Remote Control – Take 5 – FOX – Lethal Weapon

Thanks for watching! Does it mean something different

here? No. I just want to make sure there's no

one else left for you to kill. Sure may. I've

seen a lot of crazy people before, but this dude

is in the class by himself. Who is it? Nobody.

It's, um... Hi. Martin Riggs. I'm sure you've

heard a lot about me. Not a word. We're about

to have dinner. Would you like to come in? No,

he can't. He can't. He's got stuff he's got to

do. Come on. No, I mean, it does smell good.

Oh, it tastes even better. So, do you have any

kids, Martin? I do not. But you're married. Not

anymore. She passed away. I'm sorry, Martin.

She was a good one. Gave me something to live

for. I need you to be honest with me. Do you

think Riggs is dangerous? Very. Hello! and welcome

to Remote Control here on the Geekcast Radio

Network. I'm, of course, TF2 and Mike. Joining

me is DJ Valentine from Simplistic Reviews. Hello,

sir. I promise, no matter what happens after

this debate, not to accept the result. Oh, wait.

That's something else. I'm sorry. Dude, you missed

your line. What was my line? I'm getting too

old for this shit. I'm sorry. I'll go back. I'll

get my Danny Glover on. Hold on. Here we go.

clear my throat, because the key to a good Danny

Glover is the loud whisper, which is, I'm getting

too old for this shit. You gotta yell and whisper

at the same time. It's very tricky. You have

to yell and whisper. It's really tough. That

man must have either smoked a lot of cigarettes

or drank a lot of whiskey at the same time as

he was smoking the cigarettes, because his voice,

oh boy. If you cut me, if you cut me, I'll kill

you. You know what the sad thing is? After the

original Lethal Weapon 1, I should say just Lethal

Weapon, but after the original movie, it's like,

hey, why is Riggs, or why is Murtaugh in Angels

in the Outfield? I liked him in Switchback, starring

him and Dennis Quaid. But that five people have

seen. But yes, Angel of the Outfield, as a baseball

manager, who again is yell whispering the whole

time, we got to get a pitch in there. Call up

the reliever. Oh, God. And then to compound it

all, you have Gary Busey in Rookie of the Year.

I can't take Gary Busey seriously in anything.

All I keep remembering him in is with Danny Glover

in Predator 2, where he's like, the lions, the

tigers, the bears, oh my. It's a fucking alien.

That guy, he's awesome. He was awesome in the

past, and now he's just nutbags. So, yeah. Yeah,

he's... I think his best stuff recently are...

amazon fire ads oh yeah when he's talking to

a lamp where the hell he's going turn on remote

control yeah yeah my name is gary bucey and i

want to be able to control my team yeah all right

folks uh this is remote control we are here to

talk about television uh we're doing a whole

new thing here in remote control we used to have

finishing finales and pilot premieres Where the

pilot premiere, we were just talking about the

premiere episode and the finishing finales. If

we actually finish watching a season of television,

of whatever show it is, we will talk about the

whole thing. Well, I'm doing something new now.

We're going to call it Take 5. My good buddy

Mike Powers, Mike Booth Ninja Powers from Off

the Cuff and The Lunch Table and all that other

stuff that he used to do. one of the main hosts

over on Altered Geek with Steve, he has this

rule of give a television show five episodes.

If you don't like it or if you do like it before

or just after that fifth episode, you can either

continue it or not continue it. So we're going

to call this Take 5, and hopefully the artwork

will reflect a classic game show because as soon

as I decided to call it Take 5, the first thing

I thought of was Alex Trebek, classic concentration,

the green and red tape. Seven people remember

that show. I am one of those seven. Oh, come

on! So wait, there are five other people besides

us? Yes, there's five other people. One is not

Alex Trebek, ironically. Oh, come on. He forgot

that part of his life. He only knows Jeopardy

now. Well, so I knew the red take and the green

take were a thing on the show, and I'm sitting

here because I wanted to show Steve, because

I... Steve said he was going to make up artwork

for these, these take five episodes. And I Twittered

him and I said, okay, look, I have an idea for

this graphically for, for, for an inclusion.

He's like, all right, cool. This morning, like

right before we recorded this, I'm on YouTube

searching classic concentration episodes to try

to find out when the take started. So I'm watching

this and I'm like, oh my God. I so remember this

and all these crazy, stupid puzzles. All I remember

is the puzzles. And I was like, oh, I think I'm

smart because I'm answering before these people

on the show. And then I realized, no, these are

dumb people and I was only a child. So anybody

with any type of brain would have gotten these.

So we are here. We're here to talk about a new

show this year on the Fox Network. The people

that brought you The Simpsons and Married with

Children. Sleepy Hollow and Dollhouse and Firefly.

Please don't mention Firefly. The audience will

be in an uproar. Oh my god, we want that show

back. It's not happening, people. I've got to

try to compose myself. There's just too much.

I'm sorry. I'll bring it down. I'll get real.

Oh, God, don't do that. So before we start this

out, as I said, this is going to be a new show

that Fox premiered this this fall. But before

we start this out, I feel like it's only necessary

for us to give our opinions on television remakes,

reboots and resets. So what is your opinion on

a TV network going in and saying, hey, we're

going to take this that existed as a movie franchise,

turn it into a TV show, and see if you people

who love the movie franchise like what we're

doing now. So what is your general opinion of

when Hollywood does the whole, we're going to

make a TV series out of this movie? We're not

talking about Lethal Weapon yet, but I would

say in general. I think you gotta get the right

people behind it because for every, let's say

minority report, there is a Hannibal. I mean,

there, I mean, there's times where movies have

been translated to television like Fargo and

it's worked out really, really well. Sometimes

there's times where there's a rush hour. that

translate to television really, really poorly.

