The television series Renegade is a lot like another Stephen Cannell Production, The A-Team. Its basic premise is that our heroes were framed for a crime they did not commit. Now on the run, they travel the country righting wrongdoings for a price. In Renegade, the basic premise is slightly different. Instead our group of heroes is much smaller. We have Reno Raines (Lorenzo Lamas). He's a badass cop who was framed for the murder of another officer after he discovered a ring of detectives who work on the side as assassins. Now he travels the country as a bounty hunter trying to right wrongs. Helping him is Bobby Sixkiller (Branscombe Richmond), a Native American bounty hunter who seems to have unlimited resources and Cheyenne Phillips (Kathleen Kinmont), Bobby's adopted sister who is a master at breaking into computer systems and an expert in social engineering. Overall, the first season is entertaining, but it does have its faults.

A common problem that I find with television series that center on good guys fighting bad guys to save innocents from their tyranny is that the good guy tends to get annoying. The constant altruistic demeanor can rub you the wrong way. However, Renegade actually does fairly good job avoiding this problem. While Reno is still is very altruistic character, he tends to have a few slips, where his personal vendetta against evil makes him a rougher and slightly dark character. Of course, this doesn't happen a lot, but enough that it helps balance the annoying overly good aspect of his character. Bobby also offers another character that has different motivation than the common good guy. He is more concerned with money (although he is a good guy at heart), which makes him a nice addition to balance the good guy facade.

Another enjoyable aspect about this series is the dialogue. In a lot television series that follow a similar format, the dialogue is full of cliched phrases. I have found that the dialogue in Renegade isn't awful. Of course there are a few exceptions, but for the most part it won't leave you rolling your eyes.

Despite that there are a couple of aspects that I enjoyed about this season it does have its faults. I wasn't too excited about the lack of realism in this series. There seemed to be far too many unrealistic situations that Reno stumbled upon and the manner in which some were dealt with just didn't fly. Like many other action driven television series, the fight scenes always seem a little off balance. Despite that there are a million bad guys ganging up against Reno, he always prevails. I also had issues with how everything just seemed to occur in favor for Reno and company.

Another problem lies with the season's content. The majority of the storylines are presented in an episodic format, with each story concluding in a single episode. Unfortunately, they follow a very generic format and each episode unfolds like the last. Reno goes out for a bounty, where he finds someone who needs helps from a tyrant of some kind. Then he fights the bad guys and eventually calls in Bobby and Cheyenne for help. During which, he usually saves a damsel in distress, who falls in love with him. What it comes down to is that watching a few episodes can be really fun, but if you watch too much at once, it gets old.

Fortunately, the first season mixes it up by throwing in details about a much larger story arc. That story is about Reno trying to uncover the truth about who framed him for killing the corrupt cop he was investigating. I thought that this was a really interesting part of season one and I really loved it when the episodes visited content relating to it. While it is a concept that has been played out quite a lot in television and feature films, it is still something that is hard not to enjoy.

Overall, I think that Renegade has fared pretty well over the years since its initial debut. The first season offers a nice look into a good guy turned hired gun who is bent on helping people in need. The approach isn't as corny as some action centric series, but it is far from a great series. The bottom line is that the first season can be really fun for a few episodes.

The DVD

Video:
The video is given in 1.33:1 full frame color. The digital reproduction of this television season does not look great, but it's not awful either. The picture has a noticeable grain, with some episodes showing it more than others. It is really shows up during darker scenes. The image is also afflicted with compression artifacts and color distortions. Overall, the video isn't exceptional, but even in this condition it is viewable and it shouldn't ruin the experience.

Audio:
The audio is given in English 2.0 Dolby digital stereo sound. The sound quality is not really great. I noticed that the audio track contains a fair amount of glitches, where the audio will cut out for a split second. It does not occur enough to make dialogue difficult to understand, but it does get happen enough to be slightly annoying. Besides that, the audio is flat and there is very little distinction between the left and right channels. This release also comes with closed captioning.

Extras:
The extras that are included with this release are interviews with cast and crew: Stephen J. Cannell, Lorenzo Lamas, Branscombe Richmond, Kathleen Kinmont, Branscombe and Lorenzo, and Kathleen and Branscombe. The interviews are fairly entertaining, but probably not something most people will enjoy. It has very low replay value, unless of course you are a diehard fan of the series. There is also a six minute gag reel, which is good for a couple laughs.

Final Thoughts:
Renegade's first season can be pretty entertaining. However, it's not one of those series that is easy to sit through a lot of at once. In other words, Renegade works best in small doses. Overall, this series is good if you are interested in an action centric series with a hero that is slightly rough on the edges. The first season is a fairly good start and I look forward to seeing more of Reno in later seasons.