La loi de Los Angeles

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.

I have begun bingeing it on Prime Video after a couple of decades and found it both enjoyable and cringe-worthy - those 1980s clothes and hair! LOL The first five seasons had the best cast, but after Hamlin, Smits, and Greene (then Dey after season 6) left it began a downhill slide. The remaining characters weren't all that interesting and except for John Spencer as Tommy Mullaney the new additions were forgettable at best. The 7th season was terrible with the extended arc of Stuart getting harmed in the Rodney King riots and descending into buffoonery before he made something of a mild comeback. That was a terrible plot device and what has kept me from revisiting the rest of season 7 and season 8. At least we had 5 decent seasons to enjoy.

This show concerning the lives of lawyers at an LA law firm was a breakout hit during its first season for its well written plots and great characters. This of course was because of some incredible writers and great actors. However as the show entered about it's sixth season the best writers and actors began to leave en masse the plotlines fell apart and the show became much more stale. Avoid this period if you can.

This was a seminal show -- probably the first "lawyer show" that wasn't really a detective program in disguise. L.A. Law introduced us to many of the particulars of a law firm: The staff meeting, administrative hearings, appellate court argument, as well as almost all aspects of criminal and CIVIL litigation. It was an amazing program that, when it focused on the intriguing cases that came to the firm, was arguably the best show on television in the late 80s and early 90s. If I recall correctly only Hill Street Blues, The West Wing, and L.A. Law won 4 Emmys for best drama (now maybe Mad Men?). There's a reason this show ranks in the upper echelon of television dramas.

To be fair to its critics, however, I can't remember ANY program that was this good that, almost abruptly, became so bad! Although I continued to watch it until the end, it was hit-and-miss at best, and sometimes just plain terrible after the fifth season.

I used to watch this off and on back when it was originally on and recently started re-watching from the beginning. For three seasons, it was a great show; great people who created a family. They had their issues and problems but they always worked everything out in the end. Unfortunately, in Season 4 they introduced the character of Rosalind Shays and ruined it completely. All the continuity and camaraderie that made the show great was gone. Suddenly there was nothing but controversy, back-stabbing, manipulation, lying and it became increasingly uncomfortable to watch. I'm currently almost at the end of Season 4 and honestly doubt I will watch much more; it's just no fun anymore.