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Lawman,' riding around A&E's new celebreality series is light on the action Dec 2, 2009
Sure he can disable at thug in a split second in the movies, but can he do it in real life? Unfortunately, though we do see Seagal participating in arrests in Jefferson Parish, La., where for nearly two decades he has worked as an unpaid deputy sheriff, he never actually pulls any of the arm-busting moves that made him a star in the ’90s. In the premiere episode, airing tonight at 10 p.m. on A&E, Seagal rides shotgun as he and three other officers engage in the high-speed pursuit of a carjacking suspect. The footage is well shot and edited, but in the arrest Seagal is just one of many uniforms swarming the suspect. Seagal explains at one point that his martial-arts specialty, aikido, is about finding harmony. “I like to solve problems with humor and just kindness,” he says. “I hate to use force.” After hearing that, viewers will probably feel guilty for wanting to see some ulna-snapping. Seagal says his martial-arts training also helps him anticipate his adversaries’ next moves. Much airtime is taken up with tight shots of him in the passenger seat sweeping the streets for suspicious activity. The editing implies that Seagal is usually the one who spots the perps, but that’s hard to judge. Seagal’s skills seem to be put to better use in the segments in which he trains other personnel in hand-to-hand fighting and shooting. (His association with the sheriff’s office in Jefferson Parish, a suburban area outside of New Orleans, started when he was asked to help in training.) The moves he demonstrates and his Zen approach to target practice are interesting, but the footage raises the question whether these techniques will be of any use in the real world. Neither the premiere episode nor the fourth episode, which A&E also made available for review, give any examples of Seagal or his colleagues putting his tricks into action. Two arrestees actually get zapped with Tasers, which don’t seem to be a very Zen way of treating adversaries. Seagal remains a charismatic screen presence, if somewhat bulkier than he was in his box-office heyday — Kevlar is not a very flattering look — but one episode of night patrol and daytime training segments will probably be enough for most viewers. Press materials for the series say that it will also cover Seagal’s “musical performances and philanthropic efforts in Jefferson Parish and New Orleans.” That raises unpleasant memories of such celebrity vanity productions as “Hey, Paula” and “Being Bobby Brown.” In an early voice-over, Seagal says that he still earns his living making movies. “Steven Seagal: Lawman” is better than most previous celebreality shows, but he should probably keep his day job.
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