Customer Reviews

JAG: Judge Advocate General - The Final Season

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After 9 well-recieved seasons, the 10th and final season of JAG may seem like a drag to some, unwatchable to others, or a low-quality version of the show we all knew and loved. In my opinion, the fault of these 22 episodes lies not in the actor's ability to portray their characters, but rather in the fact that Admiral Chegwidden had retired and were introduced to too many new characters over the course of the season.

This had been nothing new to JAG. Sturgis Turner came in Season 7, Petty Officer Coates was added a year or two later as a main character. Even Bud & Harriet came in seasons 2 & 3. However, in Season 10, we are introduced to a new admiral, a couple new lawyers (one namely a Lt. Gregory Vukovic, who Rabb--and many fans--did't like), and so we are forced to watch new actors "create" their characters in the final season of an established show. Obviously, Donald P. Bellisario wanted to keep his succesful show on the air longer (especially since David James Elliott had officially stated this season would be his last). Maybe he tried too hard.

At any rate, JAG does deliver a few more entertaining episodes, and finally ends the tension between Harm & Mac in the last episode. And although one couldn't give season 10 an A+, the show still manages to pull off a few suprises till the end.

The following is a list of the final 22 episodes:

1. Hail and Farewell, Part II (2)
2. Corporate Raiders
3. Retrial
4. Whole New Ball Game
5. This Just In from Baghdad
6. One Big Boat
7. Camp Delta
8. There Goes the Neighborhood
9. The Man on the Bridge
10. The Four Percent Solution
11. Automatic for the People
12. The Sixth Juror
13. Heart of Darkness
14. Fit for Duty
15. Bridging the Gulf
16. Straits of Malacca
17. JAG: San Diego
18. Death at the Mosque
19. Two Towns
20. Unknown Soldier
21. Dream Team
22. Fair Winds and Following Seas

So, while Season 10 may not the it's best, for all you JAG fans and buffs, you should add it to your collection. It is still fun and entertaining. Get ready for JAG's final tour of duty.

Season 10 of this once great show introduced too many new characters; most of them not very likeable especially the Vulvovick one. I agree that after being a devoted fan of this show for 10 years, myself and all of the other fans deserved a better finale of the long awaited romance of Harm and Mac. Instead, the final episode was dominated by the hateful new Lt. Vulcovick. Only the final seven and a half minutes of the show saw the two main characters come together.

I really liked watching the show from day one, yeah they show it once in a while on certain channels but if you get the dvds you dont get the commercials that come with it, Yeah some shows are not so great after a certain amount of seasons but this show was living up to every word and action. I really liked the fact that the two main characters were still in all of the seasons, to me its fun to look back at tv shows you really liked like this show and see what you missed come pared to these shows these days, So if you are looking for a good show to sit down with the family this is the show, if anyone who is serving for this country i think you must own this season as well as the other seasons, But yet again i was sad to see it go and also was a bit shocked at the ending.
Boo they end things like this
enjoy
we need hart to hart to come out
all i can say is that i am glad this is NOT coming out On Blue Ray

It wasn't until the complete season DVD sets started rolling around that I got into JAG, I mean, really got into it. And I'm sure other folks are now going thru painful JAG withdrawal, same as me, now that the final season is available on DVD, and there ain't no more after this. It's been a wait and a half for this tenth season to come out on disc, and never mind that these aren't exactly the best episodes in the series. There are enough terrific moments here to still make it a satisfying capper. And, finally, there's a resolution to that long unresolved thing between Mac & Harm. But more on that in a bit.

The cases the JAG officers work on remain as topical and relevant as ever. The courtroom battles revolve around issues such as combat stress, combat high, ageism, improper psychiatric counseling, communication breakdowns in the chain of command, private contractors getting in a firefight with U.S. troops, equal rights (a female sergeant - played by professional boxer Lucia Rijker - wants to fight men in the ring), how far can you take torture to garner information, etc. For me, though, the cases are secondary to what's going on in the cast's personal lives. Bud and Petty Officer Coates are old favorites, and they're featured in several episodes. Bud, as calm and non-threatening a guy as you'll ever meet, is ordered to attend anger management classes, and that notion alone is enough to elicit a grin, if you know your Lieutenant Roberts. Later he goes up against the "Dream Team" of Commander Rabb and Lt. Vukovic in court, and manages to get the better of them. Since Vukovic happens to be the lead counsel of that team and an arrogant pup who likes to cut corners, this goes down very gratifyingly. This isn't A FEW GOOD MEN, and Vukovic isn't Tom Cruise.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Coates, reformed thief turned indispensable yeoman to the JAG corps, is a compelling character, and I perk up whenever she's on the screen and quietly running things (doesn't hurt that she's cute, too). "There Goes the Neighborhood" finds Coates's past haunting her, forcing her to step out of military protocol and call on her hard-knock experiences in the streets. In "The Sixth Juror" Coates gets drafted as a juror on the very same case with which she'd been assisting Harm and Mac. Meanwhile, Mattie's father is more in the picture than ever and he's seeking custody of Mattie, which leaves Harm more or less out in the cold. But then something happens...

"JAG: San Diego" is another interesting episode, especially since it gives us another chance to see the enthusiastic mystery buff Lt. Graves (we first meet her in "Automatic for the People"). This episode was intended to pave the way for a possible spin-off, except that CBS chose not to roll the dice.

With David James Elliott opting to leave the show - I think he got tired of waiting for JAG to get its eleventh season pick-up - new characters were introduced. Rear Admiral Chegwidden having retired, the headquarters up in Falls Church, Virginia come rife with rumors regarding the identity of the new Judge Advocate General. The no-nonsense, don't-eff-with-me marine who ends up in the JAG chair doesn't exactly fill Commander Rabb and Colonel MacKenzie with optimism. But, bar none, the most annoying new character is Lt. "Vic" Vukovic, who I guess is supposed to be this charming rogue, except he comes off as weasely and really unlikable. Plenty of times, I felt myself wanting to skip over scenes involving him and, to be honest, he kinda soured me on some of the episodes. Especially since he was taking away from more time with the rest of the cast.

