Lethal Weapon: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Lethal Weapon: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie Review

The Big Show That Couldn't

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 23, 2018

There's been as much drama off-screen as on in Fox's Lethal Weapon, which has otherwise been one of the network's successful shows. First came the firing of star Clayne Crawford just before the end of Season Two, amidst reports of bad behavior on the set and a stunt with unsafe conditions (and injuries) performed under Crawford's direction. How could the series survive his departure, given that its foundation is the pairing of Crawford's Det. Martin Riggs with Damon Wayans' Roger Murtaugh? The TV version had already defied the odds by creating new and credible versions of characters iconically embodied by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in four feature films. How could it go on without half of its dynamic duo, especially since it's Riggs who's the "lethal weapon" of the title?

The tentative answer came with the casting of Seann William Scott (Stiffler in the American Pie series) as rookie cop Wesley Cole, who arrives on the LAPD with a deadly skill set acquired as a CIA operative and a past filled with tragedy, guilt and regret—or, in other words, Riggs: Version 2.0. Based on the episodes of Season Three aired to date, the new partnership seemed to be working, buoyed by a return to the high octane destruction quotient that had been somewhat dialed down in the series' second season (no doubt to conserve on the budget, and also because, let's face it, how many L.A. buildings can one police department blow up?).

But now Murtaugh is following Riggs out the exit. In this case, the choice is voluntary. Wayans recently announced that he would leave the show after completing the thirteen episodes that Fox ordered for Season Three (no doubt limiting their commitment to wait and see how Riggs's replacement worked out). Fox has ordered an additional two episodes that appear to be intended to deal with Murtaugh's departure, and possibly serve as a trial balloon for a version of Lethal Weapon without either of its two original leads. (Good luck with that.)

In the meantime, we have Season Two's hijinks on Blu-ray, which is available through the Warner Archive Collection's distribution channels as the studio's TV division finds itself increasingly unable to place TV-on-Blu-ray in the shrinking shelf space devoted by brick-and-mortar outlets to physical media. (Amazon should send Wal-Mart et al. a fruit basket for leaving so much money on the table.)

Note: The following contains major spoilers for Season One. Newcomers are advised to consult the Season One review for an introduction to the show.

Season One concluded with Riggs' devastating discovery that the death of his pregnant wife was a murder, not an accident—and worse, that his own father-in-law, L.A. City Attorney Ronnie Delgado (Tony Plana) was complicit in the killing, which was ordered by a Mexican drug lord, Tito Flores (Danny Mora). The season opener, appropriately titled "El Gringo Loco", follows Riggs as he seeks revenge south of the border, with Murtaugh in hot pursuit. Justice eventually prevails (on multiple fronts), and Riggs appears poised for a happier future and fewer sessions with Dr. Cahill, the department shrink (Jordana Brewster). But this is Lethal Weapon we're talking about, and a happy, well-adjusted Riggs isn't what the series needs, even if it would be a great relief to both Murtaugh and their captain, Brooks Avery (Kevin Rahm), whose indulgence of his detectives' excesses have put him under departmental review by a censorious senior official, Gina Santos (Michelle Hurd, late of Blindspot ).

But Riggs has a truckload of further emotional baggage stowed in his psyche, and Season Two delves into that reliable source of adult dysfunction, to wit: family relationships and bad childhood memories. In Riggs's case, the past is particularly harsh, with a tyrannical, bullying father (Rex Linn), whose abusive history with Martin is slowly unpacked throughout the entire season—and I can't say more without spoilers. Suffice it to say that, with a father like Nathan Riggs, Martin would have been an emotional basket case even if Miranda had survived. (One shudders to imagine what kind of father he might have been, given the example he had.) Dr. Cahill has plenty more work ahead of her, assuming she can get Riggs to open up, which, of course, he still refuses to do.

Family isn't the only source of emotional turmoil for the former Navy SEAL. A pal of Riggs named Jake Voss (Linds Edwards) is paroled in Episode 6, "Gold Rush", and investigating his involvement in a crime creates problems for the detective because he owes Jakes a big debt—a really big debt—from boyhood. The relationship is also complicated by Jake's marriage to Molly (Kristen Gutoskie), a mutual friend since they were kids, with whom Jake has a son but who has now divorced him to ensure their child remains far away from the criminal world. Riggs and Molly begin a tentative romance, which encounters more obstacles than either of them could have imagined (and not just the shadow cast by Jake).

Meanwhile, Murtaugh continues to struggle with his partner's excesses at work, and the complexities of home life with Trish, his successful attorney wife (Keesha Sharp) and their two teenage children, RJ (Dante Brown) and Riana (Chandler Kinney). In the TV version of Lethal Weapon, the Murtaugh clan doesn't adopt Roger's partner to the same extent as in the movies, where Trish ends up looking after Riggs like one of the kids—a job that this version of Trish would have neither the time nor the inclination to undertake. But the family provides plenty of challenges for Roger himself, from RJ's departure for college to Riana's various boyfriend issues to Roger's flabbergasted reaction to being called "grandpa" while at the playground with his third child, toddler Harper. As in the movies, Murtaugh family dramas provide a constant source of comedic subplots, and it's always Roger who ends up playing the fool.

