Hunter: The Complete First Season (review)

He's a renegade who wipes the streets with the scum of the earth. She's a tough broad... but beautiful. They're cops! Stephen J. Cannell (Silk Stalkings: The Complete First Season) strikes again -- or struck again, in 1984, with Hunter, which would become one of the most popular crime series of the decade. Detective Sergeant Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) is like a big-screen over-the-top action hero writ small, or as small as a six-six former football player can be. Detective Sergeant Dee Dee McCall (Stephanie Kramer) -- aka "The Brass Cupcake" *snort* -- is a man's woman, as aggressive and assertive and sarcastic as her partner. (In an unexpected switcheroo, he didn't get lumbered with the lady cop -- he sought her out and asked her to team up with him.) Together, in these 19 episodes, they take on bounty hunters, hit men, drug lords, and snipers; solve crimes ranging from police corruption and gang warfare to kidnapping and arson; crash cars, beat up punks, and never, ever fire warning shots. And all while dealing with their own individual angst: Hunter's the white sheep in a mob family; McCall's husband was brutally murdered. But they can handle it: they're cops! Big-name guest stars include Brian Dennehy, Frances McDormand, Ed O'Neill, Dennis Farina, and Dennis Franz. The picture looks as good as when it was first broadcast, and the sound is stereo, which isn't always the case with TV this old; extras are limited to new interviews with Cannell and Kramer.