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Every episode of the Andrew Buchan/Lyndsey Marshal courtroom drama series - now available in one DVD megaset....
Acorn Media / 716 Minutes / 2009-2011 / Unrated / Street Date: February 26, 2013
At the center of Garrow's Law is something one might not expect from a TV-on-DVD box set with wig-wearing period-piece Brits on its cover: a bruisingly messy divorce. The newness of the separation that arose early in the drama's run wears off a bit as the series progresses, but bubbling beneath the surface of these episodes are the jealousies, fever-pitch emotional pings, and all-around paranoia that come with bickering break-ups.
In a fascinating dramatic switcheroo, Lady Sarah Hill (Lyndsey Marshal) has officially left the arms of her former husband (Rupert Graves) and shacked up with our protagonist, the honorable William Garrow (Andrew Buchan), a barrister veritably hell-bent on bringing balance to what he feels is a rampantly out-of-sync legal process. By accepting controversial cases (almost soliciting them), Garrow attempts to make sense out of the mania around him, hoping against hope that somehow a stasis - both personal and professional - might present itself.
This continues to be a narratively fertile scenario, of course, but even if the actual courtroom narratives of Garrow's Law work fine, the brittle qualities of this subplot nevertheless sucks away from the boob tube fun of the show quite a bit. This is a wonderfully-acted series, but there's an awkwardness and disquiet to Garrow's Law that ends up making it a bit less user-friendly than casual crime-drama viewers might hope. Sometimes that's a good thing; often, though, it's more trouble than it's worth.