When Mel Gibson and Danny Glover appeared in the first “Lethal Weapon” movie back in 1987, they never thought that the film would be so successful that it would result in its evolution into a franchise featuring three more sequels.
But it did and that said a lot about how producers and directors Richard Donner and Shane Black somehow perfected the buddy cop genre of the 80s which had been carried through in subsequent movies and TV series as well.
Thus, when “Lethal Weapon” was reimagined by Fox for a TV series which premiered in September last year, both fans and critics, especially those who personally witnessed how the film franchise had become a complete success, the expectations were almost over the roof.
The TV series did not deviate much in as far as setting the origin story since it would have been an injustice to the film franchise.
“Lethal Weapon,” the TV series, featured two very different cops who are forced to work together on the streets of Los Angeles. Grief-stricken after the loss of his young wife and unborn child, ex-Navy SEAL-turned-detective Martin Riggs, played by Clayne Crawford, moves to California to start over.
He is paired up with family man Roger Murtaugh, played by Damon Wayans, who is just coming back to the job after a near-fatal heart attack. And that’s where the adventures of the two unorthodox partners begin, notes TV Series Finale.
In addition to Clayne Crawford and Damon Wayans, other cast members of “Lethal Weapon” on Fox include Kevin Rahm, Keesha Sharp, Dante Brown, Chandler Kinney, Jordana Brewster, and Johnathan Fernandez.
Not so good with critics
While “Lethal Weapon,” the film franchise got better with every movie, it seems to be not going that way for “Lethal Weapon,” the TV series on Fox, at least as far as how critics and viewers see it.
The first nine episodes of “Lethal Weapon” Season 1 has already been aired up to December 7, 2016, before the show went on its midseason break.
Fox has yet to announce the official airing date of its midseason premiere which would feature its remaining nine episodes to complete its full 18-episode Season 1 order.
But the critics’ reviews of the TV series are not so impressive. In fact, Metacritic gave the show a 56% rating, which is basically an average review, not so bad but not so good either.
Reviewers from IGN and IMDb were more generous as it gave “Lethal Weapon” respective ratings of 7.8 and 7.9 with 10 as the highest.
Even the actual ratings and viewership of “Lethal Weapon” on Fox were on a downhill. Its pilot episode got a rating of 2.2 on the most sought after demographics of 18 to 49 years old viewers but on its episode 9, it was already down to 1.4.
In terms of viewership, the pilot episode generated 7.9 million viewers and it was all downward from there beginning with the second episode up to the midseason episode 9 finale, which only had 6.25 million viewers.
While the average viewership of 6.84 million per episode is still respectable, the downward trend signifies that some viewers no longer want to keep up and the TV series needs to showcase its full potentials for the back half.
Bringing legendary characters back in action
While Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh have remained on the ice for the better part of the last two decades, the TV series manages to bring the legendary, lethal detectives back to action with fairly commendable results.
It is obvious that “Lethal Weapon” did not hit the ground running, but it sets up a series that has the potential to honor the franchise’s legacy by doing something new.
The overarching premise of the show instantly feels familiar to fans, but the pilot does some heavy lifting when it comes to getting newcomers on board, notes Cinema Blend.
The show also made sure to revisit certain iconic moments from the film franchise for the sake of nostalgia, but the pilot episode worked best when it found its own voice, and not when it indulged fans and critics expectations, which is often the case with small screen reboots of classic properties.