And I think it's all dependent on the people.

If you take it serious and you get behind it

and you understand the material that you're adapting,

you can do it. You can, especially if you're

picking the right project. Some things, because

Fargo is almost like a fairy tale kind of, almost

like a grim fairy tale, it lends itself to an

anthology. Certain movies do not lend themselves

to television, period, like a Rush Hour or a,

whatchamacallit, Minority Report. Those do not

lend themselves to television, to me, in my opinion.

Yeah. You know, every time anybody mentions the

Rush Hour movies to me, all I think of, no, seriously,

all I think of is, you don't know nothing about

war. That's all I can think of is Chris Tucker

and Jackie Chan trying to sing the Edwin Starr

song, War. And the funny thing about that is

one of my favorite rock bands currently, southern

rock bands, they're actually from here in Edmonton,

not here, I'm in Louisville, but they're from

Edmonton, Kentucky, called Blackstone Cherry.

They did a cover of War. Usually when they do

the covers of their albums, they put them as

like the last track or one of the – they put

this at track six, and I just looked at it. I'm

like, okay, cool. I assumed – this is before

I heard it. I was like, all right, cool. They

got a song named War. Cool. I wasn't even thinking

of the Edwin Starr song at all. And I'm sitting

here listening to their new album. titled kentucky

uh you know well you know it's kind of on the

nose but whatever that's what it's called uh

and by the time track five ends and track six

begins i'm like hey wait what a cover already

what's going on here i didn't dislike it but

as soon as i heard it i'm like okay youtube rush

hour war you have to scratch that itch this is

what i think of Wait a minute. No, no, no. I

got to watch it now. I got to watch the whole

scene now. I think that movie was kind of a lightning

in a bottle situation. So to take that lightning

and then spread it out over three movies and

now spread it out over a television show with

less talented people in it, especially there

is no other Jackie Chan. There's only one. Yeah,

well, you know that they do. Hollywood has done

this not just with movies to TV. They've done

it with movies. You look at, and this is going

to be horrible. I know you're just going to love

this, that it's so horrible. You look at either

Cruel Intentions with Sarah Michelle Gellar and

Ryan Phillippe. Selma Blair and Sean Patrick

Flynn. Yeah. Witherspoon, all that. You look

at that movie, and then you look at Wild Things

with Kevin Bacon and blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. You look at those two films, both of those

original films each have a sequel and a third

movie. Wild Things might be worse. I've seen

the Wild Things, and those movies are just like...

See, Wild Things, again, it was only kind of

popular because of the... Well, it was a menage

a trois with Denise. I mean, that's kind of what

the big thing of that movie was that I remember

when it came out. That was like, everybody said

like a secret corner. It was like, hey, you see

wild things, man? You saw Dennis? That's essentially

what it was. But it wasn't like the story was,

man, this was the greatest tale I've ever heard.

It just warrants itself to be stretched out.

No, no, no, no, no, no. And the sad thing is.

You know, you say a menage a trois with Denise

Richards. All I can think of is a menage a trois

with Christmas Jones and Julia from Party of

Five. Matt Dillon, the other Dillon. I think

the only other Matt Dillon movie I've ever seen

him in. He's seen something about Mary. He's

the creepy detective. It's been a long time since

I've seen that movie. The only thing I remember

about that movie is what all the promotions wanted

us to remember. And don't zip your pants up too

fast. Yeah. All right. So my opinion in general

on, you know, when people want to take TV series

and make movies out of them or vice versa. It

depends on what it is and it depends... Well,

I can't talk today. Like you said, it depends

on how it's done and who they get to do it. There

are certain things like... Ten Things I Hate

About You is one of my favorite films because

it was the first film I had ever seen Heath Ledger.

I think it was the second film I saw. Save the

Last Dance was number one. I might have been

the first one. I don't know. Okay, there you

go. But... Ten Things I Hate About You did not

need a TV series, and that was one that got a

TV series. I was just like, oh, God, really?

Let's flashback. Well, yeah, 29, because next

year is 30. 29 years ago, 1987. In 1987, we had

one of the best blockbuster action movies come

out entitled Lethal Weapon, directed by Richard

Donner. I guess you could say created slash written

by Shane Black. I don't know, whatever. I assumed

he was the writer on it. When you, did you see

this? Because for me, it's one of those things

where my mom let me watch the thing. I didn't

have as progressive a parent as you, but I did

see this. And our show, we did a commentary track

on it because me and Justin, we kind of grew

up on Lethal Weapon. We're big fans of Shane

Black and the Dick Donner. uh lethal weapon so

yes i did i did grow up on some hard rigs and

murtaugh action right um they had four movies

everybody wanted a fifth one but it was pretty

much done at four because most of the movies

that started in the 80s that went into the 90s

they didn't like lethal weapon three and four

i love i still love i love all four of the movies

um But I see the third and fourth movie as more

of a character progression than anything else.

You're not going to have the same... You still

have action in both those movies, but it's more

of a character thing as they go along. I mean,

I love them. I love all four Lethal Weapon movies.

