Lethal Weapon Pilot Recap

I don’t know what it is about classic movies and TV shows being rebooted. Sometimes they succeed, like Hannibal, but most times they fail, like Rush Hour (i kind of liked it). Now this trend will continue this year with the first big one, so to speak, being the Lethal Weapon series. Now did it have to be rebooted, probably not but here we are anyway. This was at least worth a look out of curiosity alone.

The show starts off with Martin Riggs (Clayne Crawford) deep in a car chase, as he should be. He quickly learns from his wife Miranda (Floriana Lima) that he’s going to be a father. She tells Riggs that she is heading to the hospital as she is about to give labor and wants him to meet her there but she unfortunately doesn’t make it to the hospital after a fatal car accident. Once Riggs arrives, he learns what has happened and he is crushed which starts his sort of downward spiral.

Now we flash back to today with Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans). Today is his 50th birthday and is going back to work after recovering from a heart attack. He seemingly has a happy life with a wife and kids of his own. We see his good life contrasted with Riggs who is still not over the death of his wife and unborn child and is depressed and suicidal. This is a good start for sure.

Murtaugh goes back into work where he meets his former partner Brooks Avery (Kevin Rahm) is now a Captain so now Murtaugh needs a new partner so of course his new partner is Riggs. Before they can officially meet, he is called on case involving bank robbers. Little did he know, Riggs was already there but he didn’t realize that as Riggs appeared to be some sort of crazy person. Riggs then walks in and singlehandedly takes down all the robbers, ending the same way we all saw in the trailers.

Seeing that we are dealing with Riggs after all, he must go to therapy and speak to Dr. Maureen Cahill (Jordana Brewster). This is probably not the last time they will speak to one another and it would definitely not be shocking if this relationship were to become something more (if you know what I mean).

This leads to their first official case involving a suicide which may or may not really be a suicide. They disagree about what happened since Murtaugh just wants to go home and Riggs sees something more. With the victim being part of the military, Riggs decides that he is worth a real investigation. This brings them to a possible drug connection and a cover up. The episode had a great amount of action that was fun to watch but may have not been the most realistic. This was okay since this is a TV show and you sometimes have to just turn your brain off and let yourself be entertained.

Their actions threatened their partnership as Murtaugh did not agree with how Riggs did things but it’s not like anything was ever going to happen anyway. The episode also gave Riggs and Murtaugh plenty of bonding moments including several scenes where Riggs spent time at Murtaugh’s. Riggs would have fun with Murtaugh’s family, sharing what they did together. This would give more context to Murtaugh’s wife Trish (Keesha Sharp).

As the episode progressed, Murtaugh and Riggs grew closer to one another as Murtaugh began to sympathize with Riggs after learning of his wife’s death. Soon after that, Murtaugh was now on board with what Riggs was doing. Despite them being closer together, Riggs was not ready to let anyone in yet and leaves Murtaugh behind as he pursued some drug lords on his own.

Things obviously ended well otherwise it wouldn’t be a very long show. We also got some more insight into Riggs’ motivations where he explains that he does have a deathwish but since he can’t do it himself, he jumps into all these dangerous situations. Lastly, the big concern about this show was its depiction of Murtaugh and Riggs. Wayans and Crawford are not trying to imitate Danny Glover and Mel Gibson but they are rather doing their own thing and that’s probably for the best. They had excellent chemistry, making them fun to watch.

Overall, this was a surprisingly good action comedy, led by the fun pairing of Wayans and Crawford, which doesn’t try to imitate its source material but rather does its own thing.

Score: 7.5/10

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Note: These may come later on certain weeks as this show airs on the same day where I attend advanced screenings

Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.