L.A. Heat - Season 1 - DVD

Content: While the genre of so-called buddy-cop movies always follows a very similar pattern: two mismatched partners (Usually cops, but there are exceptions), one usually experienced and/or correct, the other often a hothead, wisecracker with clout with the ladies and a seeming inability to follow the rules of the police department. With this concept, movies like the "Lethal Weapon" series, "Last Boy Scout", the "Rush Hour" movies, "Space Cop L.A." or "Only 48 Hours" have done very well and have brought millions of fans to the genre.

The "L.A. Heat" series also follows the classic buddy-cop scheme. Ersonnen of Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi ran the action-packed series from 1997 for two seasons and could also win many fans in Germany. At the center of the quiet ex-boxer August (Stephen Williams, series fans from the first season of "Akte X" known) and his young partner Chase (Wolf Larson), who with his impulsive, sometimes extremely hot-headed nature August so many times around the mind. But as a team, the two cops from the L.A. Police Department are unbeatable and make life difficult for the bad guys in the City of Angels.

In the very first minutes of the pilot episode, "L.A. Heat" makes it clear to its viewers what they can expect here: explosions, car chases and cool sayings. The makers don't even try to be more ambitious than that, which significantly increases the entertainment value of the series. There are some elements of the series that clearly show that it is a somewhat older and not necessarily expensive production. For example, the cell phones of our heroes are still a bit bigger than those of today's series heroes. Also the humor seems a bit old-fashioned at times. But it is exactly these elements that make "L.A. Heat" so charming and entertaining. Because the series is simply light-hearted fun, what many current action series simply lacks.

While the series admittedly unrestrainedly serves numerous clichés of the genre. For instance, there is the boss who threatens to despair of the two cops. There are the attractive women at the side of the heroes, who now and then serve as the voice of reason - and of course are supposed to offer male viewers something for the eye. And the villains are mostly fairly one-dimensional characters whose bad character is literally written all over their faces. However, the series deals with these clichés in such a playful way that one can definitely take it as a touch of self-mockery.

"L.A. Heat" is certainly not great television art, does not offer any award-worthy acting performances and the scripts have rightly not won any awards. But that's not the point at all. The series wants to entertain, offer action and suspense, and simply give the viewer a whimsical time. And it still manages to do that pretty damn well, even more than ten years after it first aired. Therefore: for fans of older, simply knitted US crime fare absolutely recommendable!

Picture + Sound: For a 14 year old TV series, the technical quality is okay. Colors are a bit pale and there are some noticeable flaws in the overall sharpness. As for the sound, in the German language version the dialogue is much stronger, though also mixed a bit more front-heavy, making it sound a bit dull and artificial. The English soundtrack is mixed quieter, but the sound overall sounds more harmonious and the ambient sounds more natural.

Extras: Unfortunately, there are no extras on the seven DVDs except for a few trailers from the provider.

Conclusion: "L.A. Heat" is a likeable, action-packed crime series that can convince with a touch of nostalgia and well-staged action sequences. On seven DVDs the viewer is offered over 1100 minutes of good US series entertainment. It's not too bad that there are no extras on the DVDs and that the technical realization could have been better. For fans thus quite recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp