Revisiting JAG...

[Warped9]

I didn't watch most of JAG in its original run. I happened to come upon the series in daily syndication after work on History Television (Canada) and grew to quite like the show. After a handful of episodes I managed to start watching the series faithfully (as best as I could) when HT began recycling the show from the beginning again. I did manage to watch the final season in its original airing. Knowing it was the final season left me feeling it was a season of wrapping all sorts of things up. It did appear they were trying to introduce a new younger character to replace Harm, but that didn't pan out. Vukovic did have something of an interesting friction with Mac although it couldn't be the same as with Harm because of the age difference and difference in rank. It was also a really big tease on us to fade out on the tossed coin and we're left wondering what happened to Harm and Mac.

I really missed A.J. Chegwidden as he is one of my favourite characters on the show. I also really liked recurring character Admiral Thomas Boone played by Terry O'Quinn. A lot of the guest characters were fun too. I feel the show also gave me a much better understanding of the U.S. armed forces, how things function and the kind of men and women who serve.

Presently I'm revisiting the series on dvd and I'm about midway through Season 7. I'm really enjoying the episodes all over again. I like the mixture of legal drama, adventure and character stories. Because of the military element I always felt the show had something of a touch of space opera to it...or perhaps my perspective is coloured by my interest in science fiction. Indeed I've enjoyed JAG more than a lot of sci-fi space operas primarily because the stories were largely credible and the writing and acting was usually quite good.

I've heard the occasional rumour, but does anyone know if there is even a remote chance for a made-for-TV reunion film? I'm usually not big on such projects, but this is something I'd like to see. I'd like to know what happened to so many of those characters and where they could be several years later.

Anyone else enjoy this series?

 

[Admiral2]

I didn't at first.

When it first premiered I thought it was just Magnum P.I. disguised as a Navy show, which pissed me off because I want to see a real Navy show and not just something disguised as one. When it switched from NBC to CBS and became more of a lawyer show it was better, but it was still a lawyer show wearing a disguise.

I didn't really start getting into it until I started taking dialysis and had nothing better to do for hours but watch reruns on cable. Know what really hooked me? The theme song. It's a bad-ass little march that I love hearing, and the shows were played back to back, so I would stick with the shows cause I'd eventually get to hear the theme again.

And then I started liking the show. [shrug]

 

[John Clark]

I had a look when C5 in the UK started airing it though they only aired the first season. Later I managed to get hold of the satellite channels that aired it and got hooked. I now own the whole series on dvd

 

[CaptainCanada]

I was a regular watcher for several years. I stopped toward the end, after Chegwidden left.

 

[Warped9]

I actually felt a measure of sympathy for Lt. Lauren Singer. Yes, she could be a calculating and ambitious little bitch, but she wasn't wholly bad. I also liked how her presence spiced things up. It could have been interesting to have seen more of her than we did. Too bad they killed her off.

I also thought it was a nice touch of irony that Singer was played by David James Elliot's real wife Nanci Chambers and that the characters were often at odds with each other.

 

[Admiral2]

I actually felt a measure of sympathy for Lt. Lauren Singer. Yes, she could be a calculating and ambitious little bitch, but she wasn't wholly bad. I also liked how her presence spiced things up. It could have been interesting to have seen more of her than we did. Too bad they killed her off.

Somebody had to die to get N-C-I-S jump-started. Why not Singer?

I also thought it was a nice touch of irony that Singer was played by David James Elliot's real wife Nanci Chambers and that the characters were often at odds with each other.

ACTING!!!

 

[Warped9]

^^ Well it would have been too cute to have had their characters as good friends or romantic interests on the series.

 

[Admiral2]

^^ Well it would have been too cute to have had their characters as good friends or romantic interests on the series.

Oh sure. I'm just saying they were dedicated thespians.

 

[Starbreaker]

I've been waiting for the series to start over on HDNet so I can watch from the beginning. I gotta put my EHD to good use.

 

[Worf2DS9]

I also really enjoyed JAG and when History Television reran the series from start to finish I watched and enjoyed it all again. I remembered I really liked Meg in season 1 and when Mac replaced her with the move to CBS, I was quite upset, but grew to love Catherine Bell.