Now I do resent that the writers strung out the audience for so long with the whole Mac & Harm "Will they, why won't they?" soap opera. Nine years is an exhaustive wait just for the final episode's almost perfunctory resolution, although I suppose it's better than nothing. Still, those final fifteen minutes are not nearly enough, not by far, and I do feel cheated. At least "The Four Percent Solution" aired a few months before that, and featured Mac's flashing back to a day spent with her shrink as they explore her very big emotional and psychological baggage. And, yes, one of the issues she's been working thru concerns Harm. Mac and Harm have been so good at internalizing their feelings that something like "The Four Percent Solution" is necessary, letting us know that the writers haven't forgotten one of the key elements in the show which drew in the viewers week after week.

And, yes, the special feature isn't that special and, with its brevity, is barely a feature, although the sentiment passed on by David James Elliott and the cast and crew is appreciated. But, again, I feel cheated by the lack of more bonus features. Despite this and the inclusion of the shady Lt. Vukovic and also that Harm and Mac's romance is given short shrift, I'm still rating this 4 stars out of 5. Ultimately, I still love this show, great comfort television that it was.

My guess, by the way, is that it's Harm who ended up retiring...

JAG was my 2nd favorite show debuting in the 1990s. (Babylon 5 was my favorite of that decade.) I watched JAG its first season when it was stupidly cancelled by NBC until its 10th. season (after CBS picked it up and it became a massive hit, evn begating a bigger hit: NCIS.) Of all its seasons, the 10th and final was its weakest. There were two major reasons for this.
Firstly, JAG's star David James Elliott demanded more money when his contract expired. When it was not given to him, he signed a contract with ABC for a new comedy pilot (which never sold.) As a result of this, the producers of JAG began phasing his character out. There were many episodes where he only made a brief appearance. Big mistake, as his character Harmon Rabb Jr. was the heart and soul of the show. Secondly, they brought in a new annoying stud, Lt. Vukovich, to replace him. Bigger mistake, especially when they stupidly had him put the moves on Colonel MacKenzie. This was doubly idiotic and in sort of bad taste since everyone who watched the show was well aware that Harm and Mac were madly in love with each other.
The other problem was that JAG was "played out" as my father used to say. The scripts just weren't all that good anymore. This happens to many series that are on for a very long time. I loved "Hawaii 5-0" and saw every episode during its 12 year run. However by the 10th year, 5-0 had simply run out of good scripts. Even a change in supporting cast its final season couldn't hide the fact that the scripts were not what they once were. Same with Mission:Impossible which ran 7 years. I thought they simply ran out of interesting missions by the end of its 5th season.
The phasing out of its star, the loss of John Jackson as the beloved boss Admiral Chigwidden who left at the end of the previous season and a lack of really good scripts resulted in a mediocre final season

Stll the last episode was fine with Harm and Mac finally getting together. (I never got why David James Elliott has not done more since JAG's cancellation 5 years ago. He co-starred in the second and final season of an excellent series "Close to Home" on CBS and did some silly mini-series, I believe, on the Sci Fi. channel. He is an excellent "leading man" and I'm surprised he never tried to make it on the big screen.)
Anyway, JAG was a truly excellent series and I miss it. Since it has been off for 5 years, I think its time for CBS (or one of the other networks) to start producing some "Return to JAG" 2 hour tv movies the way they have done over the years with "Rockford Files," "Perry Mason," "Gunsmoke" and many other classic series. Are you listening guys?

It is with a little sadness I realise that the last chapter of my favourite series of all time, JAG, has concluded on DVD. Although I have to agree with some other posts that the final season was not as good as some of the other seasons (for reasons that best be left for another type of review) I would never dream of having an inconclusive boxset just because of this. There were som good episodes, there were some really good episodes and there were one or two excellent episodes and that's fair enough for me. Some have stated that they felt cheated by the final episode, that it could have been so much more. Sure, it could, but I am perfectly satisfied with what we got. We got a wonderful resolution to the dance between Harm and Mac, in perfect Harm/Mac style. Also, by ending the episode the way they did, everyone can use their own imagination and come up with ideas about their continued lives. This is something that I appreciate.

While I don't have Season 10 yet, I do have Season's 1 through 9. JAG has been my all time favorite TV drama. The acting was superb, the writing terrific, and I enjoy each and every re-run many times. They almost always left me with a tear in my eye. Wasn't too crazy about Mick, but Ham and Mac were great. I was happy to see them hook-up in final, but I would like to see who had to retire.

I am purchasing this season because there were a few good epsisodes and I want to have the complete set.This was a very disappointing end to a wonderful TV show. Donald Bellisario had informed David James Elliott that his contract would not be renewed (Elliott did not quit as was mentioned in another review). The Vukovic character was supposed to be a new lead to carry the show forward into future seasons, but most fans hated his character.

The one thing that I think was unforgiveable was not to focus the entire last episode on the Harm and Mac story. At that point, they knew the show was canceled so why did we need to have so much time taken up with the secondary plot with Vukovic.

It has also been very disapointing that there have been so few extras (if any) on the JAG DVD's. This show deserved much better.

JAG is one of my favorite TV shows, and I had forgotten just how great the story lines are. Am enjoying watching them all again, and my husband watches them with me, which is a plus.

it was good but the final eps was left on a nail biteing thing what happen next didi they get married who went ware did mac retire or did harm go to london wrong way to end season