DVD: 21 Jump Street
The Complete Fourth Season (Anchor Bay Entertainment)
By: Alex Steininger
Season Three starts off with some changes. Penhall (Peter DeLuise) has since left to do intelligence work for the police, and is no longer at Jump Street. And Hanson (played by Johnny Depp) has a new partner ? Dennis Booker (Richard Grieco).
Booker?s racism and outside-the-box antics quickly make him an enemy of Hanson?s, with Hanson believing that Booker raped a black student. (They would eventually become ?friends? at the beginning of the fourth season, when Booker resigns from the police force and clears Hanson of allegations and charges).
Eventually, Penhall comes back to Jump Street and is once again Hanson?s partner, though Hanson?s roll in Season 3 ? and his final season, Season 4 ? become less and less as he tries to have the writers write him out of the show.
That is because this was the season where Depp made it clear (from his comments in the media) he sick of being a teen heartthrob and he wanted out of his contract with Fox. He didn?t want to be on the show anymore. Even offering to do a season for free if they?d let him out of his contract.
It is because of this that Season 3 helps even further develop the other characters, who get more camera and plot time.
One of the most cliff-hanger, edge-of-your-seat seasons for the show, Season Three stands out not only because it was Booker?s only full season (he later went on to do the ill-fated show Booker for one season). But because it was the last season that really revolved around Depp?s character.
As with Season One and Season Two, the only major problems with 21 Jump Street on DVD is the fact that the music is different, as a lot of the original music is no longer licensed for DVD use and thus the episodes are changed. A shame, because 21 Jump Street had some cutting-edge music supervisors who did a great job of really highlighting the show with hip, happening music. Heck, 21 Jump Street is how I first heard of legendary punk band X!
Still, for fans of the show, Season Three has a lot to offer, a lot of intense episodes dealing with pregnancy, anti-abortionists, rape, and racism, plus a lot of inner turmoil and tension written in the plot.
I?ll give it an A-.
