This show managed to get the violence of crime across without the gore most shows rely on today. What's called `violence' in this show you can find in children's television these days. Back then, people WANTED to see action shows, but the writers still had a lot of restrictions on content and visuals. Aaron Spelling and Robert Hamner showed them as a group of men who had to depend on each other and work as a team in very difficult situations. It gave the audience a look at a police unit many didn't even know existed at the time. This was my favorite show as a kid! It's one of the best of the '70s cop shows, and never fully got the recognition it deserved. All in all I think this was a great tv show that never got the praise it deserved. Each episode seemed to make him out to be the hero, instead of ever letting one of the other members of the team get any glory. My major complaint with the show was that it seemed to focus mainly on the character of Hondo. That seemed to happen a lot on shows in the 70's. I only had a few complaints with the show, one is that they would change details from one season to the next without explanation, such as in the first season TJ was engaged but in the second he was out dating again. I only hope that the second season is also released on DVD because there are episodes in the second season that I haven't seen since the show originally aired. My teenage boys think the show is as cool as I did back in the 70's, I have yet to sit down and watch an episode without one of them coming in to watch with me. I read all these reviews saying that the show doesn't transcend to today but I think that is totally wrong. was my favorite show that came out of the 70's and I still enjoy it as much today as I did back then since it was shown on TVLand for a month and now the first season has been released on DVD. All in all, it's violent and with more flash, it would fit into a modern cop show. The story of officer Luca killing a man is retold by the only three witnesses in a Rashomon style telling. The last episode returns to treating police action with more social seriousness. With some quicker edits and sexier visuals, this could be a present day police show. It does remind me of the 80's A-team except some of the bad guys get shot and killed. It sometimes gets ridiculous like the scuba underwater gang which is reminiscent of a serious Baywatch episode. One of the good episode is a two-parter called The Running Man which seems to be setting up a spin-off which never occurs. In general, it doesn't want to dig into the more difficult social issues unless it's decrying white supremacy. It's interesting that most of them are white. The bad guys are kept to the easy villains like racists, mobsters, thieves, and arsonists. The second season pulls back from the political diatribes and turns it more into a regular cop show for both good and bad. The action is good but the stories are boring. In the first season, they are battling leftist fake news, the crazies, the criminals, and an ungrateful public. It's a response to the rising violence out in the real streets and contributes to the militarization of the police which continues into present day TV. It is most notable for an infectious theme song and being a part of the increasing TV violence landscape. It is a team of former soldiers trained with the latest military tactics to combat the rising violence of the urban criminal warfare. He is recruited to join the relatively new SWAT team in the WCPD led by Lieutenant Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson (Steve Forrest). Officer Jim Street (Robert Urich) is ambushed and his partner killed by a heavily armed gang.
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