Time and time again I seem to miss the good shows. You'd think that the immense popularity of a series, based on high ratings and a powerful fan base would be enough to get me interested. Or even the knowledge that television juggernaut Donald Bellisario was involved certainly should have attracted me as a viewer. Yet, for some reason I never bothered to check out a single episode of "JAG." Of course, when I first heard the title I figured it was about some guy running around in a Jaguar saving people ala "Knightrider." Boy was I surprised to find out a few years later that Jaguars had nothing to do with the series. Leave it to the genius of Donald Bellisario to come up with a concept involving a Judge Advocate General (J.A.G…. get it?) and make it good enough to last ten seasons. After all, Bellisario had previously written for shows like the original “Battlestar Galactica” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, and went on to create “Magnum P.I.”, "Air Wolf", “Quantum Leap”, and the more recent and “NCIS.”

The funny thing is, "JAG" wasn't a hit right out of the box. It originally aired on NBC and was summarily cancelled after the very first season. However, someone at CBS had a feeling that there was more to the show than met the eye and snapped it up. That someone had better have gotten raise as the series continued for those nine additional seasons.

"JAG" starred David James Elliott as Harmon Rabb. Formerly a pilot, he was now an attorney for the Navy's Judge Advocate General. It is his job to prosecute or defend individuals involved in military crimes. It is also his responsibility to handle part of the investigations to the best of his abilities in order to find the truth behind the cases he is working on. During the first season of the series, 'Harm' (as he was known to his colleagues) was teamed with a couple of different partners as the producers were trying to find a chemistry that would appeal to the greatest number of viewers. Neither of them worked out, but when the series given its second lease on life at CBS, he was paired with actress Catherine Bell as "Mac" MacKenzie and the rest, as they say, is history.

After the series finally went off the air a couple of years ago, I began to get a little curious about it (finally). So I kept my eyes and ears open as to the possibility of a release on DVD. As I understood it, there were several snags that had to be worked out in order to get the series out on DVD. Well, it seems that these little legal woes were finally settled because the first season of "JAG" came out just a few months ago. I watched the set over the period of a couple of weeks (21 episodes takes a while to get to) and I have to say if the series got even better during subsequent seasons I couldn't wait to start watching those!

I could see where the series was working to get its 'sea legs', and there were certainly a few obstacles that had to be overcome, but I really enjoyed that first season. David James Elliott has tremendous screen presence and he did a great job acting as the anchor of the show. I thought the episodes were tight and the stories were well-written. And admittedly I thought most of the characters worked pretty well, so I was surprised that so many ended up not returning for the rest of the run. But now that Paramount is delivering the second season into fan's hot little hands, I've had the opportunity to see just what an improvement was made.

Right off the bat it was obvious that the chemistry between Elliott and Bell was much stronger than it was with her predecessor. They also beefed up the roles of some of season ones recurring characters. Patrick Labyorteaux's character, Lt. Bud Roberts, was pushed to the forefront and given a job directly in Harm's department. His character is very light hearted and brings a lot of humor to the series. We also were given a chance to see John M. Jackson's character, Admiral A.J. Chegwidden, in a much larger role. All of these changes were great because it gave the series a chance to focus on characters other than Harm, giving it a more well-rounded ability to tell stories.

The producers also changed the tone of the series quite a bit, again to its enhancement. The freshman season was a lot more action oriented, which wasn't bad… just a little tedious at times. With the move to a new network, the show was retooled to make it more of the legal style show it should have been from the beginning. There is more of an investigative approach taken to most of the case, with just a little bit of action thrown in to give it flavor. It was definitely a good move, again proven by the lengthy run,

As for the DVD presentation, the first season set gave us 6 discs, but this one had to be cut back a bit because there were only 15 episodes in the second season. The transfer looks fairly decent, but there is quite a bit of grain. Not enough to make you want to take the disc out, but it could have been a little better. There were spots in the series where some stock footage was used and you can tell. The sound wasn't upgraded so you still get a 2.0 presentation, but it suits the series well enough. For special features, Paramount gives us three commentaries (listed below) by various members of the cast and crew, all of which are actually quite interesting, but mostly touch on the changes between the seasons.

Additionally, there is a lengthy featurette where we find interviews from most of the cast and crew, again talking about the changes that were made in the series as well as the actors talking about their characters. Finally you'll find a featurette about the real JAG Corps with interviews from three real life officers. They each give their take on what the JAG Corps is all about, how they work, and how real the show is… and isn't.
All in all, "JAG" was a pretty good show from what I could tell from the first season. Now that I've seen how much better it became in it's second, I'm really curious to see the other eight seasons!

Episodes:
We The People (Commentary by Catherine Bell)
Secrets
Jinx
Heroes
Crossing the Line (Commentary by David Bellisario and Avery C. Drewe)
Trinity
Ghosts
Full Engagement
Washington Holiday (Commentary by Karri Turner and Patrick Labyorteaux)
The Game of Go
Force Recon
The Guardian
Code Blue
Cowboys and Cossacks
Rendezvous

Starring: David James Elliott, Catherine Bell, John M. Jackson, Patrick Labyorteaux
Extras: Commentary by Cast and Crew on Select Episodes, Setting Sail on Season 2, Inside the Real Jag Corps
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 11/7/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Jag: Season 2 a B-.