By Gregory Robinson
I have never been a fan
of the ‘turn films into TV shows’ movement and once you watch the new Rush Hour series, you won’t be either. I
don’t know how Bill Lawrence has managed to turn one of the best cop comedies
into a tepid, banal and cheap hour long procedural. The show stinks of
orthodoxy and conformity and fails to re-capture the tone and most importantly,
the humour of the original.
What was CBS thinking? We all know they love police
procedurals and crappy comedies but now they have decided to merge the two
together using a great film as a platform. Or maybe due to CBS’s mostly white
crop of actors and lack of diversity in comparison to other networks, they
thought a Rush Hour adaptation would bring some much needed diversity to their
network. The only problem is, John Foo (Detective Lee) and Justin Hires
(Detective Carter) who take their roles from Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are
simply caricatures of the original actors. While the film certainly made use of
stereotypes for both of the lead characters, the writing and tone of the film
helped to make the characters more than simple stereotypes. Carter was from the
streets of LA but had style and always wore a suit. In the show, he dresses
like every other token black character you may be lucky to see on CBS. Chan
brought a certain type of naivety to Lee which is replaced with stale
stoic-ness in the TV show.
I cannot describe how painful it is to see a TV show
rip-off several iconic scenes you have seen time and time again, such as Carter
visiting his cousin in the shady bar downtown which leads to Lee getting into a
fight with the cousin’s henchman. The
only good thing I can say about this show is that, like actual Rush Hour, at
some point it stops.
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