21 Jump Street - The Complete Fourth Season

?Better get ready to (pause), get ready to JUMP! Down on Jump Street!? While getting ready to dive into Season 4 of the melodramatic crime drama 21 Jump Street, I recalled a memory. As a young fifth grader, I had an interview with the principal of my elementary school to see if I was advanced enough to skip ahead to the sixth grade. During the course of the interview, the portly Mr. Suplit asked me if I watched much television. ?Not too much?, I replied, ?But there is this one show, 21 Jump Street, that I really like. . .? I went on to sing the praises of this ?realistic? and ?edgy? show. I started 6th grade the following week.
Flash forward to current day, and the bits of what I recall from the actual show include: (1) the rockin? theme song, (2) a young, virile Johnny Depp going undercover (not under my covers, unfortunately) to fight crime, (3) one episode about acid being handed out at a hot night club. How will this series from the mid-80?s hold up in the midst of 2005?s CSI, SVU, and 24? Certainly, what?s ?realistic? and ?edgy? to a 10 year old may not stand the test of time. . .
In any case, fired up to relive the glory and the heartache, I dimmed the lights and started the first episode. The theme song revved me up, and the campy introductory montage of footage was so gratifying. Choreographed gun moves? Yes! Good girl Holly Robinson and bad boy Richard Grecco? Dustin Nguyen?s one feather earring? Yes and YES! This is going to be GREAT. And it was. To a point.
Eternal Flame, the episode in which Hanson (Depp) and Penhall (Peter DeLuise) go undercover at a trendy night club to bust a drug ring is sheer 80?s joy. The moneyed player with the beautiful wife who used to be Hanson?s girl, the shoulder padded young things trying to get into the club, the LSD embedded in happy face buttons handed out to club goers. . .brilliant. Once the kitsch wears off, though, some episodes are a struggle to get through, like the overwrought Come From the Shadows in which Penhall falls for an illegal immigrant, and one wishes for better writing and a tighter, more complex plot. 21 Jump Street does tackle ?risky? issues like rape, lesbianism, domestic abuse, drug abuse, and racism, but the seriousness of the issues is sometimes lost in the weak execution.
If you?re looking for a serious crime drama, 21 Jump Street is not for you. If you?re looking to relive a youthful love (lust?) and fond memories, or are just in the mood for a campy romp or a re-education of 80?s fashion trends, this series is most definitely for you. Yes, the dialogue is heavy handed, the plots are predictable, and the acting forced, but one can love it all the same, if not more, for these reasons. It can bring you back to a time when these episodes were risky instead of clich?. . .like the 5th grade perhaps.