Le flic de Shanghai

I can't say enough good things about this show. As a 18-year old action loving teenager, I think this is the best action show on television. But enough about me, let's talk about the show. The show centers on Sammo Law, played by Sammo Hung, as a Chinese cop who trades places with a cop from L.A. Sammo and his student, Grace/Pei-Pei, begin to work as detectives on the L.A.P.D., under the command of Lt. Windship (Tom Wright). Arsenio Hall was thrown into the mix, just for comic relief, as Tyrell Parker. And Louis Mandylor rounds out the group as detective Louis Malone. The characters all work great together. The best part of the show, however, is Sammo's martial arts moves. Sammo is a big guy, but he still manages to kick butt like it's nobody's business. Martial Law is way superior to Walker, Texas Ranger, Nash Bridges, and Sons of Thunder all put together. More people should watch this show so it won't canceled or anything like that.

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.

When "Martial Law" premiered, I was hooked. Sure, it wasn't great art or fabulous writing on display, but the show was goofy fun. But then bit by bit, the producers tinkered with the show, and with each adjustment, the show became worse.

The first misstep happened shortly after the theatrical movie "Rush Hour" became a hit. The producers must have thought "Hey! What this show needs is an obnoxious, hip, and streetwise partner for Sammo Hung!" Shortly afterwards, Arsenio Hall became a cast member, and his character was EXTREMELY annoying.

The next misstep was when the second season of the show premiered. First, the producers had fired several cast members, despite these fired actors and their characters being a very likable bunch. They also ignored or quickly wrote out the plot threads that had been going along in the previous season.

After some time, the producers tinkered with the show again. Suddenly Kelly Hu's character had a COMPLETELY different background, and the show suddenly had the characters fighting with a secret organization that threatened the city each week. This organization was treated with the same goofiness of the evil secret organization in the "Inspector Gadget" animated series.

Fortunately, the show was cancelled after the second season had played out. (And around this time, to Arsenio Hall's credit, he admitted that the show was terrible.) Since this series only ran two seasons, it is highly unlikely that the show will be seen in syndication, at least in North America. Just as well. If you DO get the chance to see the show, watch it until Arsenio Hall appears. Then stop watching!

I loved this show. This was just mindless entertainment for me. It made me almost forgot the problems of the day or week.

I read some comments saying that Sammo Hung fighting reminded him of Jackie Chan's fighting craziness. I hope so - since they both grew up together the China. Sammo, Jackie and another martial arts actor Yeun Biao(sp?) grew up together and made movies (sometimes, acting together). They were called, in Hong Kong, "The Three Brothers". Their fighting styles were somewhat similar. Here is some small tidbits of info on the show: - In the pilot episode, Sammo had to do his own stunts. From what I read in the papers at the time, his personal stuntman had problems with his paperwork so he couldn't be there to double for Sammo.

• In one episode, I found out later, Jackie Chan made a small appearance as a drunk. It was done as a favor from one brother to another. Now, I have to see which episode and what point of the episode.

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.