There's not... I think two would probably be

the one that I watch the least, maybe. It's not

that it... Yeah, well, it's not that I don't

like it. It's just that... You're mad because

of the... You don't watch it because of the internet?

Is that why? The internet made you not like Lethal

Weapon 2? Something like that. So, Fox this year

debuted in the fall this new television season,

Lethal Weapon. And it's based on, you know, the

film series by Shane Black. What I find interesting

in looking through some of the credits on this,

not the cast credits, but the production credits.

Yes, you do. Tell me more. You've got McG attached

to this thing. The only other thing I remember

McG from is Fast Lane. Oh, Fast Lane with Bill

Bellamy and fake Tom Cruise. What's his name?

Peter Fascinelli. Supernova. Peter Fascinelli.

I remember Fascinelli. It was kind of like the

late 90s Miami Vice. The sad thing is it was

the early 2000s Miami Vice. It felt like it was

the 90s because it was so like... I guess cheesy

is the word. I don't know. Just overly stylized.

Okay. It wasn't – I watched every episode. Yeah.

You know what the sad thing is? Every time anyone

anywhere online mentions Striper, the first thing

I go to is YouTube, Jay Moore, Striper. And it's

got him singing, gotta be strong, gotta keep

the – it's like, oh, God. All right, so Fox has

gone and done it. They've created a Lethal Weapon

television series loosely based off the film

series. It is not the same cast. It is a different

story direction, but they take liberties and

insert various plot elements, character elements,

I should say, into each of the characters. This

new series stars... Yes, he does. ...the clown.

That's pretty much all I can say because, I mean,

really, it's Hobie the Clown because everybody

else other than Jordana Brewster are all new

people to me. Like, I've never seen Clayton Crawford.

I've seen stuff that – I've known of stuff that

he's in, but Clayton Crawford plays Riggs. Damon

Wayans plays Murtaugh. You got Jordana Brewster.

She's playing Robert Zemeckis' ex -wife's role

from the Elite 11 series, the shrink. Yeah. I

almost wish they would have brought her back.

The only carryover is the shrink. I would have

loved to have seen this version of Riggs mess

with Dr. Stephanie. Keisha Sharp as Roger's wife,

Trish. You've got Kevin Wren as Captain Brooks

Avery and a bunch of other people. They do bring

in various things like Murtaugh's kids, Murtaugh's

retirement, except here in his retirement. I'm

getting too old for this shit, Riggs. The line.

You know, they give him a purpose of why he was

supposed to retire or whatever. He had a heart

attack and blah, blah, blah, blah. He is still

50 years old. His wife looks a hell of a lot

younger. She doesn't look like she's in her 20s,

but maybe late 30s, early 40s. Black don't crack.

I'm 73 years old. I look like I'm 22. Hey, I'm

black. I can say it. Black don't crack. He said

it, folks, not me. Okay, I am going to make this

joke now since you mentioned Sean Patrick Thomas.

Hey, what the hell are you doing here? I got

this. This is all... Get out of here. There's

a party down the street. This is all me. I make

the party cool. Get out of here. This is not

another teen movie, folks. Oh, shit. So, I go

to watch the trailer for the new Weave a Weapon,

and I didn't... Like, I wasn't as turned off

as... I'm one of those people that... I will,

for me personally, I have to make a judgment

on whether I'm going to enjoy it or not off of

the trailer. Movie trailers, television trailers,

they're advertisements, folks. They're supposed

to get you into or out of the thing. They're

supposed to give you an idea of whether you're

going to want to watch it or not. And I didn't

even really look at too much information about

it at first. I just watched the trailer. I'm

like, okay, other than the fact that it's Damon

Wayans and he's mostly known for comedy. It wasn't

bad. It wasn't a bad trailer. And after watching

the first episode, I was like, okay, cool, I

kind of like this. And of course... Okay, excuse

me, I might get on a rant here. Here's the problem

I have with Lethal Weapon series, as I was saying

before. Aside from the fact that you shouldn't

be making a Lethal Weapon series to begin with,

but if you do... Do your fucking homework and

understand what the Lethal Weapon films did.

Don't just download a Lethal Weapon font and

use the IMDb summary pages, cliff notes in writing

your show. The Lethal Weapon films started off,

as you know, dark. dark and it got progressively

slapsticky, granted. However, the best Lethal

Weapons are the one where that properly balanced

the humor, the brutal action, and then the dramatic

tension. And that's what Lethal Weapon 1 and

2 are. This show is clearly following, as you

said earlier, 4. It's not following 1 and 2,

which leaves us with a product that is tonally,

to me, all over the place and devoid of any stakes

or sense of dread. or dramatic tension. And the

worst part, the worst part, the saddest thing

of the show is how much they get the titular

character wrong. And the titular character is

supposed to be Riggs. Lethal Weapon is Riggs.

The original film is talking about Riggs. Now

we have a Lethal Weapon show without a Lethal

Weapon. Best thing about Riggs in the movies

is not his... one liners or his shabbiness it's

that switch and you know the switch i'm talking

about that switch we don't see but we know is

there through his eyes where he's like looking

at you you don't know the knowledge that this

guy had a drop of a fucking dime would just go

insane and kill everyone in the room a literal

lethal weapon a man who goes through mcallister's

men and lethal weapon one it goes who's fucking

next that's the lethal weapon i wanted and what

we have i mean at least the weapon two He's shooting

a guy in the stomach while mentally screaming

out the names of his fallen comrades like a thousand

times. This is a murder. A guy who put his badge

in the glove compartment and call. I'm not a

cop tonight, Raj. That's Riggs. This guy is not

a claim. Whatever his name is, the guy from Rectify.

