The Paper Chase: Season Two
by Jack Bender
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: James Stephens, John HousemanDirector: Jack Bender
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1050 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-12-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Shout! Factory
Product features:
- PAPER CHASE, THE-SEASON 2 (DVD MOVIE)
Movie Reviews of The Paper Chase: Season Two
Movie Review: Showtime continues "the series that was too good for commercial television"
Summary: 5 Stars
After The Paper Chase was canceled after one season on CBS, the then young cable network Showtime picked it up and continued it for two more seasons (well, three more by Showtime's reckoning, but the final two effectively comprise one season.) They promoted it with the admittedly smug but accurate slogan "The show that was too good for commercial television."
Those who watched the first season will note only three student characters continued to the second season: Hart (the idealistic lead character), Ford (the rich preppy with a future in corporate law, and probably 5-10 years for insider trading), and Bell (the lovable schlub almost overwhelmed by law school). The first season's token female Logan is gone, along with a couple of others whose name I can't even remember (and I think my lack of memory of their names speaks to them being not very useful characters.)
The brilliant John Houseman continues, of course, as the intimidating Professor Charles W. Kingsfield, as does Betty Harford as his secretary, Mrs. Nottingham, a character whom the term "long-suffering" seems to have been invented to describe.
We get several new characters. Jane Kaczmarek is in 6-8 early episodes as Hart's girlfriend, but the character is written out. We get three new female characters -- Laura, a first year student whom Bell is attracted to, Vivian, an African-America first year student who only gets anything more than a few lines late in the season and isn't well-developed as a character, and Harriman, a second year student and Hart's main rival at the law review. She seems to largely fill the role Logan played in the first season, and the only reason I can guess as to why they didn't use the same character was the actress was no longer available. We also Golden, the uptight editor of the law review, whose reminders that the law review can never be late are so frequent, they almost start to sound like "No one has ever escaped from Stalag 13!" (well, except Golden's statement was accurate.)
The quality of the episodes is good, overall, but it moves to excellent by the end of the season. I suspect the decision to write out Hart's girlfriend signified a change in direction on the part of the writers, deciding to focus more on legal and educational issues, rather than personal lives. Many of the later episodes are "issue driven", touching on topics like cheating, senility (which would probably be called "Alzheimer's" if the episode was done today), and academic politics and tenure. Three episodes in particular stand out in my mind: "Hart Goes Home", in which Hart goes home (well, duh...) to Minnesota and finds out how much law school has changed him, and not changed him, from his Minnesota farm boy roots, "My Dinner With Kingsfield", in which Hart and Kingsfield are stranded together in a snowstorm and learn about each other outside the classroom environment, and "Not Prince Hamlet", in which a grieving father tries to determine why his law student son took his own life.
If there's "clunker" in the lot, its "War of the Wonks". Its topic -- the role of computers in the law and society at large -- is a valid one, especially during the mid-Eighties when the episode was set and the computer revolution was just beginning. But the titular "wonks" (the school's engineering grad students) are painful stereotypes of nerds, and computer that drives the plot has capabilities that even today would be impressive, and pretty much impossible when the episode was written.
If you're a fan of "before they were stars" moments, there's a few in here. Besides Jane Kaczmarek, you'll find David Caruso as a extremely hot-headed law student, and Jon Lovitz as an uptight student. And this is more of an "after he was a star" moment, but we get retired football star Lynn Swann as a (surprise surprise) retired football star who decided to go to law school after his first career ended.
This is easily one of the best dramatic series of the Eighties. I can't recommend it enough.
Summary of The Paper Chase: Season Two
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