Raising the Bar (TV Series) (DVD)

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7) "A Leg to Stand On." Politics enter into it again when Jerry defends a client who maintains his innocence, and political favors enter the courtroom when Judge Kessler is asked to deliver. Meanwhile, a law student seems to have a thing for Richard.

8) "Out on the Roof." When one of his friends is arrested, Charlie gets Jerry to handle the case, but draws the worst possible judge: Kessler. Meanwhile, Michelle asks Jerry to help Bobbi with a case.

9) "Roman Holiday." An HIV-positive man is charged with attempted murder after he spits in a police officer's face, and Jerry has to defend him. Meanwhile, Richard and Bobbi take on the case of a teenager who's accused of being an accessory to a murder. And in the biggest twist, Judge Kessler invites Charlie to accompany her on a trip to Italy.

10) "Shop Till You Drop." Tension arises between Charlie and Judge Kessler, who's already tense because one of her rulings was overturned by an appeals court. Meanwhile, it falls to Nick and Roz to retry the botched case, and racism turns out to be a stumbling block. And Bobbi's husband turns out to be . . . well, nothing we haven't seen before.

The characters themselves aren't distinctive enough to make this work, and Bochco and company do them no favors by introducing so many at a time. "Raising the Bar" isn't a bad show, but it certainly doesn't raise the bar for legal dramas.

Video:
"Raising the Bar" is presented in 1.781 widescreen, and the colors are bright, black levels are strong, and the level of detail for a DVD TV show is very good. There's of course the expected slight graininess, along with indistinct edges in low-lit or overly lit scenes, but otherwise the picture is fine.

Audio:
The audio is pretty middle-of-the-road. It's a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, with French and Spanish subtitles. But it's mostly front speakers that are active, and it's far from a dynamic soundtrack.

Extras:
The packaging almost underscores the feeling that this isn't a premiere release. The 10 episodes and bonus features are housed on three single-sided discs in a standard-size keep case with two discs overlapping--something collectors absolutely hate, because of the increased handling and risk of damage. There's no annotated episode guide to jog your memory, either.

Included here are two commentary tracks: "Bagels & Locks" features Bochco, supervising producer and co-creator David Feige, and co-executive producer Jesse Bochco; "Out on the Roof" offers actors Gosselaar, Kaczmarek, Currie Graham, Reuben, Gigliuti, Sears, and J. August Richards.

"Sworn Testimony: True Stories of a Public Defender" features David Feige talking about a book he wrote about a day in the life of a public defender, and now it got Bochco's interest. Bochco also appears in a back-and-forth talking heads conversation intercut with clips from the show. Nothing really unexpected here.

"Behind the Bar: An After Hours Roundtable with the Cast" features the six main actors--Mark-Paul Gosselaar/Jerry, Jane Kaczmarek/Judge Kessler, Currie Graham/Nick, Teddy Sears/Richard, Natalia Cigliuti/Bobbi, J. August Richards/Marcus McGrath--sitting alongside two café tables in a studio, looking and feeling stiff. It's not a roundtable, and if the producers had put conversation first and ease-of-filming second, a more fluid conversation may have resulted. But this is a lot of turntaking and not much insight.

Rounding out the bonus features is a blooper reel that's about par for the course-or maybe a little dumber than usual, because it tries too hard to appear funny, using goofy "Three Stooges" style music in the background.

Bottom Line:
Bochco didn't "Raise the Bar" with this TV show. We've seen it before, and so even the most likable character seems only average.

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