All Rise...

Appellate Judge James A. Stewart says the extras will have to be better than this on the 24 2007-08 season box set.

Editor's Note

Our reviews of A Touch Of Frost: Season Two (published July 13th, 2004), A Touch Of Frost: Season Three (published September 29th, 2004), A Touch Of Frost: Season Four (published February 23rd, 2005), A Touch Of Frost: Season Five (published June 1st, 2005), A Touch Of Frost: Season Six (published August 24th, 2005), A Touch Of Frost: Season 14 (published July 29th, 2009), and A Touch Of Frost: Seasons 11 And 12 (published December 20th, 2006) are also available.

The Charge

"Our greatest weapon is here, one inch beneath my nose."—D.I. Jack Frost
"Your mustache?"—D.I. Robert Presley

The Case

If you're upset because your favorite show had a truncated season because of the writers' strike, take a look at A Touch of Frost: Season 13. The 2006 season consisted of only one 95-minute episode, "Endangered Species." That's one better than 24 managed this season, but it does make me wonder why they didn't just call the DVD by the episode title.

When D.I. Jack Frost (David Jason, Hogfather) appears, he's just lost a case. "No hard feelings," Flannagan, the lucky defendant, says to him after the trial, but it's clear that Frost isn't happy.

Even so, when there's trouble at Flannagan's farm, the shady character calls up Frost. "Someone's gonna kill me," he says. When Frost and D.I. Robert Presley (Blake Ritson, Mansfield Park) get to the farm, there's a crocodile on the loose. They find "some of the most lethal snakes in the world" and some rare monkeys, but no Flannagan. Soon, they find a body—or pieces of one—in a nearby pond. It's not Flannagan. Frost fumes.

That's not Frost's only headache, since he forgot to put the chicken in the oven for a romantic dinner with Julie (Claire Cox, Eragon), his latest love interest. Fortunately (sort of), Frost's date is interrupted so he can investigate the body of a naked man, found in a couple's bed when they returned home from a holiday. The husband thinks it must be his wife's lover, but she says she's never seen the man before. When Frost finally returns home with a pizza, Julie's gone.

"Endangered Species" has plenty of sharp dialogue ("Why doesn't he have a Doberman like every other villain?" Presley asks after encountering the croc), funny character moments, and a satisfying resolution. Cranky David Jason finds a good foil in Blake Ritson as the geeky Presley, who bickers with landlord Frost like a college roomie and gets sick as the coroner examines the crocodile-eaten body they found.

Thanks to the farm scenes, it's a little brighter than the industrial drab I saw in a previous A Touch of Frost set; the picture and sound are up to par.

Still, all you get is one episode, with no extras. It's worth a rental or Netflix request, but only hardcore fans will want to buy this very truncated season. Case dismissed for insufficient evidence.

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