Who payed the critics

Excellent, a Must See

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Objection! Overruled! Can we take a sidebar? I love American courtroom dramas. Just rewatching the first series on DVD - at last. The show would never be made this way today. No hand-held cam? No high speed editing? No rushing down corridors? What we've lost! I love the way Daniel Benzali sits on a leather sofa, his head in the middle of the shot, against those Venetian blinds (it was their best work), and sits there utterly unmoving - and TALKS! Sidney Greenstreet in the Maltese Falcon? Just a touch. Then I'm the only one in the wide, sweet world... The "cell door slams shut" noises were stolen by the BBC's recent Bleak House. And if you don't have your head silhouetted against the blinds, they cast their shadow on the floor. Like prison bars, don't you know. I love it! I love it! I love them all, especially the gay secretary.

So I'm over visiting my Aunt in Italy in 2004. She is a stay at home mom and watched a lot of TV. While I was there I got to watch the last few episodes of the first season on Murder One. I fell in love with it and when I got home I looked it up and found out it was aired on TV in 95,96, and 97. In the summer I was at WalMart one day and I saw the first season on DVD. I figured me and my mom could watch it b/c she likes those kind of shows. Well we never ended up watching it so I took it to college with me and I watched it there. It became like my drug! I couldn't go a day w/o watching it! I was so drawn in it wasn't even funny. The lawyers are so hot and the women are beautiful. The last 3 episodes I watched like in a row. I couldn't wait to find out who the killer was because I left Italy before finding out. When I first started watching the second seasons I wasn't as impressed,but as the stories went on and thing heated up between Jimmy and Justine I began to love it just as much as the first season! I love all the office romances thrown in. It makes the show so realistic. The court room scenes are also awesome as those get heated up. All the supporting actors were outstanding as they each brought something different to the show. I was sad when I was done watched the DVDs. I just wish there was a way it could continue on with more seasons.

Steven Bochco, one of the 80's most influential TV producers steps into the 90's. First, he made NYPD Blue and later this serial involving a sensationalist trial where a famous actor is tried for murder, hence the title.It is funny to think that Bochco is still doing these shows because they are merely revisions of his earlier shows like Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law. When the show was advertised it was supposed to be something different and because televised trials involving celebrities like O.J. Simpson was deep in the public's mind, the fictionalized show was supposed to strike a chord too.It didn't do it for me. Although, the first two episodes of the first serial, involving Teddy Hoffman, was fascinating, it quickly became tedious to watch because everything had been seen before on L.A. Law, only not with so many details involving one trial.The second serial was a bit better because the replacement for Teddy Hoffman, who was quite a bore, was a lawyer played by Aussie-Italian Anthony LaPaglia. This was before he blew up like a balloon and his character was more interesting because he got romantically involved with one of his co-workers. The case he was handling was more simple but that made it something I could better relate to. The only thing this show needed now was better supporting characters but you can't have everything so this show was soon canceled. Too much of a good thing I suppose.

Murder One has to go down as one of the best series on of the 90's. The first series plot has you going one way and another spotting one red herring after another, right up until the last episode.Whilst I do remember the show well, I also remember is had a bit of a Scooby Doo ending to it, not entirely consistent with the previous 22 episodes.According to the press, whilst it was a monster hit in the UK (and other parts of Europe) it died a death in the US. I'm not sure if that's purely academic propaganda, but the suggestion was that US audiences didn't like the idea of having to follow a series rather than encapsulated 60 minute stories. Who knows, all I do know is that the seconds series was a severe disappointment.Clearly taking lead from some pressure state side, the trials became 3 episodes long, with little or no 'main plot'. UK audiences kept trying to piece together a bigger picture, only for there not to be one. As a result, it was widely criticised. Plus, the loss of Teddy Hoffman was a bitter blow. He'd become such a familiar feature of 23 episode run that when he wasn't there, it was never going to be the same.Maybe it suffers a little from the X-Files factor. A second series was a mistake and it should have quit while it was ahead.First series - Outstanding Second series - Fine for a rainy evening