Review(s): DVD 21 Jump Street - The Complete Third Season
honest
This is my favorite Johnny Depp role. I dunno why but ... he's really good in this show. And the other actors are great too. Great plots. I love it. I still watch it faithfully.
Still a great show, but a few episodes are disappointing
I adore both the first and second season of Jump Street, so obviously I couldn't wait until this one came to DVD. Unfortunately, I'm not quite as impressed with this season.
I found there to be some problems with the third season of 21 Jump Street. Here are just couple of them:
1) Johnny Depp intensely disliked the show, and desperately wanted out of his contract. He was tired of being labeled as a teenage "heartthrob", and so he didn't put as much effort into his acting. He even offered to do a season free if Fox would let him out of his contract. Because of his lack of enthusiasm, Depp isn't included in this season nearly as much. However, there are a few episodes in which Depp reportedly expressed interest in the script, so he actually attempted (and succeeded) to give a brilliant performance.
2) Although there are a few that are decent, most of the episodes are somewhat boring and cheesy. One example of this would be the episode called "Woolly Bullies." It's about Penhall and some bully troubles he's having, and the rest of the episode includes flashbacks of each of the Jump Street members' childhood bully experiences. One good thing about this episode is the guest appearance by Peter DeLuise's father and brother. Another disappointing episode is "What About Love?" where Officer Hoffs discovers she's been sleeping with a married man. There is one scene where a sad song is playing while the screen is showing Judy walking around in slow motion looking sad...for a lengthy three minutes! It literally seems like they ran out of good material to use.
Despite these problems, there are a couple of extremely good episodes. "Hell Week" is an enjoyable episode about fraternities and hazing. One episode, in particular, is probably Johnny Depp's best performance of the entire show. It's called "Swallowed Alive". In this episode, Hanson and Penhall go undercover as inmates in a juvenile prison in order to find out how heroin is getting in the prison. After a bloody fight, Hanson becomes the "Hammer" (the guy in charge), while Penhall is shipped off to a psychiatric facility after being locked up in solitary confinement (because of his claustrophobia). Hanson is all alone, and he contemplates the fact that everyone he has busted in the past ends up in this prison, which he considers Hell. This episode is Depp's most emotional performance, and the story is intriguing and suspensful.
So, if it hadn't been for the couple of good episodes, I would have given this season 2 or 3 stars. It is still a marvelous show, and all the characters are thoroughly enjoyable, especially Penhall (who is hilarious, as usual) and Captain Fuller. If you enjoyed seasons 1 and 2, you will most likely find this one entertaining as well. I just found a few episodes to be a little uninspiring.
Best season in the series...
I have been waiting for season 3 of 21 Jump Street for a very long time - this is by far the best season in the entire series. I was surprised to see another reviewer belittle this season to nothing at all. I would like to present several counter-arguments why this is the best season and not the worst:
First, while Johnny Depp is the lead actor on 21 Jump Street and he usually finds himself most often in the best episodes, he does not necessarily carry the show entirely by himself. Jump Street also consists of 3 other important cops: Penhall, Hoffs, and Ioki, plus captain Fuller. Additionally, the 3rd season adds a 4th cop, Booker, and makes Sal the custodian a more recurring role. You can see throughout seasons 1, 2, and more importantly season 3, that all the characters are part of the show and it's not just about Johnny Depp. In 'The Blue Flu', each character has a very small role independent of the other as the city's police force goes on strike in a failed bargaining attempt. On the other hand, there are several episodes in which one character carries the entire episode. For example, in 'The Dragon And The Angel', Ioki is the star as he infiltrates a Vietnamese gang. In 'The Currency We Trade' Penhall takes the lead role as he arrests an innocent journalist and ruins his career - both excellent episodes that do not rely on Johnny Depp. However, there is one episode, 'Swallowed Alive', where the 4 guy cops on Jump Street go undercover in a juvenile prison/school facility. At first, Ioki and Booker (as the 'Samurai Twins') and Penhall and Hanson (as the famous 'McQuaid Brothers') are all part of the episode. Suddenly, in the middle of the episode, you find everyone gone except for Hanson (Johnny Depp) who puts on a solo performance in what I would call one of the best episodes in the entire series. So I do not agree that Depp hated the show and wanted out. If he did want off the show, he would not have been able to put out such a stellar performance in 'Swallowed Alive'.
Second, Booker arrives in season 3 as the 5th Jump Street cop. I wouldn't say he was a replacement for Hanson, as they have nothing in common. Booker is a totally off-the-hook character, much like a modern James Dean. Hanson, on the other hand is the handsome and polite guy who can become a rebel at times, but sticks to his soft-hearted personality more often than not. I think Booker was brought on to add diversity to the storyline and more importantly, to prepare for the spin-off show with the same title. Why else was he not featured in the opening credits?
