Customer Reviews

Conviction Season 1

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was a huge fan of District Attorney Alexandra Cabot on Law and Order: SVU, so I was thrilled when they brought her back as the bureau chief of a bunch of young district attorneys on Conviction. This show was marketed for different generation than the other Law and Orders, more specifically a younger demographic. These ADAs are in their late twenties, and know that there is little glory to be had with the cases that they're getting, but that they're fighting for something real. Their cases don't have the glitz and glamour of regular Law and Order, and there isn't always a sexual element like on SVU, but their determination and perseverance are a joy to watch.

Cabots group of young ADAs is comprised of:
Jim Steele: Steele is the Deputy Bureau Chief who has to take over when the other DBC is gunned down in the first episode. Steele is like his name, he is a man made of steel who tries to shape the younger attorneys looking up to him without becoming disillusioned himself. He's also in a relationship with one of them while secretly pining away for Cabot.

Nick Potter: Potter is the newest kid to join the bureau and is still wet behind the ears when it comes to criminal law. The other attorneys love to remind him of this and treat him like a rookie. Still he's determined to prove himself in their eyes and in Steele's after making a horrible mistake in the first episode.

Billy Desmond: Desmond is arrogant, cocky, and full of himself--but with good reason. He's undefeated in the courtroom (28-0) and he is determined to stay that way. He only takes cases that he can win and will even go as far to hand off a losing case to one of the other lawyers.

Christina Finn: Finn has been with bureau for two years and is still a little green in the courtroom. She gets her first case in the first episode and makes mistakes, but in an endearing way. Finn's like your little sister, you want to look after her because she keeps making the most charming mistakes. Her search for Mr. Right is one of the more lighthearted plot lines in the series.

Brian Peluso: Peluso is a smooth talker who spends as much time ducking the ladies who call him at the office as he does working on his cases. He has a mild flirtation with Finn, as well as a gambling problem that continues to rear its ugly head. Still he's Steele's right hand man and a great attorney.

Jessica Rossi: Rossi is a tough young attorney who has a weak spot for domestic abuse cases. She refuses to not prosecute wife beaters, even to her own detriment. Her relationship with Steele is a constant problem throughout the season.

I was so disappointed that this show got cancelled because it was really well written and a nice change from the others in the Dick Wolf series. I feel like the original Law and Order has gotten stale in recent years and it might be time to let it go. While SVU is still as great as ever, this was NBC's chance to add a little zest back into a floundering series. I highly recommend this show to people who enjoyed the original Law and Order back in the Angie Harmon years, and to those who like SVU. It's great to have Cabot back in the courtroom even if it is only on DVD.

The first Law & Order series to not be called Law & Order, "Conviction" was NBC's very obvious answer to ABC's hit series Grey's Anatomy only with lawyers instead of doctors. Despite their own hopes that Conviction could do for law dramas what Grey's Anatomy had done for medical dramas, NBC (as with creator Dick Wolf's previously short-lived Law & Order: Trial By Jury) ultimately cancelled the series. Too bad, especially for fans of Stephanie March's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit character ADA Alex Cabot, as later episodes, according to March, would have dealt in depth with Alex, both in terms of her family and what makes her tick. Thankfully though, the producers were allowed to wrap up the series with a satisfying two-part finale. Conviction might've deviated somewhat from the typical L & O formula, but it still remained true in tone to the other Law & Order shows. Definitely a worthy addition to any Court TV DVD collection. Not so much for the packaging and extras which are solid, but for the episodes themselves which feature immaculate picture and sound. Not to mention the show's killer theme song "Destiny" by Syntax which can now be heard in both the main and closing titles. Props to Universal for a great transfer. Conviction - The Complete Series is a 3-disc (single-sided) set featuring all 13 episodes; Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) video; Dolby Digital 5.1 English audio; plus the following Special Feature: Seven Character Profiles.

In the criminal justice system, the average age of a prosecutor in New York City is 28. These are their stories.

1. Pilot
2. Denial
3. Breakup
4. Indebted
5. Savasana
6. Madness
7. True Love
8. Downhill
9. The Wall
10. Deliverance
11. Indiscretion
12. 180.80
13. Hostage


Highly Recommended!

I love this show!!!It's great that Alex was let out of Witness Protection after they caught the man that shot her. I can't believe Numb3rs beat it. Personally, I don't think Numb3rs is that great, maybe an episode or two.