He's not really Riggs to me. One, he's not scary.

At all. He does not scare me in the least bit.

He's essentially just a fuck -up, a bum, a cop

that's no better at his job than Andy Samberg

in Brooklyn Nine -Nine. He's not really like...

you know, I don't see any moment where I think

this guy is going to kill everyone. I think this

guy is going to cause a problem like, you know,

fuck a case up or something, but I don't think

he's going to murder anybody except for that

one scene in the bank in the pilot. That was

the only Riggs moment we've gotten from this

show that I remember so far. Movie Riggs would

put his badge away. He wouldn't care about the

cops. He doesn't, he would, he ripped down a

fucking building with his truck. This rigs lets

Roger Murdoch punch him in the face and walk

away. That's not rigs to me. That's like a cop

show, but they put the lethal weapon sheen on

it. If you're going to make this as a cop show

and remove the lethal weapon sheen, I think it

works better. But to tell me that this is lethal

weapon, it's not lethal weapon to me. It's just

like, you know, antiseptic lethal weapon. It's

not... I don't feel any... I mean... The one

thing you talked about online is you said that

they have camaraderie. And they do. They have

chemistry. When they're joking around and when

they're dealing with suspects, it's probably

the only time I really like them. I need this

guy. I can't remember his damn name. Clayne Clifton

or something. I need Clayne Crawford. I need

him or at least have an episode where he just

goes through people. I know this is network television,

which I hate because they are limited in what

they can do violence -wise other than Hannibal.

Have him just go, where's the target practice

scene? Where's the main bad guy where he has

to, the cops surround Murtaugh's house and they

have a fight to the death on the front lawn.

Where's that stuff? That's lethal weapon to me.

Yeah, and I do agree with you to a certain point.

Again, we're only five episodes into the show.

They have one chance, though. That last episode,

episode five, which is, I think, the best episode

of the season. The only problem is they kind

of went the opposite direction because this guy

who I thought they were setting up, I thought

they were going to set up to be like the Mr.

Joshua, the Gary Busey from the first one because

he's also like a vet and he's a little crazy.

But it went the other way where Riggs is kind

of, I guess, spoiler alert, Riggs is kind of

trying to help him. No! That's the perfect time

to have an enemy where this is the doppelganger

of Riggs, the flip side of the coin to Riggs,

where Riggs is a good guy and this guy's an evil

son of a bitch. That's where you should have

went with that. But the difference is is that

This is television, not movies. This is Riggs

sympathizing with that soldier because this other

guy was a soldier and he had screwed up. I get

that. I understand that. I'm just saying if you

want to do that as a regular cop show, I'm all

for it. I'm all for it. But don't call the show

Lethal Weapon. Lethal Weapon isn't supposed to

be supposed to be. But Lethal Weapon in the past

has never been that. Lethal Weapon. It seems

like they want a cash grab on the Lethal Weapon

name, but not give us Lethal Weapon. If you're

going to give us Lethal Weapon, give us fucking

Lethal Weapon. Give us crazy action scenes where

Riggs, Murtaugh has to stop Riggs from killing

everybody. And I mean, I don't mean like. crash

a car through a door. I mean, like, literally

snap necks. In Lethal Weapon 1, he's walking

through a nightclub just breaking people's necks.

Shooting people in the face. And Murphy's like,

calm down. You know, that's Lethal Weapon. And

the part you're talking about where the PTSD

thing is fine. It's just... We haven't got an

arch nemesis yet. We don't have any. It's just

a procedural. Lethal Weapon is better than a

procedural show. If you want to have a procedural

show, let's make a procedural show. Just don't

put Riggs. Riggs and Murdoch are horrible police

officers. They're not good enough to be on a

procedural show to solve crimes. The way they

solve crimes are, one, put their badges in their

glove compartment and kill everyone. Two, put

their badges in their glove compartment and kill

everyone. Three, put their badges in their glove

compartment. They never follow the law when they

do their crime. Yeah. A fight would lead to the

death on a dock. But you don't want an AK -47

to death. That's not legal. All that shit they

did was illegal. Okay, so we're never going to

get Lethal Weapon 5. I know Mel was trying to

make his big comeback this year with some movie

I saw a trailer of that I don't even remember

the title of at this point. I just knew it was

Mel, and I'm like, oh, hey, look, it's Mel. He

looks halfway decent because I've seen Mel Gibson

twice. He was good in that. In the past two or

three years when he was the villain in The Expendables

3 and this. And this film trailer of the movie

that I don't even remember. It's okay. It was

kind of a fringy movie. Okay, there you go. So

it's one of those things where this is 2016,

folks. Unless they're going to get Mel and Danny.

No, no. back into lethal shape. They don't need

to make a five. There's no way we're getting

a five. There's just no way. There's just absolutely

no way. Everybody's moved on as much as everyone

probably hates. Perfect ending. I agree. Are

you all friends? No, we're family. That's a perfect

way to end that franchise at that time of when

it was happening. And that was in 1998. So that

was, you know, X number of years ago now. Now,

flash forward to this year, and what I like about

the show in the first five episodes is that they

are taking little bits and pieces of the film

stuff. They're taking it without ruin. Ladies

and gentlemen, Fox is not out to ruin your childhood

with the Lethal Weapon TV series. They're not

going to ruin the first four films. You can go

back and you can watch those, okay? But what

they're taking here to me is they're taking bits

and pieces of what's in the movies to put in

the show with these new cast members, these somewhat

new characters. Yeah, this is pretty much, I

think, other than the heart attack, everything's

identical. There's a few tiny details that are...

