Copyright Screen Rant
An all-time martial arts star played the headlining role in a little-known action series that aired on CBS in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, Martial Law never picked up much steam, and ended within two seasons. But despite its short-lived run on the network, the series was still well worth watching. "The kung fu craze" had long died by the 1990s, having hit its peak in the 1970s. Kung fu movies remained popular in the 1980s, but nonetheless, the genre lost a great deal of its momentum. Even so, many of the actors who helped maintain interest in old-school kung fu movies during the '70s and '80s were still involved in bringing martial arts action to the screen. One such actor was Sammo Hung. Although he's known almost exclusively for the films he made while working in Hong Kong's entertainment industry, Hung was also the star of an American TV show. Sammo Hung Starred In Martial Law For 2 Seasons After more than two decades of making kung fu movies with the likes of Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, Hong Kong martial arts star Sammo Hung tried his hand at American TV, playing the starring role of Sammo Law in Martial Law, a police comedy series that aired on CBS. In Martial Law, Sammo Hung's character was an aging Chinese police officer who was sent to Los Angeles, where he was to help the LAPD take down a criminal empire led by an old enemy of his. At the same time, he was to work alongside Kelly Hu's Grace Chen, who was operating as an undercover cop. His main partner in the series was Terrell Parker, played by famous comedian Arsenio Hall. Terrell was a cop who joined the fold during season 1 to become a mainstay, with the pair solving cases together from episode to episode. While each episode of the series called for Sammo Law to investigate a particular case, most were linked together by an overarching plot, which was the crime lord that brought him to Los Angeles in the first place. But the series moved on from this in season 2, starting a new storyline about secret society with connections to Sammo's estranged, adult son. Martial Law Was An Underrated Martial Arts TV Show Akin To Rush Hour Its basic concept may give the impression that Martial Law was just another cop show, but Sammo Hung's series successfully avoided that stigma by leaning on the actor's own brand, which was built around his own unique combination of martial arts and comedy. In that sense, Martial Law feels very much like Rush Hour with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, with the story balancing a police procedural story with a funny buddy cop dynamic between a Chinese cop and an American cop, who in this case, are played by Sammo Hung and Arsenio Hall respectively. And like Rush Hour, the action was fueled by the martial arts expertise of its Chinese protagonist. Even though guns are on the table with the series being a cop show first and foremost, bringing the criminals to justice often calls for fisticuffs to break out anyway. As a result, Martial Law is able to litter its stories with intense fight scenes where Sammo Hung gets to show off his kung fu prowess, beating up hoodlums, both in one-on-one showdowns and in battles against small groups of thugs. The fight sequences are superior to what most would expect from an American network TV show in the 1990s, due largely to the decision to bring in teams experienced with choreographing the action in Hong Kong martial arts movies. This makes it possible for Martial Law to live up to the expectations of a Sammo Hung project, in the face of it being so different from his previous work. Also, the fact that it didn't run longer than two seasons shouldn't work against it when it comes to its watchability. Martial Law's final episode does tease the possibility of Sammo Law having more adventures in Los Angeles, but does properly wrap up his stay in America, with each of the two seasons' main narrative getting a conclusion in some form. Sammo Hung Is One Of The Best Martial Arts Star Of All Time Martial Law acting as a sort of perfect marriage between the police procedural genre and Hong Kong martial arts films naturally gives it a lot of appeal, but its biggest selling point is, of course, the inclusion of Sammo Hung himself. In his long and storied career in Hong Kong, Sammo Hung amassed an incredibly long list of acting credits, most of which stemming from martial arts comedies like Pedicab Driver, Mr. Vampire, Warriors Two, and Magnificent Butcher. Many are under-the-radar cult classics today. Others boast much larger profiles. His collaborations with Jackie Chan, for instance, have yielded some of the greatest martial arts movies ever made, including Project A and Wheels on Meals. But the quality of his films wasn't dependent on Chan, as he also made martial arts fan-favorites like Knockabout. There's also Ip Man 2, which he co-starred and directed, which turned out to be one of the best martial arts movies of the 2010s.
