Eternal Law - Series 1 [DVD]

Eternal Law is a brand new series produced by the same company that was responsible for Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes. With this sort of pedigree one could reasonably have expected something rather special or at least very different and this series certainly does not disappoint.

The basic premise is that two angels, Zak and Tom, are sent to earth with the mission of working as defence lawyers in York. Now there are many things that they could have been sent to do, but the idea of angelic lawyers could be considered by some as almost a contradiction in terms! However not being angels who shirk a challenge, they are guided towards certain cases where wrongs need to be righted and which are also very varied in terms of both subject and seriousness. For instance, three of the episodes concern murder or attempted murder, whilst another is a child custody case.

Zak is an old hand who has been to earth before and fell in love on the last occasion. His old flame, Hannah, who does not recognise him is working for Richard Pembroke, a fallen angel who is involved as a malevolent influence. Tom is a novice at dealing with the human situations he encounters, but learns fast. In the background guiding is the mysterious Mr Mountjoy, who we never see, but who may or may not be God.

Zak seems to find it particularly difficult to comply with the rule that an angel should not interfere with humanity's free will and regularly finds it necessary to bend the rules. One very amusing aspect is that Zak and Tom finish most episodes holding an end of day post mortem on the case, perched on top of York Minster, complete with wings. This was shamelessly lifted from Boston Legal - Season 1-5 [DVD] where Denny Crane and Alan Shore end each episode with a cigar and a drink on the balcony overlooking the city.

Although this series has not been greeted with universal acclaim by the professional critics I think this is unfair. The cast do well and I thought Sam West was particularly outstanding as Zak. Personally I found it good entertainment and the subject matter sufficiently different to be memorable. Given that it should be easy enough to think up interesting new cases for the guys to tackle, I would think there is plenty of scope for subsequent series of Eternal Law and I certainly hope we see more of them.

The whole family is loving this new series. Original, witty and compelling. Are we comfortable with the idea of angels coming to earth to help out humanity? Some really interesting themes. I really hope they have a second series lined up soon.

I am writing this not only as a review but as a balance to those who have deliberatly done down the series because it was not perfect. Like all good drama series it was an initial trial to how it would fare.
Unfortunately unlike most of the long running series on tv it wasnt perfect and needs "tweeking", unfortunatley those who make the decisions and hold the purse strings all too often want a winner from the start and are short sighted in that they dont see the possibilities of a new series and stick with the same format even though its dull and boring, think what big brother will be like in 2020.
All the long running soaps on tv had rubbish 1st series and they didnt get much better on the 2nd and in some cases 3rd series was the best. (who thinks Eastenders would get past a 1st series if it were released now? is anything in it close to real life? its had more murders, assaults and rapes per head than any place on earth, Coronation street is not much better either).
I was looking forward to the 2nd series of Eternal Law because it showed the promise of originality missing from the steady drip feed diet of all those american series filling our TV airwaves.
If the first attempt failed why do the TV executives always cancel the idea and move on? If you take their decision making process to the next level then children would never learn to walk because after they have fallen down once walking is abandoned and they stay on all fours as its a tried and trusted system.