- Release Date: December 2nd, 2008
- Publisher: Paramount
- Price: $26.99 on Amazon (Buy It
)
- Rating: Not Rated
- Run Time: 662 Minutes
- Special Features: Episodic Promos
- Starring: William Conrad
- Genre: Crime Drama
As I mentioned in my review of Jake and the Fatman Season One Volume Two with the success of crime dramas on television, more and more older crime dramas are being brought back through dvd sets. While Jake and the Fatman took us back to the 1980’s, Cannon takes us back to the 1970’s. Never seeing Cannon before this dvd set, I have to say that while the show definently shows it’s age it is still a decent crime drama over 35 years later.
For those unfamiliar with the series, Cannon follows Frank Cannon as he tries to stop all the criminals in LA. As a private eye, Cannon faces some of the city’s worst criminals and has to defend the city against such things a nerve gas attacks, hot-tempered arsonists, demonic cult leaders, quick-triggered mercenaries and many more. While he might not look like it, Cannon is the deadliest weapon of all.
Since Cannon originally aired in 1971 it was kind of before my time. As a matter of fact it only aired 17 years before I was even born. Since the show was obviously before my time, it affected my thoughts on the show so take that into consideration while you read this review.
I think Cannon is only an average crime drama. The show also suffers from not aging that well. This can most obviously be seen in the video quality. Why don’t we just say that today’s video quality is much higher than it was in the 1970’s. I kind of found the video quality to be distracting but it didn’t ruin the show.
As far as the storylines it is similar to many other crime dramas of the decade. Crime dramas were different in the 1970’s but still had the same basic premise as they do today. Criminals needs to be stopped and eventually they are brought to justice. If the fact that it is an older show doesn’t really bother you and you are a fan of crime dramas I think you could enjoy Cannon.
Before wrapping up the review, I need to bring up the special features. It is actually surprising that there even are any special features in this dvd set since most older shows rarely get special features to begin with. You only end up getting episodic promos but something is better than nothing.
Like most older crime dramas, Cannon should appeal to most fans of crime dramas as long as they can get over the fact that the show is over 35 years old. Despite some video quality problems, fans of crime dramas should look into picking up Cannon.
