Critic Reviews

It's pretty damn good: sharply drawn characters, snappy dialogue, and awesome action sequences. I'm not sure that Clayne Crawford (Rectify) and Damon Wayans Sr. are going to make anybody forget Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, but they'll be more than good enough for the large audience that's never seen the four films, the last of which is nearly two decades old.

This Lethal Weapon pilot episode is very entertaining. Great action scenes, snappy banter and a bit of pathos mixed together with nice chemistry between Wayans and Crawford. That's the most important ingredient, and it makes the rest of it work.

Chemistry is key to a project like this, and Wayans and Crawford have it. Even in the series’ cartoonish exaggeration of what crime-fighting is about (yelling, screaming, and car-chasing), Lethal Weapon has a comic snap that is entertaining.

Wayans doesn’t yet have the gravity Glover brought to Murtaugh, but he compensates with his own polished skills as an actor and comic--getting every ounce of comedy out of the script without endangering Murtaugh’s believability as a cop. And while Crawford may not be the poster boy Gibson was in his youth, he gives the character a more subtle touch of humor and a more grounded poignancy.

It does what it does more than acceptably well, and promises to be subtler than its big-screen model--not that subtlety is necessarily what you come for. In any case, the template shows no sign of wearing out, or wearing out its welcome.

These two don't just have chemistry. They have a script that reintroduces Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs as characters who are as interesting facing each other across a dinner table as they are during a shootout or car chase.

The pilot is well-done, as it introduces the characters and a comic vibe. But no matter how appealing the buddy connection is, the weekly story lines are going to be formulaic.

The plotting and action in this version of Lethal Weapon may not offer much reason to tune in every week, but the Riggs/Murtaugh dynamic pops almost as well as it did on the big screen.

Crawford and Wayans prove to be a pretty good fit, as actors if not always as partners.

The pilot features a few elaborate action scenes (as does the follow-up episode), and the laughs are consistent enough to sustain the comparably boring case work.