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 last year. 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.

With the second season there were a lot of changes and 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 show's run.

Paramount is quickly catching up by releasing the fourth season on DVD this month. Watching the 24 episodes in this new set, it's easy to tell that the cast is really warming up to each other and becoming more cohesive as a unit. The rapport between the characters is the best it's been from what I've seen so far. The storylines in this season get a little darker as well, with Harm, Mac and the group dealing with the murder of a little girl. This particular storyline carries over for multiple episodes and is very hard to watch.

As for the DVD presentation, the first season set gave us 6 discs while the second season had to be cut back a bit because there were only 15 episodes. The third season bumped the episodes back up to 24 and continued for the fourth season. The transfer on this set also looks a bit better than what was offered on the previous sets. 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. As for special features we only get a short gag reel. It fun seeing the actors flub lines, but I had hoped for a little more.

All in all, "JAG" was a pretty good show from what I could tell from the first four seasons. Now that I've seen how it continued to improve, I'm really curious to see the other six seasons!

Episodes:
Gypsy Eyes
Embassy
Innocence
Going Affter Francesca
The Martin Baker Fan Club
Act of Terror
Angels 30
Mr. Rabb goes to Washington
People vs. Mac
The Black Jet
Jaggle Bells
Dungaree Justice
War Stories
Webb of Lies
River’s Run
Silent Service
Nobody’s Child
Shakedown
The Adversaries
Second Sight
Wilderness of Mirrors
Soul Searching
Yeah, Baby
Goodbyes

Starring: David James Elliott, Catherine Bell, John M. Jackson, Patrick Labyorteaux
Extras: Gag Reel
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 8/21/2007
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give JAG: Season 4 a B.