Review of Renegade

Renegade (1992–1997)
9/10
A Fun Series Worth Revisiting
24 February 2014
I used to love watching Renegade on late night television in the 90's. Renegade starring Lorenzo Lamas, Branscombe Richmond, and Kathleen Kimont (Seasons 1-4) was a show about an innocent cop named Reno Raines, who was forced to go on the run when he turned over evidence regarding some crook cops in Bay City, California (Bay City doesn't actually exist in real life).

After being captured by talented and brash bounty hunter, Bobby Sixkiller, Bobby soon realizes Reno is innocent and Reno is hired by Sixkiller to take down many fugitives on the run. During this time, Reno with the help of Sixkiller and his half-sister, Cheyenne tries to clear his innocent name.

The show is fun and action paced, and it is fun watching Lamas show his real-life extensive knowledge of martial arts throughout the series. The show contains funny dialogue at times, but some of the story lines are downright compelling.

The show also features its creator, Stephen J.Cannell, in a recurring role is number one bad guy and dirty cop, Dutch Dixon. Cannell is a surprisingly good actor and has the uncanny ability to tick you off with his smugness.

Most fans will also grow to love the character of Bobby Sixkiller. While Sixkiller definitely loves money, he has a heart of gold and often sticks his neck out for his friend, Reno Raines.

The first three seasons of Renegade are especially good. The fourth season is more of a mixed bag with some episodes really good, while some episodes seem to focus more on the silly. By the middle of the fourth season, we no longer see Kathleen Kimont on the show at all. Her character was featured heavily the first season of Renegade and then she began appearing less and less (In truth, Kimont was married to Lamas but got a divorce after the first season. Her role began to lessen from that point forward).

The fifth season of Renegade showed a show running out of ideas. The story lines were less compelling though it still had its moments. The first four seasons of Renegade were syndicated through hundreds of stations and the fifth season became exclusive to the USA Network. It was a surprise when USA cancelled Renegade after the fifth season because though the show was starting to show its age, it definitely had another season or two left in.

I cringe when people claim this show was cheesy. It did have some elements of that, but the show was a good watch and fun. In a day and age of nothing but CSI shows and reality television, it is nice to actually be able to watch something that is just flat out fun.
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