Good cop, crazy cop.
They dont get along; then, they get along.
Nobody asked for aLethal Weaponremake, but we deserve one anyway.
Credit: Richard Foreman/FOX
In 1987, Mel Gibson played a suicidal Goofus opposite Danny Glovers family-man Gallant.
There were three moreLethal Weaponmovies after that.
Fans say they get better and worse; there are connoisseurs for everything nowadays.
2002 doesnt seem as far from 1987 as it used to.
A century hence, your descendants might mistakeLethal Weaponfor aFastlanerip-off.
If the point was to make the new show feelmoregeneric, mission accomplished!
Clayne Crawford plays Martin Riggs, an ex-soldier in kamikaze mourning for his dead wife.
Hey, have you ever wondered what it looked like when Riggs wife died?
Crawford has a tough job.
Hes got the more iconic shoes to fill, and hes restricted by the sanitized nature of broadcast television.
His Riggs needs to be crazy, but nottoocrazy; he needs to be suicidal, but obviously redeemable.
As suburban cop-dad Murtaugh, Damon Wayans is on steadier ground.
Hes a basically happy and normal guy, settling into comfortable middle age.
but hes got a perfect lawyer wife, two hip teen kids, and a new little-miracle accident-baby.
Theres some potential in the pairing.
But the show cant ever make them too different or too at odds.
By the end of episode 1, theyre friends for life; by episode 2, theyre work-husbands.
The only thing that madeLethal Weaponwork on the big screen was the pairing of Gibson and Glover.
There is no mythology to the franchise besides their performances.
There is nothing special about the series besides the people who arent starring in the TV show.
But the small-screenWeaponisnt terrible, really.
Fox is on the hunt for a new quirky-cool procedural Bonesis ending,RosewoodandLuciferare building,Backstromgot backstromd.
but episode 2 makes the show feel like your average overpriced, undercooked cop dramedy.
Actually, the shagginess of the storytelling is the shows best attribute.
There were no budgetary concerns in the originalLethal Weapon.
The original movie runs on a decadent cuteness that feels impossibly innocent or just naive today.
Later, a madman Vietnam vet-turned-heroin smuggler attacks a cliffside mansion in Palos Verdes with a helicopter.
The newLethal Weaponis more modest, and nicer; less offensive, thus, less interesting.
The cool-but-rude assholes of the 80s have become the tough-but-nice douchebags of the 10s.
This new TV show is Easy Listening, butLethal Weaponwas never truly rock n roll.
Were all a little too old for thi…
