Remember Syd Burnett? Marcus Burnett’s undercover cop sister in Bad Boys II? Well Gabrielle Union has reprised her bad girl role in the spin-off series – L.A.’s Finest. And she bad. She real bad.
Special Agent/Detective Lieutenant Syd Burnett and Detective Lieutenant Nancy McKenna (Jessica Alba) are partners in the LAPD, and kinda-sorta friends. Where Syd’s the single, no-strings-sex-loving bad cop, Nancy’s the married, caring-stepmother good cop with – twist! - a bad-girl past.
They’re smart, sassy, and bloody hardcore. All the action you love to watch in the Bad Boys franchise is all here – car chases, motorbike chases, gun fights, knife fights, fist fights – only without the goofy ‘doh’ moments that were so common of their bad boy predecessors.
Working closely/competing/friends with the girls are “The Bens” – Detective Lieutenants Ben Baines and Ben Walker (Duane martin and Zach Gilford, respectively). And Syd’s estranged ex-LAPD cop father, Joseph – played by former Ghost Buster, Ernie Hudson – also gets involved. Just less on the legal policework side, more on the bad girl side.
Did we mention these girls are bad?
While every episode sees them solve a crime of some sort, it’s the big overarching story that sees them work together to commit crimes. All for the greater good, of course. And this is where the show gets really fun.
Both ladies have pasts that are loosely connected by a BTDL – Big Time Drug Lord – whom Syd is obsessed with hunting down for professional reasons that have become personal. And this has brought them into the orbit of other criminals whom Nancy knows from her shady past.
This BTDL is so BT, he seems to have people in the upper echelons of politics and the law, as all BTDLs do, and this may not go well for Nancy’s husband Patrick (Ryan McPartlin) who is the new acting District Attorney (and obviously a model IRL, which makes him totally unbelievable as a DA. Seriously, Google image search “District Attorney” and no one hot comes up).
And this BTDL’s lackies are very bad boys and girls. The actual bad kind. Not the good who do bad things for good kind.
The bad lackies and the good-bad girls spend most of their time trying to bring each other down and it makes for some very exciting viewing. It’s all suspense and violence peppered with banter and tender moments and oh so many twists.
And as the girls’ backstories unfold – through lots of flashback scenes – the mystery of who they really are is slowly, tantalisingly revealed.
A warning – this show knows how to do a cliff-hanger so prepare to sacrifice sleep.
And keep an eye on Syd and Nancy’s footwear. These ladies don’t fight crime in high heels – they have super cool and comfy kicks.