Watching the 13 episodes on this DVD, it's quite easy to come up with a theory as to why the show never made it past the first season. For what it's worth, my guess is that the characters - with the exception of Nick Potter (played by Jordan Bridges) and Chris Finn (played by Julianne Nicholson) - were just all so patently difficult to like and/or identify with. Even Alexandra Cabot (played by the brilliant Stephanie March) who was really one to watch when she was on earlier seasons of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" has now climbed a few steps up the career ladder (she's now Bureau Chief, "the boss", as she seems to relish in telling us) and become a "self-important b***h" (not my words, but the words of a colleague in one particularly tragic episode of the show) and to be honest, 13 episodes was about as much as I could stand. If they had gone on to make season two, I doubt I would have watched it.

Another huge personal disappointment with this DVD was with the music. The show had some really good music that would come on towards the end of each episode and I was really hoping the DVD would have details of the people whose music was used. I know they used stuff by popular musicians because I heard Coldplay, James Blunt and Amos Lee among a few others that escape me at the minute. I also know that there's a way the producers are able to use people's music and not credit them at the end of the show; "Homicide: Life on the Street" did it too but at least they gave us details in the DVD extras. It's a glaring omission in my book.

That said, in all other respects this is a brilliant legal drama as one would expect from Dick Wolf and it's this that redeems the DVD set. It's what makes it worth buying if you didn't see it when it originally aired. The cases and characters are realistic and the show is well written, well acted and directed. The season finale starring Gbenga Akinnagbe, an actor whose work I'm really enjoying on HBO's "The Wire" at the moment, was a classic hour of high tension. I remember watching it though and, apart from one or two exceptions, not really caring which way things went. That's when it dawned on me why I didn't like the show as much as I could have. I just wish they had bestowed a bit more humanity on the main characters. I didn't know prosecuting lawyers could be so cold, arrogant, unfeeling, miserable and acutely self-obsessed - and I've been watching all manner of legal drama for over 20 years now.

So in short: Very enjoyable drama; shame about the main characters in it.

This show was great! I am so bummed NBC canceled it! Several of the actors went on to Law and Order, but they don't have a chance to shine. Such a shame.

I have been a fan of all of the Law & Order series for as long as I rembember. In the past few years I have stopped watching the new episodes of most of the series every single week because it gets a little repedative after a while. I was very excited however when Conviction aired because it still had all the elements that I loved about Law & Order, such as the cases and jokes, but it showed more of the life of the characters which made me want to keep watching week after week. This was my favorite show last spring, and I am extremely disappointed that it was canceled. I highly reccomed this show to everyone and wish they would give it another chance because 13 episodes isn't nearly enough.

CONVICTION is one of executive producer Dick Wolf's (LAW AND ORDER FRANCHISES) few failures and it's a shame NBC didn't give the series another season. The show did start off a little weak; CONVICTION is a little more soap opera-ish than the L&O series, and the series didn't have an intensity associated with those shows. However, as the series seemed to find its groove and we got to know the characters a little better, the storylines became more interesting and more focus was placed on the crimes rather than the sex antics. Stephanie March who was on the SVU segments of L&O for a while brings her character of Alexandra Cabot to this show, and now she's more like the bureaucrats she used to despise--she's not as likeable in this new persona. Handsome Anson Mount does a good job with his Jim Steele character, but Steele comes across as an arrogant and insensitive lout most of the time--maybe smoothing out his edges could have made the series more tenable; Milena Govich is strong as Rossi, who is having a secret fling with Mount; she brings a lot of ferocious pride to her performance; Jordan Bridges (Beau's son) does well as the sometime naive Nick Potter, who has his own crisis when he is mugged; J. August Richard is the upstanding African American who has never lost a case; Eric Balfour (24) brings a raw sensuality to his lothario womanizing Brian Poliso; and Julianne Nicholson takes top honors for her portrayal of plain jane, dedicated Christine Finney.

I wish NBC would have held on for at least one more season, as it is you get a potentially great series that didn't get a chance to achieve a higher status.

This was an excellent show and the best new show that was on TV this past year. I was very bummed out when I heard that they were cancelling this show. I wish they gave it more time.

when i first saw convictions on tv i loved it very much. all of the actors are beautiful and gave so much to their character. i want everyone to get a chance to buy it and watch it.

They should have given it another season......they screwed up. Could have been a great series. I do agree that Cabot's b itchy character wasn't like her Law & Order character. This could have been fixed in the next season.