photo: jumpstreet.net
21 Jump Street
Gotta Finish The Riff
Guest Star: Blair Underwood
Season 1, episode 6
Valeria – Senior Reviewer
valeria@thetwocentscorp.com
Before he was the most delicious doctor on Sex & The City or a millionaire on Dirty, Sexy Money, and my graduation commencement speaker, he was just your average gang leader. Blair Underwood makes a wonderfully stereotypical appearance in this episode as Reginald Brooks. But this episode begins on a decidedly somber note. Everyone gathers at Captain Jenkins funeral. He’s been killed by a drunk driver. The Jump Street gang is left without a leader and they’re falling apart.
This is the first time we’ve ever seen Judy in actual police officer attire. The Chapel headquarters have been empty since Jenkos’ death, and Judy, Tom, Doug, and Harry have all been working in different precincts and departments. Judy: Vice, in a see-through blouse and black stockings (sounds very now, I’m serious. I always see a ton of girls wearing that exact described outfit). Tom and Harry at a desk job writing up reports and parking tickets. Doug is at the motorcycle division. The police captain (of the whole unit) has called them all together to discuss the future of the Jump Street program. It’s not as dead as everyone expected, and some new leadership is going to be brought in: Captain Adam Fuller. Fuller is a BAMF tough guy. He. Does. Not. Mess. Around. Seriously. NYPD undercover for 11 years and some serious aviator sunglasses and facial scruff to back him up. If you don’t like him, too effing bad. But there are going to be some changes at the chapel. One change being that there is a full administrative staff now.
Judy and Tom are sent on a mission to a school with some heavy gang affiliations. They’re there to offer protection to Principal Madigan. He’s a bit clueless with his discipline, like slapping around the president of The Frasier Boulevard Bloods in front of the whole school, a Mr. Blair Underwood Reggie Brooks. This guy, like Fuller, also doesn’t mess around. He’s got warrants galore and an extensive juvenile record. Judy and Tom have to protect this principal and point out the gang members, and they have to be smart about keeping their cover. This time around they’re going into the school armed (Change #2).
Change #3: They’re not undercover as troublemakers. Well, at least Tom isn’t. He’s your standard overachieving math geek. He comes complete with a pocket-protector, maroon cardigan, and Harry Potter glasses. Judy, on the other hand, is ferosh and a bitch in a tight blue skirt, big hair, and leather jacket. I see what their strategy is. Tom will get close to the principal by playing the good kid, and Judy will be spending a lot of time in detention.
Finally! Blair Underwood arrives in a conk and glasses, looking more like a teacher as opposed to a delinquent student. It’s all just a strategy to get past the secretary and pull out a gun at Mr. Madigan. Reggie keeps looking back at the clock, turns out that everything is a perfectly timed effort by his lackeys to take the whole school hostage. Tom, in typical Tom fashion, lets his emotions get the best of him. He blows his cover the minute he’s face-to-face with Reggie, and as to not risk Madigan brains all over everyone, he surrenders himself as a hostage. But Judy works her HBIC charms to seduce Reggie. The black fishnets and blue skirt help a lot. So far, so good, except now she’s unarmed (she sneaked her gun and badge into some other girls purse).
Reggie works his gangster negotiating skills hard-core. He wants 20 pizzas, and in exchange he’ll release the whole sophomore class. What a cold-blooded killer! But I suppose the pizza makes sense, he is a teenager after all. Fuller is not dumb though. Doug is the pizza delivery guy, who refuses to hand over the pizzas unless he gets paid $160. Smart move, Penhall, you’ve now infiltrated the principals office. While Penhall delivers the pizzas, Harry is breaking into the school through the roof and ventilation system. Reggie may be a gang leader, but he is a terrible hostage negotiator and taker. He did not think his plan completely through – he doesn’t even know what he wants to achieve from this hostage takeover. Unfortunately, Harry falls through the roof, and now all four cops are stuck in a room together with The Bloods.
Now Reggie, he is quite an interesting villain. First of all, he’s got high SAT scores and grades. But at the same time, he’s convinced there’s no future for him. He’s mad at Madigan for all the mixed signals he’s getting, “you’re a smart kid, but you do stupid things.” It appears that he is just filled with conflicting thoughts and emotions. Reggie is freaking out about what to do, and since he didn’t think his plan completely through, the only thing left to do is escape with Judy and leave behind the other gang members to clean up his mess. Lackeys are pretty useless without their leaders. So without Reggie telling them what to do, Tom, Doug and Harry beat the crap out of everyone and chase down the escape car with Judy inside. But there’s no need to form a rescue mission, Judy has great legs and uses them to distract Reggie as she punches him in the face, takes his gun, and reads him his rights.
Black don’t crack. Blair Underwood basically looks the same he did in 1987 as he does now (just less babyfat), and definitely doesn’t get enough love as an actor. Even in this early episode, he did what he could with a slightly lackluster script for his character, every once in a while making the audience think about what was going on inside the mind of this gang leader. If the episode was a bit longer, and maybe not necessarily part of a show targeted to a teen audience, Underwood may have been able to flesh out the character a bit more. What did you guys think of Underwood, and this episode in general? Am I the only one that thinks that Tom and Judy maybe have a thing starting to develop?
Next Episode: Sherilyn Fenn in “Blindsided,” Season 1, Episode 8
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