Transporter: The Series

If you are not looking for a deep storyline and just want honest-to-goodness and shamelessly shallow action, you'll like this series. It does not apologize for being "standard", "cliché", or any other derogatory epithet thrown at it. It's just a straight-up, old-fashioned "good guy kicks ass and gets the girl" kind of show. And that's perfectly OK with me. At the end of a day working hard and studying hard or even on a lazy day-off, I don't necessarily want deep plots and Shakespearean epics, I just want brain-dead, no-holds-barred entertainment of the action and suspense genre. And the transporter delivers (pun very much intended)! Heck, just the hot babes and bad girls are well worth the price of admission! :-)

As action series go, this one is pretty standard. The hero always triumphs, successfully delivering whatever he is given after the requisite car chase and gets the hot babe along the way. I don't find the transporter to be particularly handsome (he reminds me of Harvey Keitel) and he always wins every fight, no mater how many bad guys he's up against, without wrinkling his $1000 suit in the process. My main complaint with the show is the blatant product placement. I wonder how much Audi paid the producers to spotlight their car. The Audi gets better closeups and more screen time than Chris Vance. No subtlety there at all. If you're a German auto enthusiast you will love this show.

As I had seen all Transporter films and got used to Jason Statham in the leading role, it took some to time to accept Chris Vance - in spite of his charm and abilities (most of supporting cast is not striking either). And unlike the films, the series had evident need for additional sponsorship as the role of product placements - starting from Audi's logo and ending with all connected to France/French - is unusually large.

As for the script, it includes bizarre approaches and elements. Well, the events take place mostly in "decent" Western countries, it is odd to watch Frank Martin rapidly and recklessly driving on city streets, sometimes with shootings, and there is hardly any police trying to catch or stop them; fights are often for fight's sake as well and clothing of the involved remain nice and clean; most real bad guys treat the Transporter oddly in a mild manner, etc. etc.

Thus, it is not a high-quality entertainment, but if you have limited time and not eager to ponder on and over all the time, then Transporter: The Series is still more than okay. Although there are casual flashbacks and references to the past, you are not obliged to watch all episodes in strict sequence or missing some of them - you will still get a picture what is going on.

I enjoy this show. You have to take it for what it is, a television show based off of a movie series, in which every episode follows the same pattern. 1- Frank gets a job 2- Frank can't complete the job due to some altercation or problem. 3- Frank bangs a random woman. 4- Frank completes the job.

Somewhere in there is action, which Chris Vance, who I knew from the show Dexter, makes very realistic fight scenes for a television show. There is a buddy relationship with his mechanic Dieter, played by Charly Hübner, who is in love with the Audi R8 and names all the cars after women, and obviously a lot of driving.

Overall, I find it fun, I like the landscapes and choices of location.

I have just finished watching the first episode of Transporter: The Series and you can see how it has cost a reported four million dollars per episode to make. Unfortunately all that money didn't buy a good script.

Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed the first episode from an entertainment perspective; it's just that I wish that the makers of action film and TV would place a little (or a lot) more emphasis on a quality script.

However I have only watched the first episode and am hoping the story lines and scripts improve, as there are many positives to the show that while not fully compensating for the poor screenplay, make it an enjoyable hours' entertainment.

The action scenes are very good, as you would expect with this kind of budget. The car scenes,which of course there are many (it is about a transporter after all)are well executed, and the fighting scenes are very reminiscent of the three films starring Jason Stratham.

The locations are also recognisable from the films, including Frank's house before it was blown up, and François Berléand reprises his role as Inspector Tarconi.

Chris Vance tries his best, and does extremely well considering what he has to work with, and while he is not Jason Stratham, I think he will grow into the role nicely, and will prove to be a good choice as Frank Martin.

Hopefully the script and story lines improve, because Transporter: The Series certainly shows promise, and is well worth a second and perhaps third look.