Best movie of this year hands down!

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

It's the L.A. law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak. In the pilot opening, divorce lawyer Arnie Becker (Corbin Bernsen) and his secretary Roxanne Melman (Susan Ruttan) find senior partner Norman Chaney dead in his office. Leland McKenzie (Richard Dysart) and Douglas Brackman, Jr. (Alan Rachins) are the other senior partners. Michael Kuzak (Harry Hamlin) is the rising star partner. They and the other various characters over the years deal with court as well as life.Steven Bochco created one of the most popular series of the '80s. It's a legal drama about a law firm in L.A. It featured some great actors who created some iconic characters. On top of that, they had great chemistry. Their interactions is half of the fun. It made a mythical sexual position an actual thing. Now that's popularity. With such a great large cast, a few defections do happen. And that is one of the reason for this show's demise. By 1992, some of the cast starts to disappear. At that point during its initial run, I lost interest. This show relies on its characters and it lost too many of them. This award winning show had 8 seasons and a movie.

This show was so good when it premiered, several seasons later, it diminished in quality... Much of the cast contributed significantly to the success of this series, Tom Verica and Steve Eckholdt were very enlightening and auspicious factors to making "L.A. Law" popular in the latter years of the show's existence!! By then, those two were about the only stellar characters in this series!! Dialog in programs today is far more intellectual and acrimonious than it was in the past!! "L.A. Law" was the harbinger of things to come in terms of relevant and legally germane script writing which was pertinent to the authenticity of a law office in the 1980's!! The original made for T.V. movie signified a revelation in television law shows!! Candor about legal settlements, and situations involving ethics with relation to salaries and status quo behavior, became a staple to the modus operandi of L.A. Law!! The poignant jeremiads which articulated the indictments of our prevailing legal system in America, became one of "L.A. Law's" trademarks!! "L.A. Law" lasted eight seasons, only three were really excellent!! Almost everyone who knows about "L.A. Law" would agree with me, it is just that it is very difficult to comprehend why "L.A. Law" went downhill so quickly? NBC's perception of the Thursday Night slot of 10/9 central was that it was sewn up in their favor regardless of what they put in this slot!! Rationale of this nature is always a grave mistake!! There were a few highlights to the show in it's last couple of years, guys like Steve Eckholdt added to the show tremendously!! Even with his talent, he was not enough to re-establish the reputation "L.A. Law" had at one time for being one of the best shows on television!!

It is hard to believe that David E. Kelly first started writing television scripts with Doogie Howser MD & then went straight to this. There is a world of difference between those efforts. This series is very entertaining.It also is much more serious than some of the later series he has done. While this series has some comedy, it has a much more serious tone than Ally McBeal or House MD which have been his later work. This series not only presents more serious issues than those later shows, but also better draw more realistic characters as well.The acting & production quality of this is very good. Richard Dysart seems the perfect actor to be the foundation of this law firm. The rest of the cast seems to fit their roles well too. Wonder if a 20 or 25 year reunion is planned for this series? A retrospective could be fun.Towards the end of the series, more of David E Kelly's humor started showing up. In fact, the last season very much resembles a trial run of Ally McBeal in it's tone. Lets not forget Boston Legal too. Kelly has continued to develop his talents in that direction since.If you like House MD or Ally McBeal, you will like this series. If you liked Boston Public (which was a little more serious) you'd like this show too. I am not sure if David Kelly has any other directions he can head but viewers sure get a lot chance to enjoy his work.

This show had one of the best ensemble casts in recent memory, at least for a drama series. Some fine acting from Larry Drake and others saved what could have been a fluff sex-and-rich-people yuppie drama. Some good courtroom drama is interspersed with decent character stories to make this a watchable drama. What keeps it from being a classic is a half-hearted attempt at social criticism of Los Angeles immorality that just falls flat, as well as a little more gratuitous sex and skin that is just unnecessary.If you happen to catch it in syndicated reruns on cable, watch it. But it isn't worth seeking out on video, unless you really want to see the breakout rolls of Larry Drake and Blair Underwood.