That are – yeah. And I think the other change

was in the movies his youngest was not a baby.

But anyway, they do that in the TV series here

because of what happens to Riggs. And Riggs,

they do obviously, since you said he is the titular

character, he's supposed to be the lethal weapon,

he comes from Texas. And his wife got tractor

-trailered. crashed into and she died and her

and his unborn child passed away. So they're

taking bits and pieces, which I like, without

essentially insulting what happened in the other

movies. In Lethal Weapon 2, we find out that

it's Arian or whatever the hell his name is that

was the one that ordered the hit on Riggs' wife

in Lethal Weapon 2 or whatever else. That's what

I like about this. They can spot take things.

If you look at episode 5, Spilt Milk, it has,

minus Joe Pesci, to me, sadly, I think that episode

was going really well. It didn't make any sense

to me because I'm like, why are you jumping out?

Why don't you just throw it out of the window?

It wasn't going to shoot again. It's about to

go off in two seconds anyway. So throw it out

and have Riggs shoot it. He couldn't throw it

because there's people out there. That part I

understand. It's a nitpicky thing, but I just

didn't. I think the episode was going really

well, and then that was kind of like pulled me

out of it a little bit. And that's why I'm saying

it's kind of like, one, there's no way they're

surviving that jump. Yes, yes, I know. They jumped

out of a window in the other one, but it wasn't

from that damn high. They're at the top of a

freaking skyscraper, I think it is. Well, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's one thing in this series.

It's one thing. I, it freaks me out every time

I watch it. And it is specifically with episode

five of lethal weapon here in season one, the

roof shots. I am such, I am such. A height guy

when it comes to, oh, my God, there's no way.

If I have to look straight down, even if I have

to watch a television show with the cameras pointed

straight down or straight up. I'll just be sitting

here watching it. I'll give you shit. But Riggs

walking. No. No, no, no, no. No, thank you. Yeah.

So, but Riggs walking across the building, sitting

on top of the building. Roger just. No. One of

the other five episodes, episode four, There

Goes the Neighborhood. I love this episode because...

It gives us more into Roger's life. Like, yes,

Riggs is the main character. We want to follow

his story, but we want to really follow both

of them and see how their lives intersect with

each other. And episode four was entitled, as

I said, There Goes the Neighborhood. It's all

about Roger and how he moved out to a suburb

and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But he goes

back to the Pops Barbershop. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

That's a bad joke. Bad Harlem joke, folks. Good

old Pop's Barbershop. We'll talk about that next

week, folks. But essentially he goes back to

the city barbershop and takes his son RJ and

has this whole thing and then obviously Riggs

and the violence and everything else comes into

the neighborhood. I just love how Rod is like,

no, this is not supposed to happen. That episode

to me, that's when I kind of got a little angry.

I got angry at the... Okay, remember the first

time, and I keep, I have to, I'm allowed to go

back to the movies because they're adapting the

movie. You remember in the first movie, the scene

where Roger first meets Riggs. Roger runs at

Riggs from like 10 feet away without Riggs even

knowing, and Riggs takes him down. And that's

where you get the, I'm too old for this, you

know, line. This scene, in this episode, Roger

punches Riggs in the face. And Riggs just takes

it, and I'm just like, wait, Right there, I was

like, okay, this is not Riggs. This is just a

guy with the name Riggs. There's no person punching

Riggs in the face unless it's Gary, it's Mr.

Joshua, or Jet Li. That's the way that's happening.

Yeah. I gotta know much. I gotta know. I mean,

the thing about it is I didn't even mind when

they made him from Texas. I minded where they

don't accentuate the Beretta because I think

Lethal Weapon did more sales for the Beretta

than any NRA Charlton Heston commercial ever

did. I mean, if you watch the first week, the

weapon, him shooting that, the happy, have a

nice day. That sold a billion. One of the movie

really that was showcased. And I didn't like

the first episode because he's using like a revolver

or whatever. But yeah, I didn't mind him being

from Texas. I just want him to be more homicidal.

Or at least. When shit goes down. When shit goes

down in this show and when shit goes down in

these movies, there's two different Riggs's.

When Riggs in the movie, when shit goes down,

he is stone -faced. He's in Mad Max mode where

his eyes are just blatantly wide open and he's

just murdering bitches. And in this one, he's

like cracking jokes and stuff. I'm like, nah,

nah. When Riggs is fighting somebody, it's on.

Think of any fight you've ever seen Riggs in

in these movies. When the guy stabs the guy who

killed his wife, she throws a dagger at his thigh.

He is not telling any jokes. It's all about murder.

That's all it is. He's fighting Joshua on the

front lawn, breaking every law of police ethics

ever. He's not telling jokes. He's trying to

murder that person. That's what I want. And this

guy, who's not a bad actor, I've seen him in

a couple episodes of the show called Rectify.

