- Release Date: December 2nd, 2008
- Publisher: Paramount
- Price: $26.99 on Amazon (Buy It
)
- Rated: Not Rated
- Run Time: 520 Minutes
- Special Features: Select Episodic Promos
- Starring: William Conrad, Joe Penny
- Genre: Crime Drama
With the success of crime dramas on television, many studios are starting to release old crime dramas on dvd. One of the latest to receive this treatment is Jake and the Fatman. I have never been a big fan of the crime drama genre so going into watching Jake and the Fatman I didn’t have high expectations. While Jake and the Fatman really didn’t exceed my expectations, the show is not bad either.
For those of you who are not familiar with the show, the show is a lot like the crime dramas of today. Jake and the Fatman are in the crime fighting business. Jake is a private detective that catches the bad guys while J.L. McCabe (the Fatman) is the district attorney who puts the criminals behind bars. In the final 11 episodes of season one, Jake and the Fatman track down and bring many criminals to justice.
For those of you not familiar with the show, Jake and the Fatman is a pretty old show. As a matter of fact the first season actually aired the year I was born (1988). So I obviously never saw the show live. So what is it like seeing a show that is just as old as you are? Well I would have to say that Jake and the Fatman kind of shows it’s age.
What I mean by showing it’s age is that Jake and the Fatman is not the same as current crime dramas. Obvious the video quality isn’t the best but you can’t expect perfect video quality from a 20 year old show. Besides the video quality the cases show a distinctive late 1980’s early 1990’s flair. Why don’t we just say that crime dramas were a little cornier back then and not so dark as they currently are.
Does this mean that fans of current crime dramas won’t like Jake and the Fatman? I think fans of current crime dramas could still enjoy Jake and the Fatman but they need to realize that it is pretty old and things were different for the genre in the late 1980’s.
While the show is dated (somewhat) it is still a decent show. If you can get over the fact that it is somewhat old, you should be able to enjoy it as long as you like crime dramas. Obviously if you don’t like crime dramas you won’t enjoy Jake and the Fatman.
As far as special features are concerned, you really don’t get much. You only get episodic promos and I don’t know if it is just me but I really don’t care for episodic promos.
As far as recommending Jake and the Fatman, I would recommend it to crime drama fans. Also if you are a fan of 1980’s or 1990’s crime dramas you should get more enjoyment out of Jake and the Fatman. Overall I thought Jake and the Fatman was a pretty average crime drama.