I haven't heard anything about a reunion movie, but I'd certainly watch!

 

[CorporalClegg]

I watched JAG for it's entire run. When it was on, it was like the only non SFF show I watched.

Seasons 3-6 are definitely the best. It gets a little wonky in 7, 8, 9, and 10 is just terrible, mostly because Elliot and Bell are hardly in it (especially in the second half).

 

[sonn]

Maybe one of the characters will show up in NCIS in the future.

 

[Jono]

I watched the first episode when it came out on TV here and was hooked immediately. Watched most of its run on TV but thanks to DVDs I've now seen it all.

Recently bought and just finished season 10. Season 10 isn't as good at the previous and feels a bit odd for a final season, which isn't surprising since it was cancelled pretty late. Sturgis got a bit boned in the final season due to the new blood and increase in Coates role. I didn't mind Cresswell as the new JAG.

I liked Meg (I also liked Pike), but the changes after it was cancelled the first time I think really made the show with the inclusion of Bud and Mac as more of an equal to Harm. That central threesome was really the heart and soul of the show.

The show also had a good range of recurring characters: Brumby, Renee, Tinner, Singer, Webb, and many others.

 

[FPAlpha]

I'm a huge fan of JAG and from time to time pop in an episode and revisit good times.

The show really was very entertaining and at times i didn't mind the will they/won't they but it's the secondary characters that really sold the show.. Chegwidden was so awesome (especially the scenes after Bud's injury and he learns of it and has to tell Harriet), Singer was just an evil bitch and i loved to hate her (only learned later on that she is Elliot's wife which only made it better in retrospect ) and Bud was the icing on the cake.. from bumbling and insecure newbie to an experienced and good lawyer who could hold his own against the best and scoring an absolute dream of a woman.

I really loved the cast and at times it was hilarious how far they veered off logic and realism but it was always entertaining.

 

[Star Wolf]

It was one of the few shows to honor the enlisted man. On many shows an officer would show up and demand the respect of being addressed by his rank and turn around and call a First Sergeant "sarge". Even if the military didn't provide assistance folk like Captain Dale Dye were offering their services.

 

[Caliburn24]

JAG was really an odd show. The first season on NBC was almost completely an action/adventure show, and it really felt a lot like Bellasario's Air Wolf, or Magnum PI in many ways. The stories were crazy and big, and the sense of being grounded in reality was not too strong.

But then it moved to CBS and became much more a lawyer show, less action, more grounded in reality. Although it still kept a lot of the action adventure elements. It also downplayed a lot of the more serialized and show-mythological elements from season one, only keeping the mystery of the fate of Harm's dad in play(and the will-they-won't-they of Mac and Harm). And from season two onto whenever they had the Russian two-parter where they find out what happens to Harm's dad I felt the show was at its strongest, and I made an effort to watch it every week.

After that, it really lost a lot of the serialized elements and became much more of a weekly procedural I and only watched it sporadically, giving up on it after season six or seven or something.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I never saw the show when it was on NBC but started watching when it moved over to CBS. It easily became my favorite show until the last few seasons when I thought it went off the rails, specifically when they made the decision to hook up Mac with Clayton Webb. From that point on, it was just weird and I didn't watch much beyond that point.

And ultimately I was disappointed that they never took what I considered to be an excellent opportunity to let us see one last time what was going on with a certain naval officer by the name of Thomas Sullivan Magnum. I presume there was just too many legal hurdles to get over to pull that one off though.

 

[JRS]

I liked JAG a lot, and still do
Very nice and entertaining series, with good stories, very likable cast and characters. I am planning to buy this on DVD soon.
I watched seasons 1-5 when they showed them in Finnish TV..but they canceled the show after that, so I have five more seasons of episodes I have not seen

 

[Warped9]

And ultimately I was disappointed that they never took what I considered to be an excellent opportunity to let us see one last time what was going on with a certain naval officer by the name of Thomas Sullivan Magnum. I presume there was just too many legal hurdles to get over to pull that one off though.

That could have been fun because I also quite liked Magnum, P.I.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Well I'm sure if they even thought of it, it was probably a legal/monetary impossibility. Would have been cool to see though.