He's a really good actor, and I know he can do

it. It's just that I think they're trying to

make it homogenized. It's just, you know... Not

the they're going for this delete the weapon

for tone. I want to leave the weapon one tone

If not, they don't or two at least the lethal

weapon two -tone if you're gonna not do that

Just don't call you the weapon call it la cops

or you know Hold me the clown and in private

Something I don't know anything other than the

weapon So so so wait Two -tone, there it is.

I'm back. You're black. He's black. Let's go.

Remember that line? I'm mad. You're black. He's

back. I was thinking about this. There's a show

with a guy, and I'm kind of leaning toward my

predilections, but imagine if I'm going to recast

the show for you, and I'm going to pitch it to

you. I'm going to pitch it to you. Get ready,

all right? Putting it now on, and it's going

to stay in the family. I'm not going to put it

on Fox. I'm putting it on FX, all right? Okay.

All right, so because now that I've done that,

I can literally do any violence I want. If you've

seen any show on FX, they're cutting off heads.

They're doing everything. So I get all the murder

I want. I get all the cursing I want. I get all

the nudity I want. Everything I want. So everything

that's from the Lethal Weapon movies, I can still

do. which I cannot do on Fox, right? And now

I'm not going to use this guy, Clayne Crawford.

I'm going to use Timothy freaking Oliphant from

Justified as Riggs. Who can play Riggs? Who can

play maniacal? Who can also be funny and charming?

And if you have any doubt of that, watch Justified.

And I'm going to make his partner Michael T.

Williams. And I'm going to do the same freaking

show. I'm going to make it produced by Brian

Fuller. That's a show you'd watch. But I mean,

if you want to watch it, it's just very, it just

feels not modern. It feels like the show should

have came out in like the 2002s. It should have

came out right after Fastlane on a special episode

of Fastlane followed by Lethal Weapon. That's

what it feels like. It doesn't feel like an actual,

with that name comes responsibilities, man. If

you don't want those responsibilities, don't

call it that. It's almost like they want to have

their key of community too. We want to cannibalize

the movies by taking what we want and leaving

what we don't. But we want you to come because

it's called Lethal Weapon, but it's not Lethal

Weapon because we're not taking the things that

we want and we're going to do whatever the hell

we want with it. If that's the case, have some

balls and let's make your own brand new show.

And we can say, it's the new Lethal Weapon. You

can call it that. Don't call it the new Lethal

Weapon. Let's say you can promote it as the new

Lethal Weapon, but don't just... slap a damn

bumper sticker on it and say it's a lethal weapon,

it's like, it's an insult to me. I don't understand

it. It's like making Die Hard a TV show. Like,

you know, and he's like, every week he's in a

building. And every week, you know, there's another

terrorist. And he doesn't kill him. He kind of,

like, tells jokes. And he jumps off a building.

And it burrows up. And then everybody's fine.

Everybody makes it. And he arrests Hans Gruber.

That's not Die Hard. This is not... Alan Rickman,

my favorite. May you rest in peace, Hans Gruber.

Oh, God. See, I understand where you're coming

from, but for most general audiences, let's say

kids younger than 30 years old or more, you know

what I mean? No one, unless... They're going

to seek out the original Lethal Weapon movies.

No one's really... What's Fox really going after

here? Are they going after us who remember the

movies and have seen the movies? Or are they

going after... With the name, are they going

after... Hey, you might have remembered this,

but this is something all new and all different.

Oh, God. I just pulled a Marvel joke out of my

ass. Oh, God. I... The way I approach this show

at this point now that we're five episodes in

is I can't wait to see how different Riggs ends

up. They made him a Navy SEAL this time instead

of Special Forces or whatever. Whatever he was

in the original movie. They show us right away

why he needs to relocate to L .A. because apparently

his wife was from there and whatever else. They

don't... They don't just dangle that for a whole

movie and then go into the second movie and reveal

how or why she was killed or whatever else. So

they show that to us right away. They have the

1, 2, 3 bit a little bit throughout there, but

it doesn't really bother me all that much. Like

you said, I like their chemistry. Between Wayans

and Crawford and, you know. That's fine. Again,

those moments, which are few and far between,

are good. When they're, like, on the same page

joking against somebody, I like those moments.

Because that kind of, like, that kind of seems

like Lethal Weapon. It's like, okay, I don't

like the captain. I do like the wife. I think

this wife, Murtaugh's wife, Trish. This version

of Trish is better than the movie version of

Trish. The only moment that the movie version

of Trish got was that. pen uh scene in lethal

weapon 2 where riggs is sharing a story that

he never shares with anybody else in the whole

series with trish in the movie but i think the

only moment she's ever gotten the trish on this

show is very very good and the relationship between

her and roger i think is very very good the roger

stuff is fine to me i just wish they would beef

up the rigs a little bit roger is fine because

roger is not really complicated of a character

he's a family man he's he's martin lawrence the

bad boys he just wants to have his family and

you know i want to retire i don't want to have

to get into violence that's essentially a very

easy thing to do when you're dealing with an

old you know not old but like a guy who's coming

from doing god knows what overseas as a essentially

a military black ops guy like like rigs is and

trying to make him a cop now that's where you've

got to really focus your attention to. And it

just seems like they say, oh, Riggs is wacky.

I don't want Riggs to be wacky. I mean, he is

wacky. He does some wacky things in the movies,

but he's also a murderer. Don't get it twisted.

Go ahead. Rewatch all the Lethal Weapons. Riggs,

from 1 to 4, is a brutal, brutal murderer. And

they kind of got rid of that. They kind of slid

that to the side. Except for the one episode

where he shoots the bank robbers. That was it.

