On the Law side are DS Ronnie Brooks (Bradley Walsh), DS Matt Devlin (Jamie Bamber), and DI Natalie Chandler (Harriet Walter) while on the Order side are Crown Prosecutor James Steel (Daniels), CP Alesha Phillips (Freema Agyeman), and their boss, George Castle (Bill Patterson)- head of the London Crown Prosecutor Service.   Brooks is cynical while his partner Devlin is an idealist.  You see Devlin wants to have a thing with Alesha while it’s hinted at that Alesha and Steel could be involved outside of work.   Castle takes his cases personal because he believes every case matters even if he loses it.   In one episode, Castle finds a second way to get the criminal when the jury says not guilty on other charges.   Then Castle does get too involved when the first criminal he convicted gets set free (UNSAFE).    Ronnie deals with his drinking problem and even gets into trouble when he tries to protect someone else (HONOUR BOUND) while Alesha deals with what happens to her (ALESHA).   The episodes of the series are very tightly scripted with some good guest stars like Sean Pertwee (VICE) and Iain Glen as Luke Slade (UNSAFE).   I hope the next set episodes will have originally scripted stories without having to be adaptations of episodes from the US original.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Three audio commentaries are on this set-

CARE with Executive Producers Andrew Woodhead and Chris Chibnall, and Producer Richard Stokes

SAMARITAN with Executive Producer Andrew Woodhead, Producer Richard Stokes, and Director Andy Goddard

HONOUR BOUND with Producer Richard Stokes and Director Andy Goddard

Deleted scenes are included for almost every episode except two of them.

Freema Agyeman takes the viewers on tours of the Police and Crown Prosecution sets.  The set also has interviews with Bradley Walsh, Jamie Bamber, LAW & ORDER Creator Dick Wolf, and Executive Producer Chris Chibnall on disc one while disc three has interviews with Harriet Walter and Producer Richard Stokes.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  LAW & ORDER UK Season One may be a Target Exclusive (at least for now), but it is one for fans of LAW & ORDER and British crime drama to pick up.   The episodes put a fresh spin on old LAW & ORDER episodes in a British context which I quite enjoyed.  Plenty of extras make this a great set.  Now I wonder when the show will air in the USA and when Season Two will make its way to DVD.

This DVD review is ©4-2-2010 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com