True Justice (TV Series 2010–2012) Poster

(2010–2012)

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5/10
Solid TV movie movie.
Someguysomwhere9 January 2011
Let me begin by introducing Elijah and the principal members of his team which should give you some idea of what you're dealing with.

Elijah "Papa Bear" (I'm calling him) Kane: Leader of the SIU undercover operation. Will punch you, flip you, or twist something you need until it breaks without a strand of his curious hair coming out of place.

Radner: Member #1 of Elijah's team. Scruffy, likable bad boy with a nice wit. Nowhere near the fighter that Elijah is though, and possibly the female members of the team. However, he will do whatever it takes to get back at you if you f!!ck with him.

Juliet: Member #2 of Elijah's team. Beautiful, long-legged brunette with an interesting dialect I'm still wrestling with. She's experienced, competent, and keeps cool under pressure. It's possible a man might enjoy it if she smacks him around a bit.

Mason: Member #3 of Elijah's team. Hardworking, by-the-book guy. Partner of Radner and voice of his conscience. Advisory: Got anything fun and risqué planned don't take him. He takes a bullet well, though.

Sarah: Member #4 of Elijah's team. New to the team. Pretty, but serious girl. Not as confident in the field as her partner Juliet but will hit what she shoots at and has no want for courage. Add to this a sharp tongue that's capable of expertly leaving a man sans his testicles if he disrespects her.

Seagal plays Elijah Kane (Gotta love that name),leader of an undercover law enforcement operation based in Seattle, Washington; the SIU.This is a crime drama focusing on murder and drugs. The movie starts out with the brutal shotgun murders of the owners (a man and woman) of a grocery store outside Seattle Washington. Directly afterward, the beginning credits appear to a catchy song I kinda liked (Is that Seagal singing?) accompanied by music video-style preview snippets of the movie.

After the introduction of a new female recruit to Elijah's SIU team, the movie gets rolling with a drug buy & bust involving a small time drug peddler who later on makes a deal to give up his contact (as they usually do, it seems) in exchange for leniency. In turn, his contact (or supplier), a hard case named Crystal who works in a strip club, rats out her supplier, a man named Domion, leader of a rag-tag bunch camping out on the outskirts of town. A Russian connection is later discovered, the principal of which is a man named Nikoli. He and his operation becomes the focus for the last half of the film. Concurrent with all of this --and connected-- is the ongoing and developing investigation of the murdered shopkeepers that occurred at the top of the movie.

Speaking with some kind of southern-style accent, I guess, Seagal plays his role as a kind of amiable, experienced, "Papa Bear" who could get rough while maintaining an easygoing, unperturbed, demeanor as if he were dealing with naughty children (Never mind that some of them are seriously trying to kill him or bash his brains in). For this film he chose to encase his girth in solid black throughout; possibly subscribing to the belief that black makes you look thinner which I'm inclined to doubt. Even his hair, a bizarre shoe polish black widow's peak brushed straight back, matched. I like Seagal, mind you, but you have to admit that his chosen hair style seems more suited to someone who wears a long black cape and comes from Transylvania.

I actually enjoyed Seagal's fight scenes in this movie which has a kind of "intercepting" and "economical" style quality to it wherein he quickly interrupts whatever it was you started to do or were planning to do with a quick punch in the face. This smartly nips things in the bud, I believe, before they turn into something that requires him to be more physically active than he's able to be or wants to be. Great style for the larger gentleman. Add to this some judo, and a penchant for twisting whatever you choose to throw at him into an awkward position and breaking it, and you've got some decent action I think. Finally, I surprised myself by liking everyone in this movie --even the bad guys. I think everyone played their parts well and there was good chemistry throughout. Love, Boloxxxi.
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5/10
The seagal list
talllwoood1322 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
After just finishing up both seasons as I'm a hardcore Steven Seagal fan what I can say about this show is that season 1 is an unwatchable ego trip. Hardly any story happens. The plots are disposable at best which I've got no problem with. South Park was one show that made a career out of this. Then again the only thing remotely similar to South Park is how Steven kind of talks in that southern twang I just keep thinking of Eric Cartman. The first season there was hardly any likable characters. They were so poorly cast for the supporting roles. Everyone got the jobs for their looks and most were probably half Steven's age at best. Do I remember any of the characters names in it? No. Except Sarah as the actress also named Sarah must have really needed the money or no other roles paid as well. Most of the plots were so dull it was a chore to finish. My advice is simple. Skip season 1 except maybe the last two episodes. Nothing happens. It's sort of lie the first season of Banshee on HBO with Anthony Starr.

