East meets West again in 2016.
Rush Hour is a 2016 Buddy Cop Show drama series created and produced by CBS. Based on the Rush Hour movie trilogy developed by Blake McCormick and Bill Lawrence, it stars Justin Hires and Jon Foo as Detectives James Carter and John Lee with Aimee Garcia, Wendie Malick and Jessika Van in supporting roles.
The Hong Kong Police Force conducts an anti-smuggling operation against the Quantou triad, resulting in securing several terracota statues as the largest bust in the force's history. Detective John Lee is called in to head to the United States after a supposed transfer between the HKPF and the Los Angeles Police Departments goes wrong with several HKPF officers killed by Quantou triad 49ers under disguise as LAPD officers. The LAPD has Detective Carter assigned to help Lee investigate the case. They later find out that the Quantou had some inside help—which all starts when Lee sees his supposedly dead sister, still alive and helping them.
And that's not the only case the two detectives need to solve in Los Angeles. Lee transfers to the LAPD and becomes Carter's full-time partner, using his time to find out what happened to his sister.
CBS announced that the show will not be renewed after it finishes airing all the episodes.
Go here for the Rush Hour characters page for those who appear in the TV adaptation. (Work in Progress)
Rush Hour contains examples of the following tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: In "Oh Hostage My Hostage", Carter is unimpressed by Lee's first attempt at "smack talk" ("you are not as good at attracting women as you claim to be"). However, at the end of the episode he says to Cole "I don't know how he fits an ego so large into a frame so small". He asks Carter if he did it right, to which Carter answers "that was actually pretty good."
- Ax-Crazy: Thomas Shea fits this to a T. He is a violent psychopath who openly takes glee on killing women and firing on police officers.
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: Constantly. A common ending to fight scenes is an enemy coming up to Lee with a gun, and a gunshot ringing out... only for it to turn out to be Carter, saving Lee at the last second.
- Chained Heat: In "Two Days, or the Number of Hours Within That Timeframe", Lee handcuffs himself to Carter's cousin Gerald to keep him from running away again, and ends up having to fight several bad guys while still handcuffed. Lee takes advantage of Gerald's bulk by shoving and kicking him into mooks.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Happens often. Played straight and subverted in a single scene in "Badass Cop": an old man easily beats up Carter, who'd held his own against the other assailants, but is no match for Lee.
- Cool Car: Carter drives a light blue 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS 454 convertible throughout the show.
- Creator's Culture Carryover: The HKPF officers in the anti-smuggling raid are wearing clothes and gear that the actual force doesn't use, which are only used by North American-based police forces.
- Darker and Edgier: While as lighthearted as the movies, the show has more violence and onscreen deaths. Lee and Carter also deal with serious cases that are not played for humor, such as a crime spree led by murderous house robbers, an opera house taken hostage by gunmen, an escaped convict trying to rescue his family from a man whose son he accidently had killed, and a deranged serial killer resurfacing after kidnapping a young woman.
- Deadpan Snarker: Carter and Lee are both this
- Dressing as the Enemy: The Quantou uses this when they disguise as LAPD officers to intercept the exchange between the HKPF and the LAPD.
- Drop-In Character: Carter's lovable lowlife cousin Gerald, usually their go-to informant, but who always ends up falling into the plot of the episode even when they don't need one.
- Dunking the Bomb: Played straight, then later discussed and deconstructed. In "LA Real Estate Boom", Carter gets rid of a bomb by throwing it into a dumpster. However, Captain Cole tells him later at the station that what he did was dangerous and coldly states to him that he should have died from his actions.
- Evil Is Cool: In-Universe; In one episode, Carter gushes about Denzel Washington's character, Alonzo Harris, from the film "Training Day". At the end of the episode, he watches the film with Lee, who is instead disgusted by Harris' corruption.
- Government Agency of Fiction: The HKPF and LAPD have some changes from their actual counterparts, such as the uniforms of the HKPF officers leading the raid with berets (but with the original beret emblem) and dark blue vest and BDUs while wielding M4A1s (Which is one of the current weapons used by the SDU) and the emblems on LAPD squad cars, presumably due to potentially avoiding any legal troubles with either police force.
- Hollywood Silencer: All silenced pistols are depicted as making a high-pitched "fwhip" noise and attracting no outside attention. There is one exception where a silencer isn't "silent" in the episode "Oh Hostage My Hostage", during a scene where Captain Cole hears two bad guys executing guards with their suppressed pistols in another room.
- I Choose to Stay: After the Quantou are defeated in the final episode, Lee decides to stay in LA, at least for a little while longer.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Played with. One of the additions to Carter in the show is that he's a crack shot. He makes a lot of good shots in the show, but while he constantly claims that he is capable of impossible shots that barely anyone can match, he's actually more practical than he pretends to be and typically goes for smarter, safer ones.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Between the FBI, LAPD and the HKPF after the terracotta statues are stolen from LAX in "Pilot".
- The Killer Was Left-Handed: Tracking a watch stolen from a home invasion in "Two Days, or the Number of Hours Within That Timeframe", Lee and Carter find that it was swiped off the right wrist of a left-handed man by a pickpocket. The connection between the targeted homes turns out to be a painter who worked in them, who is revealed by his distinctive left-handed Venetian plaster painting style.
- Knight of Cerebus: While the series is relatively lighthearted, the villains are taken pretty seriously, especially those of the Quantou.
- Mythology Gag:
- The entire episode "Pilot" is one to the first Rush Hour, ranging from Detective Lee's storming of a smuggling operation in Hong Kong to his first interactions with Detective Carter, to the point where the latter yells at him when he realizes that he can speak English. The Quantou goon who acts as The Heavy in the episode is even a dead ringer for Sang.
- Carter forgets Lee's name repeatedly in one episode, and at one point calls him "Jackie", as in Jackie Chan.
- Near the end of the "LA Real Estate Boom", we see Detective Carter imitating the dance moves of Michael Jackson after getting rid of a bomb. Carter's love of Michael Jackson was frequently referenced in the Rush Hour films.
- Lee eavesdrops on a Quantou meeting by hiding in the ceiling in "Assault on Precinct 7". Lee did this in the second movie.
- Lee disarms a thug with a pistol in one episode like he did in the first film.
- The series ends with Carter suggesting the two of them take a trip together to China, a la the plot of the second film.
- Odd Couple: Naturally, and arguably more pronounced. Lee is disciplined and stoic, but actually incredibly impulsive and direct, rarely thinking twice about barging into a situation to do the lawful thing. Carter is uncouth and emotional, but an incredibly cunning detective, often more willing than Lee to analyze the situation and run all the angles before acting.
- One of Our Own: Part of the show's Mythology Gag has LAPD officers intercept an undercover op Carter is running in "Pilot".
- Red Shirt: Any LEO officer not either with the main/supporting cast is killed off in a shootout.
- Shown Their Work:
- In "Pilot", the proper beret emblem of the HKPF is shown. Same with the winter blue uniforms.
- In "Two Days, or the Number of Hours Within That Timeframe", Detective Carter explains how the "Three Strikes" Law work in American law enforcement.
- Title Drop: The beginning of one episode has Lee and Carter stuck in "rush hour" traffic; after lampshading the situation, Carter has to explain to Lee that "rush hour" is being used in a sarcastic sense.
- White Bread and Black Brotha: Similar to the original film series, Lee is a By-the-Book Cop from Hong Kong, while Carter is a smack-talking hothead with a criminal past before he became a cop.
- Younger and Hipper: Lee and Carter are younger here than they were in the films.