Lethal Weapon is at least as much a comedy as it is a police procedural, and while the two feuding partners provide most of the laughs—between gun battles, car chases and a wide variety of standoffs—they're ably supported at the precinct by an array of colleagues. Kevin Rahm manages to find infinite variations in Capt. Avery's perpetual expressions of frustration and disbelief, and this season he's joined by the so-called "B" team of detectives—the origin of the name is a joke in itself—which consists of Bailey (Michelle Mitchenor) and her new partner, Zach Bowman (Andrew Creer). Bailey was a regular in the first season, but her role has been expanded in Season Two, with Michelle Mitchenor routinely upstaging her co-stars with little more than expressive reactions to the insanity of daily life with Riggs and Murtaugh. She's so good that she even manages to push aside the wild-haired medical examiner known as "Scorsese" (Johnathan Fernandez), who was Season One's most reliable comic sideshow. In fairness to Fernandez, it's worth noting that some of Scorsese's best scenes were cut for running time, but it says something about Bailey's new-found stature that Scorsese features far more in the deleted scenes than she does.

Both supporting characters get an episode where they play major roles, Scorsese in Episode 8, "Fork-Getta-Bout-It", where the squad reacts (badly) to how they're portrayed in his new script, and Bailey in Episode 14, "Double Shot of Baileys", which reveals a darker side to the loyal sidekick's personal life. As for newcomer Bowman, he's a well-meaning dufus, whose chief talent is to look handsome on LAPD recruiting posters and who is otherwise a glorified go-for.

Thomas Lennon's re-imagined version of Leo Getz, the world's fastest-talking ambulance chaser, returns for periodic appearances, always followed by trouble, and Lethal Weapon's creative team continues to insert inventive call-backs to the original film series for those who are paying attention. By far the most ingenious is an invocation of Leo's original creator, Joe Pesci, from one of Pesci's signature roles in an entirely unrelated movie. It's a meta-reference that goes by quickly, and I'm not going to risk spoiling it by even identifying the episode where it appears. But it's a glorious moment, and you can't miss it.

Lethal Weapon: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Alexa-captured cinematography of Lethal Weapon's second season is the work of David Moxness (returning from Season One) and Andrew Strahorn (The Houses October Built). The DPs and the show's production design continue to give Lethal Weapon the polished gloss that one expects from a high-concept TV show with a substantial budget and locations that routinely seem to be set in glitzier parts of Los Angeles. The police station looks spiffy and spotless, and even the mess in Riggs's trailer is more clutter than grime. The image is generally bright and colorful, with standout exceptions like super-sunny locations (e.g., the beach where Riggs parks his trailer or the duo's Mexican adventures), where the frame has been tinted with an ochre wash, and Riggs's memories of childhood, which are desaturated and tinged with a doleful brown or a spooky blue. Black levels are solid and steady throughout, detail is strong, and the image is free of noise, interference or distortion.

The Warner Archive Collection would normally distribute a 22-episode season over five BD-50s, which would give their compressionists room to maintain average bitrates of 23 Mbps and higher. Because Lethal Weapon was a late hand-off from the TV division, it was already planned for four discs, and WAC has done its best within those constraints. Discs 1 and 4 have five episodes each, with bitrate averages in excess of 23 Mbps, but discs 2 and 3 each hold six episodes, and the average drops to just under 19 Mbps. Still, that's a substantial improvement over Season One's measly rates (12.22 Mbps), and if you check the rate as it fluctuates during playback, it's apparent that the compressionists have worked hard to allocate the digital real estate effectively. (Unlike the TV division, WAC uses the entire disc.) The bottom line is that artifacts are not an issue, and the overall image looks rich and full, a visible improvement over broadcast and streaming versions, though not the best of which we know that digitally captured TV is capable (for that, see Season Two of Riverdale or any season of The Blacklist).

Lethal Weapon: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The high-octane surround mix that accompanied Lethal Weapon's first season gets dialed up to eleven in Season Two, with bullets ricocheting through rear channels, weapons fire erupting from multiple direction off-screen, vehicle collisions and explosions (yes, they still have quite a few) slamming forward from the front speakers. The quieter sounds of the Murtaugh household and the police station with its phones perpetually ringing somewhere off-camera are almost a relief from the mayhem into which our heroes perpetually thrust themselves. The bass extension seems even deeper this season, whether for big stunt scenes or just for the score, which is primarily supplied for these episodes by Robert Lydecker (xXx: Return of Xander Cage). The show's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA, would be worthy of any feature film, and it's a treat for the ears. The dialogue is clearly rendered and, for the most part, solidly centered and accurately prioritized.

Lethal Weapon: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

I suppose it's not surprising, after the behind-the-scenes turmoil, that no one felt like speaking about Season Two's production (or, possibly, that extras prepared in happier days were no longer usable). Whatever the reason, Season Two's extras are limited to deleted scenes, which appear on the same disc as the episodes from which they were removed.

• Deleted Scenes


• Disc 1
• 1. El Gringo Loco (3:25)
• 2. Dancing in September (3:14)
• 4. Flight Risk (2:36)


• Disc 2
• 9. Fools Rush In (2:37)
• 10. Wreck the Halls (4:40)


• Disc 3
• 12. Diggin' Up Dirt (4:36)
• 13. Better Living Through Chemistry (2:52)
• 15. An Inconvenient Ruth (1:30)
• 16. Ruthless (4:00)


• Disc 4
• 19. Leo Getz Hitched (2:26)
• 21. Family Ties (5:58)
• 22. One More Day (4:58)

Lethal Weapon: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With Wayans' upcoming departure, it seem unlikely that Lethal Weapon will continue after this season, and in any case, Season Two is the last to feature Clayne Crawford's Riggs, who, whatever the actor's issues behind the scenes, had become an entertaining and compelling presence on the crowded TV landscape. WAC may not have had the latitude to provide the series the white-glove treatment it typically extends to TV titles, but it's done a better job than the TV division's handling of Season One, and, as we bid Riggs a fond farewell, Season Two comes highly recommended for Lethal Weapon's fans.