Yes, yes, he is. Well... And again, as you said,

this is network television, this is Fox, and

while Fox does, out of all the big regular network

television networks... Episode 5 was a step in

the right direction, I would say that. But we

haven't really gotten there yet, so again, I'm

hoping... Ladies and gentlemen... Well... Ladies

and gentlemen, if I have to pay him to come back,

I'll have to. But I'm hoping that you will continue

to. The first season is only going to be 18 episodes.

And I know we talked about this a little bit

earlier where, you know. Amazon and FX. Where

18 episodes is just a little bit too long. The

22 -episode mark is just a little bit too long.

We all wish that network TV would learn from

Netflix and FX and Amazon and everybody else

with 10 or 13 or whatever. But after the first

five episodes, I'm still really stoked to see

where this goes. Because it doesn't infringe

on what the movies were. I don't think it will

work. The recasting is necessary. Like I said,

understand who you're dealing with. If you don't

want to do that, don't. Use the name. If you're

using the name, know what you're doing while

using the name. If I tell you this is caviar

and you eat it, it's like chicken. Don't get

pissed off when I start freaking out on you.

You told me it's caviar now. So the thing about

it, and you're talking, what you brought up a

good point is that Riggs transitions in the movies.

You got to make him dark so at the end of the

series, he can transition. If he's already comedic.

There is no transition. You gotta make him a

little darker than this, guys. It's okay. You

got exorcists on your damn network, don't you?

Fox, I can't even freaking remember at this point.

I can't. That works to me nothing. I don't know.

I don't. I watch all my TV on Hulu and Netflix

and stuff, so it's like I don't even know what

– yeah, I don't even know. The last time I watched

anything on Fox was probably last year's World

Series. I don't know. But it's one of those things

where – let me ask you this. Do you think, now

that you're saying this, that he needs a point

where he should stay dark and needs a turning

point to go light? Should they have – No, I think

you need Riggs to meet Murtaugh broken. That's

why he met him in the movie. He met him broken.

And like the suicide scene comparison, there's

a suicide, they kind of take, they cannibalize

that part where Mel Gibson got the role of Hamlet

because of the suicide scene he did in Lethal

Weapon 1 where he pulls the gun with an actual

bullet. This is written. He actually put a bullet

in a gun and pointed it at his head. And like,

you know, that whole suicide scene where he's

crying and is watching the Bugs Bunny Christmas

Carol. It's one of the great Mel Gibson acting

moments. And this one is kind of played where

he's, you know, it's OK. It's just not dark enough.

It needs to be the push to pale a little bit.

And you're right. I think. The wife needed to

die. The circumstances of Riggs is fine. They

just need to get him a little bit more broken.

He's too fixed at this point. He's not, when

Riggs meets Murtaugh in the first movie, he's

like, remember the scene where Roger puts a gun

in his fucking, under his chin? He's broken.

Put it in your mouth. Yeah, that's, yeah, yeah,

that's that. Put it in my mind. That's the rage

you need at this point in the first season. He's

like, no, no. If you would have had him started

off really dark. Put it in your mouth. Right?

And by the season finale, he kind of makes a

step like he did in the movie, like it's a step.

As the series progresses and he gets lighter,

I can understand that because that's exactly

what the movies did. But here he comes in all,

hey, what's up, Raj? No, no. Darker than that.

Darker. If they're in a room and Riggs and Murtaugh

is in there and they're surrounded by guys, I

in the movies was never. like, okay, Riggs is

going to kill three of these guys. In the show,

I'm like, Riggs is going to get his ass kicked.

There's no way he's going to make it out of here.

The episode where he's in a bar and he gets beat

up, I got pissed off too. I'm like, there's no

way Riggs is getting beat up in a bar. There

is no way. He would kill all of those people.

All of those people would get dropped. So, yeah.

Yeah. Five episodes in. Let's fix it. I mean,

like I said, we're only the first five episodes

in. Yo, Jordana Brewster. Sorry, Jordana Brewster.

Bye. Have a good time, Jordana Brewster. To get

him to go darker. He's already had his wife and

unborn child taken away from him. What else can

you take away from this guy? If you really want

to find a way to get him darker and make him

kind of get... You're kind of past the point

of no return now, so this is going to be a grasping

at straw situation. But if you kill the one person

that's trying to fix him, then that would lead

to a relapse of him being dark. That's the only

thing I can see. But at this point, he's chumming

around. No, man. The finale in episode five,

right up to the point where they jumped out the

window, I was like, okay, he's been very dark

this episode. I was like, that's where he needs

to be. He needs to be in that headspace for when

he's dealing with criminals. That's where needs

to be at least for this first cup the first five

episodes like if they would have flipped this

man if the first five episodes he this has been

a dick and it keeps getting into trouble and

it keeps Killing people because they I thought

they were gonna do that when the captain was

like you guys keep blowing up the city You know

you got a budget here. It was more like Riggs

This is the fifth guy you killed this week because

I was the first movie Rick stop shooting people

and then it starts progressing yet That's what

you need to do with this character or Don't call

it Lethal Weapon. I keep hitting that. If you're

not going to do Lethal Weapon, don't do Lethal

Weapon. If you are going to do what you're doing

right now, don't get pissed off when fans of

Lethal Weapon are like, this ain't fucking Lethal

Weapon. You're just trying to get nostalgic money

and then fool people into thinking this is what

Lethal Weapon always was when it was not. It

was not. It was a psychological broken cop finding

family with a guy who was afraid of him for most

of the series. Is that how it goes? Spider -Man,

before you go out there. Peter. As Stan Lee often

says, folks, with great weapons comes lethal

responsibility. Something like that. Oh, shit.

