Fairly Legal - The Complete First Season

It's odd that Universal waited this long to release the First Season of Fairly Legal on DVD just as the Second Season is winding down. The three-disc set includes all ten episodes of the first season including an extended version of the Pilot episode.

Sarah Shahi stars as Kate Reed, a former lawyer turned mediator, who will spend the entire season in a battle of wills with her stepmother (Virginia Williams), and in a constant dance with her ex-husband (Michael Trucco), while working at her recently deceased father's law firm.

Over the course of the first season Kate will help a man (Paul Schulze) wrongly imprisoned for more than half of his life, solve disputes for a grumpy judge (Gerald McRaney), help an illegal immigrant (Christina Vidal) who served honorably in the U.S. Military stay in the country, save her friend's (Brittany Ishibashi) wedding when her father's (Clyde Kusatsu) insistence on an iron-clad prenup which threatens to ruin it, and solve a dispute between an adoptive father (Scott Holroyd) and grandmother (Kathleen Gati) involving a young girl (Olivia Steele-Falconer) after her mother's death.

What's interesting going back and looking at the First Season is how some relationships were set early on, such as that of Kate and her assistant Leonardo (Baron Vaughn), but some, like that of Kate and Lauren, have evolved quite a bit since the the show's freshman season. Even if some of the early episodes are a bit rough in spots, the show manages to struggle through with its smart, beautiful, passionate, and often infuriating and crazy, lead character.

The three-disc collection includes deleted scenes, scene comparisons between the original and aired Pilot episode, and commentary for three episodes (including the Pilot) with creator Michael Sardo, executive producer Steve Stark, Shahi, Trucco, Williams, and Vaughn.