Le flic de Shanghai

The 1990's were quite disappointing for fans of action shows. Martial Law was one of the few good shows.

Sammo Hung played Sammo Law in this show. He was brilliant. I am not a big fan of Martial Arts shows but this was entertaining. The stunts and the fight scenes were just amazing. Sammo was very agile for his size and there was always fun in watching him beat the bad guys; he always used their own weapons against them. No bad guy could beat Sammo-even if they had a gun or a knife. Sammo just kicked their butts.

Add to this the chemistry between all the characters and the great villains throughout the series and you have one really great show. Check it out.

This show was given a second shot in Season 2 and seriously blew it. For some reason, they brought in Arsenio Hall to try and capitalize on the fame of Rush Hour and it killed the show. Instead of making sexy Kelly Hu Sammo's partner, they pushed her off to the side and that made the show half as good as it could have been.

As the novelty of Sammo Hung wore off, there was nothing in the show to make up for it. Arsenio Hall's antics were more annoying than funny. No further depth was given to Kelly Hu's character. Luckily the show had just enough left to be worthy of syndication. With the combination of Sammo Hung, Kelly Hu, and a magical second season theme by Joel Goldsmith, the son of the great Jerry Goldsmith, the show still has just enough watchability to pull you in and hold you.

Its still fun to watch Sammo Hung's fighting skills. As a child he trained with Jackie Chan in a Peking Opera School, where strict training and harsh discipline were the norm. Despite his size, its easy to see that Sammo Hung is clearly one of the best martial artists in the world.

When I saw Martial Law for the first time when it aired, I was immediately hooked! And I made it my Saturday night ritual! Sammo, Terrel, Grace, and Amy are all very provocative, coloful, and cool characters in their own way. I miss Louis, though. I'm also a big fan of Jackie Chan's movies, too. And the director of this show is the same who did those Jackie Chan movies! In this show, you not only have crimes being solved, you have comedy, cool karate moves, and most of all a fun show to watch!

Even Arsenio Hall is learning some of those slick karate moves, himself, and I love his comedic antics! Sammo is awesome, Grace (Kelly Hu) would make a good role model for young girls who watch this, & she has cool moves like Sammo, and Amy too, and she's cool as the boss!

Even though we're still left hanging from last season's cliffhanger, this show is getting better in every episode they make. I hope CBS renews it for a third season! Either way, it's still an awesome and spectacular show! If you haven't seen it yet, feel free to see this one!

Sammo Hung's acting may be a bit stilted, but you can't say the same for his awesome martial arts skills. It's a shame Martial Law was cancelled at the millenium. It should have gone on for two or three more seasons.

"Martial Law" is your standard cop show in one way - the actual "cop stuff" is the usual nonsense you can see anywhere on TV, the "same old same old" which makes real cops wince. What makes this show worth watching is the incredible martial arts prowess of the cast - especially Sammo Hung. Just like Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat, Sammo trained at the Peking Opera School, which makes for a unique - and often funny - style of martial arts. The entire cast works well together, and they can all actually *act* - unlike a certain 'Texas Ranger' who comes on after this show. Lots of comedy in this show - they don't (usually) go for the cheap "Chinaman in America" jokes, and they actually seem to remember what they've done from one show to the next. All of the martial arts used on the set are real - Sammo, obviously, is an expert, and Louis Mandylor ("Louis") is trained in "muy thai" (Thai kickboxing), while Tammy Lauren ("Dana") is a black belt in Karate [I haven't heard a real reason for her departure], and Kellu Hu ("Grace / Pei Pei") is a brown belt in Karate. Tom Wright ("Lt. Winship") is a former stuntman, and does his own stunts in the show as well. And, just as with Jackie Chan's movies, at the end of every episode they have a brief "outtakes" section, showing some of the goofs that occured during the filming of the episode.

Good acting, decent plots, and plenty of kick-butt action, as well as many comedic moments (Sammo playing "Smoke On The Water" on the guitar...) make this a show to watch.