''Dark Justice'' is an American

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

television series about a judge who becomes a

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

by night so that he can bring high-level offenders who use technicalities to "escape" the legal system to what he calls "dark justice". The role of Judge Nicholas Marshall was played by actors Ramy Zada (1991) and

Bruce Abbott Bruce Paul Abbott (born July 28, 1954) is an American film, stage, and television actor. Originally beginning his career in theater, Abbott later gained notoriety for his role as Dan Cain in the cult sci-fi horror films ''Re-Animator'' (1985) and ...

(1992–1993). The series began airing on April 5, 1991, and ran for three seasons (66 episodes) finishing on September 28, 1993.

Production and filming

During the first season, the series was shot in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalunya Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Before the second season, the series had to switch locations due to

budget A budget is a calculation plan, usually but not always financial plan, financial, for a defined accounting period, period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including tim ...

constraints caused by the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

. The second and third seasons were shot in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Actor Ramy Zada, who played the lead role of Judge Nicholas Marshall during the first season, was said to be unavailable for the second season due to the location change, and

was chosen as his replacement. The location was also the main reason behind the casting of some

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

actors like Begoña Plaza in lead roles. When the series shifted to Los Angeles,

Janet Gunn Janet Gunn (born Janet Lynn Fulkerson; November 2, 1961) is an American actress. She appeared in films ''Night of the Running Man'' (1995) and ''The Quest (1996 film), The Quest'' (1996), and later, from 1996 to 1999, she starred as Detective ...

permanently assumed the role of the female member of "The Night Watchmen", Kelly Cochrane. Gunn later starred for three seasons as Cassandra St. John in ''

Silk Stalkings ''Silk Stalkings'' is an American crime drama television series that premiered on CBS on November 7, 1991, as part of the network's late-night '' Crimetime After Primetime'' programming package. Broadcast for two seasons until CBS ended the '' ...

'', another ''Crimetime After Primetime'' drama, after it had moved exclusively to the

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

Plot synopsis

Nicholas Marshall, a former

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

and

district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

, is a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

who loses his faith in the legal system after his wife and daughter are murdered in a

car bombing A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

intended for him. After the killer walks free due to a technicality, Marshall becomes a

by night, dedicated to bringing what he calls "dark justice" to criminals who evade penalties due to technicalities. Marshall had already had his faith in the legal system shaken even before his wife and his daughter were murdered: as a youth, growing up in an unnamed ghetto in an unspecified city, his father was murdered by a hoodlum with local connections; as a police officer, technicalities often voided his arrests; as a prosecutor, having obtained his law degree through night school studies, crooked defenders would sometimes undermine his prosecutions; and after his election to a judgeship, the letter of the law often bound his hands. To help him achieve his goal, Marshall uses a team of specialists whom the local press refers to as "The Night Watchmen". The team, a civilian counterpart to the mission teams of the governmental

Impossible Missions Force ''Mission: Impossible'' is an American multimedia franchise based on a fictional secret espionage agency known as the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). The Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series), 1966 TV series ran for seven seasons and was Mission: ...

, consists of people who were prosecuted for lower-level offenses, and who help him with some tasks; this can be seen as a form of

community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as gettin ...

for their offenses. The members of the watchmen were Arnold "Moon" Willis (

Dick O'Neill Richard Francis O'Neill (August 29, 1928 – November 17, 1998) was an American stage, film and television character actor best known for playing Irish cops, fathers, judges and army generals. He began his acting career as an original company m ...

), who had once been a

con man A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibi ...

; Jericho "Gibs" Gibson (Clayton Prince), a special effects expert; and a female companion that changed several times during the three seasons. Kelly Cochrane (

) was a

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

victim whose attackers had been acquitted in Marshall's court. After she killed one of her attackers, Marshall added her to the team; she remained until the end of the series. Marshall would typically target criminals whom he had encountered in his courtroom, but whom he was forced to release for technical reasons of one kind or another. Marshall would generally dismiss these defendants with the warning, "Justice may be blind, but it can see in the dark." He would then assume his alter ego as a long-haired, leather jacket-wearing, motorcycle-riding vigilante. His team would construct an elaborate sting operation, usually involving undercover work and even special effects. These operations were designed to elicit a confession from the criminal or otherwise trip him or her up so that courtroom-admissible (and/or technicality-resistant) evidence either of the original crime or of a different crime could be gathered. Unfortunately for the Night Watchmen, the very police department in which Marshall himself had once served came to view them as criminals, and their crusade as illegal. By the time of the series conclusion, even the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

had commenced to look into the activities of the Night Watchmen, a probe Marshall was, presumably, able to defuse when a federal agent provided him with the FBI file on the Night Watchmen.

Cast

*Ramy Zada as Judge Nicholas Marshall (1991) *

as Judge Nicholas Marshall (1992–1993) *

as Kelly Cochrane (1992–1993) *

as Arnold "Moon" Willis (1991–1993) *Clayton Prince as Jericho "Gibs" Gibson (1991–1993) *Begoña Plaza as Catalana "Cat" Duran (1991) *Viviane Vives as Maria Marti (1991) *Kit Kincannon as District Attorney Ken Horton (1991–93) *

Carrie-Anne Moss Carrie-Anne Moss (born August 21, 1967) is a Canadian actress. After early roles on television, she rose to international prominence for her role of Trinity in ''The Matrix'' series (1999–present). She has starred in '' Memento'' (2000), for ...

as Tara McDonald (1991–1993) *Elisa Heinsohn as Samantha "Sam" Collins (1993)

Episode list

Season 1: 1991–92

Season 2: 1992–93

Season 3: 1993

External links

* * {{Authority control 1991 American television series debuts 1993 American television series endings 1990s American crime drama television series American English-language television shows Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows filmed in Spain Television shows filmed in Los Angeles Vigilante television series CBS crime dramas