That's funny. All right, folks. I know we've

kind of been all over the place here. But the

first five episodes, I enjoyed each one for what

it was. I thought it was a story -building point,

and I'm probably going to stick with the series

just to see what happens. I'm sure I'm saying

what he's thinking and if I screw it up anymore.

I really don't think they're screwing it up because

I see this in the films as two separate things.

Like you said, yes, yeah. Well, the music, okay,

let's talk about the music for a minute. The

main theme is not done by, obviously, Michael

Kamen has been long since gone, sadly. But that's

one thing that... I'm just like, can we please

bring back the original TV opening credit type

scene? Like, I don't want to sit here and watch,

you know, like a Family Matters opening credit

where everybody's smiling. But, like, I want

more than three and a half. That's why I like

the Netflix shows because they have those kind

of, though they don't show characters, they have

an opening music montage. It's not a montage,

but, like, they have something. There's something

there. The show's just like, leave the weapon.

And then it starts. What? And it's not just that

show. It's every show on network television,

I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and it's like, wait,

what? Yeah, it's everything. NCIS. It's Blacklist.

It's all that kind of stuff. You look at most

police procedurals, since technically this is

a police procedural, you look at something like,

well... You know, NCIS has a full theme. All

the NCISs have a full theme. I'm actually in

the middle of going to Los Angeles at this point.

I love that show. That's my favorite one right

now. But anyway, you know, you look at all the

old classic action shows. Oh, Phil Collins. Phil

Collins, hello. My own town. What's going on

here? Whether it's Hawaii Five -0, whether it's

A -Team, Knight Rider, Airwolf, all that's Miami

Vice. Hello. The ultimate. Yeah. The pinnacle

of a cop procedural from the 80s in Miami Vice,

you look at that opening theme and then you look

at this and it's like, I want more of that. I

need a little bit more of that. And I know people

are going to sit there and say, oh, well, they

only do the small stuff now for a title card

because they want to get more show out of it.

Most of these shows without commercials are anywhere

between... Look at one of the most popular shows

on television right now. Game of Thrones' opening

title sequence, I think, is a minute and a half,

and it's great. It's amazing. Actually, let me

look here and see. That's not fair. What's up?

Uh -oh. That's not fair. Even Arrow and Flash,

though they copy each other, they all have the

same kind of opening narration, but they show

a montage. The CW shows all do that. Supergirl

does that. Flash does that. All those do that.

And that's kind of broadcast. Hey, don't hate

on Game of Thrones, man. I can't feed on that.

I love the Sesame Street Parade. But you can't

sit here and take Game of Chairs. I'm sorry.

That's all I can. South Park has one. I can't.

I've never seen it. Hannibal kind of had like

this artistic, almost like Daredevil, where the

blood was pouring on the guy's face. It was very

artistic. Do something. Title card myself is

lazy. Looking at the first five episodes of Lethal

Weapon on Hulu, each episode without commercials,

episode one was 46, episode two was 44, 43, 43,

and 43. So like I said, you're looking at roughly

anywhere between 42 and 46 minutes of a show

minus ads and then that 13, 14, 15 minutes of

ads. How about you tighten your script down?

How about you tighten the script down? Because

there's a lot of filler in these episodes where

it's like, we didn't need this scene. What is

this scene for? We didn't need Roger. Unless

this guy Denzel or Desmond becomes some kind

of creepy character in the show. We didn't need

that scene. What is that scene for? That scene

felt like we have this great actress playing

Trish. We got to give her another scene. So we'll

just give her this scene. But it has nothing

to do with the show. I mean, I guess they had

to write it in, well, Roger knows a lawyer. Roger

knows a thousand lawyers. He works in the police

department. So, yeah, I think that was a filler.

Daredevil reference, folks. That was a Daredevil

reference. Roger. Roger knows a lawyer. His name

is Matt something. Sorry. He's a real daredevil,

this guy. I don't know if we could get him on

the payroll. Yes. I know a really good lawyer

who practices out of Hell's Kitchen. So, yes.

Matt. Yeah, yeah. All right. So I know this first

five has been all over the place, but that's

essentially what it is. We're going to sit here

and talk about the first five episodes of a show.

I think we've done more of the comedy angle here

than actually talking about each... Mockery of

justice. There you go. That works. Oh, God. Damn

you. Now all I'm thinking of is Transformers.

Spare me this mockery of justice. This part has

been edited. Ha ha ha. You'll never know what

was actually here. Well, folks, we're still experiencing

technical difficulties. Actually, this episode

was recorded during the technical difficulties

aspect of Pamela Call Recorder. It actually cut

me off when I was giving my information. Yeah,

I had to edit around it. For DJ and Simplistic

Reviews, go to SimplisticReviews .net. You can

check out at Sim... Bull tweeters, I believe

is what it is, and his is at trying to be DJV.

Check out their new stuff, as I said, on simplisticreviews

.net. I'm, of course, at TF2 and Mike. Hopefully

next time, remote control will be audio issue

free. I'm trying my best here, folks. So keep

on fighting over that remote control and tune

in next week when we talk about Luke Cage from

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