TV Review - L.A.'s Finest

Michael Bay's directorial debut, Bad Boys (1995) was a hit at the time. It was about two Miami police detectives, working to take down powerful and deadly drug dealers. It starred Will Smith as Mike Lowrey and Martin Lawrence as Marcus Burnett as two wise-cracking cops. It spawned two sequels. The first sequel was Bad Boys II (2003), which introduced Marcus' sister, Sydney Burnett as an undercover DEA agent. Around the time that the second sequel Bad Boys for Life (2020) was put into production, so did the development of this spin-off series, which follows Sydney as she goes from Miami to Los Angeles. The series actually premiered on the cable channel Spectrum in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted Hollywood productions this year, FOX picked up this series and is now airing that 2019 season this year. If one likes the Bad Boys trilogy of films, it's undoubting that you would like this series, which is fairly entertaining. It's essentially Bad Boys but gender-swapped, which a year ago was a good idea.

Coming in the wake of the recent Black Lives Matter protests, as a result of the George Floyd killing, this series doesn't seem all that great of an idea and posits characters in a series that embraces, if not at times celebrates police recklessness or bravado that can go too far. While this series doesn't exactly tap into the current cultural zeitgeist that is demanding police reform and a more critical eye of police action, especially police violent action, there is some dramatic heft and thrills here that could be enjoyed, absent the outside cultural and political implications.

Gabrielle Union reprises her role from Bad Boys II as Sydney Burnett, who has left the DEA to become a full fledged member of the LAPD. She is a bad-ass detective who plays by her own rules and often flies by the seat of her pants. She's single and apparently likes to mingle. Even though her character is related to the character played by Martin Lawrence in the film trilogy, personality-wise she's more akin to Will Smith's character who was a swinging bachelor and a ladies man. Here, Sydney could be considered a men's lady. She likes her one-night-stands with various men and various women, so she's a ladies lady as well. She's also no-nonsense and is on a bit of a tear.

During an undercover operation, her cover was blown, which led to her being tortured and worse. She's basically out for justice and/or revenge for what happened to her. That justice or revenge is going to be aimed at cutthroat gangsters who are going to put her and the people around her in serious danger. It's not going to stop her from walking into dangerous situations and doing so alone if she has to do so alone. The balance will be her learning to work with her partner.

Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four and Sin City) co-stars as Nancy McKenna, a fellow LAPD detective who is assigned as Sydney's partner. They work together on various cases. At first, Nancy doesn't know about the revenge kick that Sydney has. Eventually, she does and it's revealed that Nancy has a connection to the people who hurt Sydney. It's a loose connection but a possible connection nonetheless. It's revealed that Nancy has a bit of a criminal past or an association to criminals in her past. She's now married to a man who's running to be district attorney and has a stepdaughter that she has to oversee. She doesn't want anything to jeopardize that life, but her past is creeping up on her.

There are tons of cop shows on television. Over the years, there have been plenty with female leads. As far back as Cagney & Lacey (1982) to something as recent as Rizzoli & Isles (2010), it's still a bit rare that a TV series will have two women as the leads and especially two women of color. That makes it standout, even as problematic as police procedural programs are in this time now.

Rounding out the cast are Duane Martin (All of Us and Above the Rim) who plays Ben Baines and Zach Gilford (Good Girls and Friday Night Lights) who plays Ben Walker. The two men named Ben are fellow LAPD detectives as well and partners in their job. They actually provide a bit of comic relief here and there, as they rib the women detectives whenever they can. They're playful with each other. They're fun and charming and complement the show here nicely.

Rated TV-14-VLD.
Running Time: 1 hr.
Mondays at 8PM on FOX.