Seagal Proves Hard to Kill for Real in New A&E Series

What do you get if you take “Cops,” set it in Louisiana and make Steven Seagal the star?
If you’re A&E, you get “Steven Seagal Lawman, which will debut on Dec., when a new season of the network’s “Dog The Bounty Hunter” also begins.
Unlike many so-called reality shows in which a  celebrity looking for 15 more minutes of fame is dropped into an improbably situation, this series is based on a little-known fact. It turns out that when he’s not in Hollywood, Seagal has been chasing real-life bad guys for 20 years.
The show’s opening explains that Seagal has been a deputy in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office.
“I make a living in the movies. But for the past 20 years, I’ve also been a cop,” Seagal says as the series begins. It all started when, after demonstrating some martial arts self-defense techniques to the officers, Harry Lee, the head of the sheriff’s office asked him to come onto the force.
The series shows Seagal taking part in relatively normal police activities, from sitting in rolls call (taking notes with a huge gold bracelet on his write), riding on darkened streets in a police SUV and chasing suspects both in vehicles and on foot.
He also dispenses a law-enforcement moral to each segment. After stopping a suspicious character who turns out to have a firearm, Seagal notes “every gun we get off the street is a gun that can’t be used to kill us, the police, or other innocent people. These people don’t have guns just for fun. They have them to use them.”
After breaking up a dispute in a neighborhood bar, he’s recognized by the people he’s policing. But he’s gone before they can ask for autographs.
“Sometimes I forget Steven’s a big movie star,” notes one of his fellow officers. “He is a movie star and that’s really cool.”
One thing they’ll never forget is Seagal’s martial arts training, which he refers to at least twice an episode. He notes he is one of the world’s highest-ranking teachers of Aikido, which translates into the way of harmony. Of course, in police work, that kind of skill comes in extra handy.
In one episode, Seagal helps another officer, Alex Norman, prepare for his firearms qualification test. With a quasi Zen approach, Seagal is a top-notch marksman at one point shooting the tip off a match (he was trying to light it, though.)
The lessons help. The cop stops flinching, pulls the trigger better, and achieves a high enough score to keep his sidearm.
“If this were in the street, and that’s the way you shot, he’s dead, Seagal says, looking at Norman’s target.
Another scene shows Segal demonstrating self-defense tactics with his fellow cops. In one move, he sidesteps an assailant with a gun, grabs his wrist and threatens to break his arm if he doesn’t comply.
“I had a flash back from ‘Above the Law,” one of the cops observes.
But most of the scenes are shot out on the streets of the rough part of Jefferson Parrish. Where there’s lots of crime, but not all of it is terribly interesting, even if you’re a big “Cops” fan.
The show notes the outcome of the case unless it is still pending. In those situations, the show notes that the suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty. As for Seagal, we’ll see if his act fits better in this small screen, unscripted role or in back on the big screen next year with his upcoming film “Machete,” in which he co-stars with Robert DeNiro and Jessica Alba.