I did not think it would be all that good, but the series has lived up to the film, not an easy thing to do. Many new characters are added as the students progress through the three years of Harvard Law. Some come and go for various reasons but the main ones remained - Hart, Bell, Ford, Golden, Kingsfield, and Mrs. Nottingham. While there are a few less interesting episodes, most do not disappoint even though it is a 45 minute television show. There are ones on tenure, cheating by students, plagiarism by a faculty member, job interviews, stress, faculty abuse of power over female students, love versus career, law review pressure and even suicide. One of the most entertaining was My Dinner with Kingsfield, a great episode. John Houseman, even over 80 years old at the time does not miss a step with his perfect diction, measured speech, wisdom and dominating personality even though his role is very limited in several shows. All in all, they did a very good job creating this series after the film. It certainly was not filmed in Boston which took away from the urban grit, colorful autumns and dreary winters that gave a lot of character to the original film. But all in all, it was ery enjoyable to watch even decades after its first run on TV.
Review of The Paper Chase
