major case that plays as a ripping mystery, although the cast doesn't play detective (there's no Matlock-esque sleuthing) as much as they practice the power of debate, pushing the courtroom examinations until, as they say, "the truth will out." Smaller secondary cases allow for breezy comic relief and/or stirring personal asides. And while the season begins with episodes that work as self-contained one-offs, the writing staff eventually allows the barristers' own stories to grow from episode to episode, bringing a nice amount of personal drama to the mix.
To American audiences, "New Street Law" can also work as a peek inside a legal system that's familiar enough to follow but foreign enough to intrigue, although the dramatics are sharp enough that the finer points of British law don't overwhelm the personal.
A second season was filmed later in 2006, although the BBC held off on airing it until February 2007. Low ratings caused the network to juggle it around the schedule; despite a cliffhanger finale, the show was announced in July 2007 as being cancelled. I have not yet seen the second season, but if the excellent first season is an indication, then this was a cancellation that was definitely undeserved.
The DVD
Koch Vision collects all eight one-hour episodes of the first season of "New Street Law" onto a three-disc box set. The discs are housed in a three-panel digipak that slips into a glossy cardboard cover. Discs One and Two contain three episodes each (there are no episode titles); Disc Three contains the final two episodes.
Video & Audio
The anamorphic widescreen (1.77:1) transfer is adequate for a British television production that relies on a fair amount of location work and an intentionally "gritty" look. There's a constant amount of grain throughout, especially in darker scenes. The soundtrack is a simple but serviceable Dolby 2.0. No subtitles are provided.
Extras
Found on Disc Three, a collection of outtakes is about as low-key as bloopers ever get: this rough, unedited footage shows long single takes of dialogue, each ending with only the smallest verbal flub. These outtakes, why, they're downright polite. As such, they work more as slight behind-the-scenes on-set footage than as hilarious cut-'em-ups.
Final Thoughts
A wonderful ensemble experience, "New Street Law" is Recommended to legal drama junkies as well as fans of intelligent character drama.
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