Shout Factory | 1983-84 | 1050 mins. | Not Rated
Adapted from John Jay Osborn, Jr.’s 1970 novel and the 1973 film it inspired, The Paper Chase follows the lives of law student James T. Hart (James Stephens) and his classmates at a university not referred to as, but clearly meant to be, Harvard Law School. Aired on CBS during the 1978-79 season, the series was cancelled after one year. After successful reruns on PBS, in 1983, the new cable network Showtime brought the series back with all new episodes. Showtime produced new episodes for the next three years. Though the seasons grew increasingly shorter as time passed, viewers were able to witness James T. Hart graduate from law school.
In the second season, Hart is a much more self assured young man. He has become a bit of a celebrity among his classmates, as the only student to ace the contract law course taught by legendary Professor Charles W. Kingsfield, Jr. (John Houseman), whose brutal, Socratic lectures and intimidating demeanor terrorize everyone. “You teach yourselves the law. I train your minds,” Kingsfield would say at the beginning of each term. “You come in here with a skull full of mush, and if you survive, you’ll leave thinking like a lawyer.”
Given Hart’s success, nervous first year students (“1L’s”) descend on his apartment seeking advice on how to handle Professor Kingsfield, and offering rather large sums of money for his outline of the contract law course. Hart shares the apartment with Franklin Ford III (Tom Fitzsimmons), a young man from a wealthy family who seems more concerned with enjoying campus life, than hitting the books. Hart meanwhile lands a prestigious position on the school’s Law Review, edited by demanding Gerald Golden (Michael Tucci). Another friend of Hart’s, Willis Bell (James Keane), supervises the dormitory where most of the first year students reside.
If there’s one issue with the second season of The Paper Chase, it’s the fact that less pressure on Hart meant less focus on the travails of law school and more on the outside distractions—girls, parties, and girls—for me, the show was at its best when the focus stayed on Hart’s studies and his attempts to balance that with his duties at the Law Review.
Despite some weaknesses in the second season, The Paper Chase remained a solid series. The move from network television to cable, gave the show’s writers and producers the freedom to tackle difficult subjects without network restrictions. More than twenty years after the final episode of The Paper Chase was filmed, it’s wonderful that Shout Factory has made the second season available on DVD.
Spread over six single-sided, dual layered DVDs, the full frame shows look a bit soft. Four of the first six episodes are edited syndication versions because the “Showtime master could not be sourced.” The sound could definitely be better. The mono audio is fine most of the time but in some scenes the sound will suddenly become ragged and distorted, like they had to resort to some fourth-generation source. To Shout Factory’s credit, the problematic episodes are identified, and the packaging provides airdates and other capsule information.
There are no special features.
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