Third, the writing for each episode is *NOT* downright terrible! A new writer(s) took over the show in season 3 through the end of the series. While I was skeptical at first, I could hardly tell the difference in storyline quality. If anything, I would say that season 3 had more swearing and violence, but overall, more mature and intelligent themes. Just take the episode 'Hell Week' for example. This is probably my favorite episode in the series. Here we find the Jump Street investigating a rape in a prestigious college full of rich-boy frats. The entire segment featuring the actual "hell week" where initiations take place is so funny, intense, and exciting that I could watch it over and over a thousand times and still not be bored. The whole fork, spoon, knife test involving Ioki and Hanson is deserving of an award in my opinion.
One last comment on this season: 'High High' is another awesome episode that features all of the characters independently of one another. This time, we find Jump Street infiltrating a liberal arts school where everyone is unique, creative, and... into drugs! This episode feels more like a movie full of elaborate storylines and plot building throughout. It doesn't let go until the final credits roll.
With that said, I definately feel season 3 is one that isn't hurt by Depp's lesser role, but actually strenghtened by the overall excellent performance of all 7 characters.
Related DVD's 21 Jump Street - The Complete Third Season
Overall very good season, isn't as good as season 3 due to the lack of effort on Depp's part. The one thing that they did with the dvd that disappointed me was that they removed the song With or Without You by U2 from the episode La Bizca, and replaced it with some generic song. That song really made the scenes in this episode very emotional, this new generic song, however, doesn't do that at all. I was very disappointed as I have been waiting for the episode for a while. Oh well what can you do. This dvd claims to have every episode from season 4, but in reality they only have 25. They put in Wheels and Deals part 1 which was actually an episode from the spinoff show Booker (Dennis). They also axed the last episode of season 4 (though not the last episode filmed in order)... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Johnny Depp DVD Release Date: Released the 01 November 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Best known today as the series that helped launch Johnny Depp to stardom, Stephen J. Cannell's 21 Jump Street was also one of the first hit programs for the fledgling Fox network, a status that lasted for most of its five-year run (1987-91), thanks to its engaging mix of youth culture and police drama. As outlined in the pilot, Depp's baby-faced Ofc. Tom Hanson is transferred to the special Jump Street division, a unit that utilized young cops to infiltrate juvenile crime. Unlike many of Fox's youth-oriented shows of the period (i.e., Beverly Hills 90210), Jump Street took its stories seriously, and addressed numerous social issues in its episodes; though some of the fashions and slang seem dated, the program remains entertaining decades later. The Jump Street... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Peter DeLuise Director(s): Larry Shaw - Tucker Gates - Daniel Attias - Kim Manners - Mario Van Peebles DVD Release Date: Released the 26 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Waters's goofy, 1990 comedy about a Baltimore girl (Amy Locane) who can't decide if she should remain "good" in her 1954 world or hang out with the motorcycle boys is funny in a scene-by-scene way, but doesn't quite gel into the grand piece the director was hoping for. The cast is exceptionally likable, however, including Johnny Depp as an Elvis type and Iggy Pop as a chattering loony. The best material is set in a fringe world of bikers and losers on the outskirts of town, and Waters writes some hilarious sardonic dialogue for the characters. Cry-Baby is the last of Waters's more undisciplined features; he followed it with the glossier but no less perverse Serial Mom. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Director(s): John Waters DVD Release Date: Released the 12 July 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Mixed reviews and creepy comparisons to Michael Jackson notwithstanding, Tim Burton's splendidly imaginative adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would almost surely meet with Roald Dahl's approval. The celebrated author of darkly offbeat children's books vehemently disapproved of 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (hence the change in title), so it's only fitting that Burton and his frequent star/collaborator, Johnny Depp, should have another go, infusing the enigmatic candyman's tale with their own unique brand of imaginative oddity. Depp's pale, androgynous Wonka led some to suspect a partial riff on that most controversial of eternal children, Michael Jackson, but Burton's film is too expansively magnificent to be so narrowly defined. While... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Tim Burton DVD Release Date: Released the 08 November 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In "Ghost Ship," MacGyver's boss, Pete (Dana Elcar), is asked to define what makes Mac (Richard Dean Anderson) so special. He replies, "You know, I've known him for eight years now, and I've never quite been able to put my finger on it. He just always comes through, no matter what." And that he does. MacGyver's third season begins with a blast from the past when Mac runs into Lisa (Elyssa Davalos), a woman he thought he had killed (unintentionally, of course). Turns out Lisa's just fine, but she did do a little time in a Russian gulag, proceeding to marry the ex-KGB operative who set her free. The two-part season opener ("Lost Love") allows Mac to make it up to his former flame with a little help from pal Jack (Bruce "D-Day" McGill), AKA "The Great Sheldrake," whose latest career... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Dean Anderson DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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