Lethal Weapon: The Complete First Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Lethal Weapon: The Complete First Season

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Forum Post. The opinions I share are my own.”​

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Movie
Hmmmm, how do you adapt an R-rated series of movies, that starred the great Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, into a broadcast level action TV series on Fox? Well, I can tell you that I was really raising my eyebrows when I heard that Fox was adapting the famous buddy cop duo into a TV show, especially after the horrific reaction that the Rush Hour TV show got. I mean, how do you do that? The movies were awesome, and turning a violent action/comedy into a TV show meant for prime time broadcasting has failure all over it. Interestingly enough the show is not half bad. The characters are good, the humor is light and airy, and there’s actually a LOT of action in it. The only thing is. It’s not really Lethal Weapon except in name only. Sure there’s many a sequences that lines up with the movies, but the characters feel nothing like their movie counterparts, and the chemistry is fairly wasted.

The show follows the basic PREMISE of Martin Riggs (Clayne Crawford) and Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans) coming together as partners, but with slight differences. This time Riggs is coming from Texas just after his wife Miranda (Floriana Lima, otherwise known as Maggie from Supergirl) and unborn child are killed in a horrible traffic accident. Racked with guilt and suicidal tendencies, Riggs moves back to his wife’s home town of L.A. where he gets partnered with aging detective Roger Murtaugh. Murtaugh has spent 25 years on the force and was considering retirement after a recent heart attack, but the force is all he’s ever known and he decides to get back into the field again. The only thing is, he’s about to get more than he bargained for when it turns out that Riggs is suffering from heavy PTSD after his wife and child’s death, and has a bit of a death wish.

After that the show really turns into your standard police procedural. Riggs and Murtaugh go after criminals one by one, and slowly start to form a shaky friendship after finding common ground with each other. Riggs worms his way into the family’s heart with his goofy behavior and flippant attitude, and Murtaugh sees past the blustery facade and sees the tough cop on the inside who’s just hurting. Episode after episode is them hunting down bad guys and getting closer and closer as both friends and partners.

There’s some really good chemistry between the two leads here, but that’s about the highlight of the show. Clayne Crawford is solid as Riggs, but Damon Wayans is pretty weak as Murtaugh. Which is a shame considering that Damon is probably the most talented of the 4 Wayans brothers and has done quite a few action comedies over the years (I loved him in The Last Boyscout), but he seems out of his element here. The rest of the crew is sadly just miscast or wasted completely, like Jordana Brewster as the psychiatrist Riggs sees (although she’s much more competent than in the movies, and Riggs doesn’t torture her nearly as much), and Keesha Sharp is only moderately passable as Murtaugh’s wife Trish, as the show just glosses over any character arcs between the characters except for Riggs and Murtaugh.

Now for the good. There really are some commendable portions of the show. I like what they did with Riggs and how they really delved into his traumatic past and the PTSD that he’s suffering. His trips to the psych department flesh out the pain and agony that he must have been feeling to make him have a death wish like he does. It’s not nearly as vicious and crazy like Mel Gibson (no one plays crazy like Mel Gibson), but much more methodical and depressing as you realize what a toll it has taken on him. Crawford tries his best to be crazy and looney, but it just doesn’t come close to the awe inspiring Gibson. The same thing with Damon. He’s a solid character, but he doesn’t come close to Danny Glover and he seems much more in control and less frustrated than the movies. They try to wheedle in a few “I’m too old for this….” lines, but if you didn’t know he had a heart attack you’d think Murtaugh was rocking it as well as Riggs was. The action is great, and once again I really do like Rigg’s personal issues, but the show doesn’t feel ANYTHING like the movies, and really just tries to copy a few too many talking points from the film (Leo Getz makes an appearance) before trying to just relax back into the standard police procedural mode.





Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Lethal Weapon: The Complete First Season is like most modern TV shows. It looks great on home video and all shiny digital. Set in California the set gives ample shots of sunny outdoors, with bright colors and warm highlights. Fine detail is almost always excellent, although it does look ever so lightly soft at times. Especially when it gets really bright and the white levels lean towards the blooming side (something which is all too common in the last few years of movies and TV). Facial details are excellent, with every greasy strand of Riggs’ hair distinct and individually recognizable, and backdrops showing razor sharp clarity. Black levels are deep and inky, and only show minor hits of crush. There’s some mild digital noise that comes and goes, but it’s VERY minor and doesn’t really impede the picture at all.




Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA lossless track is also just as competent and excellent as the video encode, showing off a nice action oriented TV mix that does well for itself. The sound stage is wide and spacious, showing off quite a few gun battles that employ ricocheting bullets, cars crashing through walls, and intense “chase” music pulsating all around. The surrounds get a lot of goody material with so much action going on, and even with so much high octane energy, the center channel is perfectly intelligible at all times. Vocals are clean and clearly replicated in said center channel, and with a wide dynamic range, shows off plenty of good panning around the three main speakers. LFE is good, but slightly muted from what I was expecting. I’m not saying that it was anemic, but I really felt it should have been a bit more aggressive, especially considering what type of show it was being mixed for.







Extras:

• Reloading Lethal Weapon – NEW Featurette
• Uncensored – Extended Pilot Episode
• Deleted Scenes
• Gag Reel

Final Score: ​

Is Lethal Weapon: The Complete First Season a bad show? No, not by a long stretch. I see worse all the time, it’s just not very memorable and doesn’t really live up to the name Lethal Weapon. I like how they made Riggs depression more serious and dramatic, spanning most of the first season, as it made his nutsoid behavior relateable. However, the show falls prey to being a TV series that follows a specific blue print. Have the two cops have some sort of conflict, they get over it, then the conflict comes back, and then they’re over it once more. All within the confines of a weekly serialized police procedural. Just like many other procedurals like Lucifer, there’s just not enough “hook” to have it stand out from the rest. Especially after being modeled after a fantastic set of action movies like the Lethal Weapon series. Audio and video are great, and extras pretty decent, but the show itself is so run of the mill that I can’t really recommend it as anything more than a decent rental.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Damon Wayans, Clayne Crawford, Keesha Sharp
Created by: Matthew Miller
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, German DD 5.1, Spanish, French DD 2.0
Studio: Warner Brotherhs
Rated: NR
Runtime: 790 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 19th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Decent Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I never even realized it was made into a TV series. Wonder if it was popular?? Will have to check it out once available on amazon prime, hulu, or netflix.

 

[Michael Scott]

it was actually decently popular. the new season starts next week. Unlike the Rush Hour series which was so bad it got cancelled halfway through the first season lol

 

[tripplej]

Good info. Thanks Michael.. Will try to catch it..

 

[Todd Anderson]

Mike, did the original Lethal Weapon (trilogy?) ever get an impressive Blu-ray box treatment?

 

[Michael Scott]

quadrilogy actually. and yes it did. the first two were released on Blu-ray early in the format with sub par mpeg2 transfers, but they came out with a boxset that remastered the first two and included 3 and 4... int's not a MIND BLOWING release, but a very very good one to say the least..

https://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Weapo...sr=8-1&keywords=lethal+weapon+box+set+blu-ray

 

[Todd Anderson]

Hmm... not that expensive either. ***wheels turning***

What I really want (for Christmas) is a Die Hard 4K with remastered Atmos Sound. Can you make a few calls? ;-)

 

[Michael Scott]

Haha. I wish I had that pull. I wouldn't mind a set. But I'd wait till #6 comes out in a year or so

 

[Todd Anderson]

Don't downplay your influence, Mike. Make the call! ;-)

Years ago, they released a THX DVD version of Die Hard. And of course there's a Blu-ray version. But, we need a total audio reboot on this one.

 

[Michael Scott]

I bought the THX certified DVD set of the trilogy when it came out. I actually pre-ordered it for $80...The Die Hards need a remaster badly. they're solid releases, but the first three could use a new 4K master

 

[Todd Anderson]

I agree.

What movie have you seen the most X over?

I'm not sure on my end, but Die Hard might have the #1 spot... it's a close mix of Caddyshack, The Right Stuff, Die Hard, and Airplane

 

[Michael Scott]

lol, I'm not sure. Die Hard is up there with one of the best. I still use the line "Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs..." whenever I have a bad dinner invite from my wife and her friends... she just rolls her eyes

 

[Todd Anderson]

That's funny. I get the same response from my wife when I say: "Sitting on a beach earning 20%"

Die Hard. One of the all time greats!

 

[Michael Scott]

"Now I have a machine gun too. Ho...ho... ho..."

 

[Todd Anderson]

You come out to D.C., we're watching Die Hard!

 

[Michael Scott]

Lol

 

[Todd Anderson]

(Following a yummy steak dinner)

;-)