Season 2 is a typical revenge story. It kind of reminds me of the blacklist without the charisma or Reddington and by season 8 Blacklist the writing is comparable how much of a train wreck blacklist has become. Thankfully the intro, most of the cast and writers were replaced. The story is more serialized so you can binge watch this which many will never admit they would. It has far less disposable characters. The last three episodes were awful of season two like the writers ran out of ideas as I guess you can only do so much. Plus anyone who got shot in season 2 it seemed like they used the sound effects from Goldeneye on N64.

Hopefully one day they make a movie or a third season to tie up all the loose ends though I guess this is the closest to an ending we are going to get as this show is about 10 years old. The amount of movies Steven has put out since then is really inspiring.

Season 1 I would give a 3 star season 2 i would give a 5.5 or 6, 6 if those last three episodes were structured better.

There are some mild spoilers but considering none of the actors in season 1 that were recast were likable or memorable that is fine.
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1/10
Same Seagal Junk
gerryexdlr26 September 2018
Even 8 years ago, Steve was acting like a zombie in his films. As exec-producer, he probably didn't speak softly but carried a big sword to whack his crew. His cast were like zombies too. terrible actors. I viewed this in the condensed version on n/f but had to quit after 30 minutes. He has his barrel chest and huge body but not a enormous as now, 2018 films. I won't bother with Seagal films anymore.
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1/10
Over the hill and picking up speed down the other side
seessa76 January 2014
Is that his real hair? Is his fighting skill really so bad the director has to hide it by flashy fast camera work that is unintelligible? Several of the reviews don't hide the fact that this is utter rubbish. Well reviewed. This movie is full of protagonist macho bravado egotism (and lazy acting) but low on any form of skill and storytelling art-form. Some flashback scenes of a troubled ex-soldier, a superhero boss that clearly doesn't need backup (but yells for it anyway after taking out the end bad guy who was made to look middle-eastern by the way for what storytelling reason only Steven Seagal would maybe somehow know...if someone were to explain it to him) does not make a movie. After watching this on free to air ask yourself; 'Would I buy this for my collection?' then sit down with your mates to watch it... Buhahahah..!! This movie is certainly a waste of ones time.
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1/10
Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad show
Mischief8102 August 2018
Steven Seagal is solely responsible for this. Only Steven Seagal could come up with something this terrible. Only Steven Seagal could write, produce, direct and star in something this horrible. Plots are unintelligible. Dialogue is down there with the worst of Bollywood. The acting however, does hold up to my fifth grader's Christmas play. There is absolutely no redeeming quality to this no good, very bad collection of garbage. Not even Steven Seagal's hair transplant can save it.
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1/10
Racist against whites
roddypiper1831 March 2012
Warning: Spoilers
The spoiler in this review is that this is another racist Steven Seagal production.

Within 6 minutes of episode 1, he's been telling his (black) cop friend to "Put this white boy back in the bucket".

At 8 minutes: Asian man tells Seagal investigating a double murder on an Asian couple; "Bunch of white trash rascals hanging out at the edge of town".

At 13 minutes: Seagal talks to "white trash people" selling drugs at the edge of town. He tells the main "white trash" character: "It's a pity you white trash folks came out here dirtying up the trailers".

That's when I turned this racist piece of sh*t off.

Steven Seagal thinks he is cool and can get away with this, but this is just sad and racist. The fact that this is allowed to be aired and nobody has reacted to it, says a lot.
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6/10
Steven Seagal is Steven Seagal in Steven Seagal's True Justice
MrBlondNYC26 March 2014
Steven Seagal had so much fun being a real fake cop on "Lawman", he became a fake fake cop on "True Justice". Steven Seagal plays Steven Seagal's version of Steven Seagal. He's the smartest guy in the room, the sexiest man in America, the best martial artist in the world. Of course, he is. He's Steven Seagal! He's a Seattle cop who talks like he's from New Orleans, looks like he's from Hollywood, and moves like he's from "Zombieland". He leads a special team called the Central Casting Squad. They look up to him for some reason while he mumbles orders at them. In his spare time, he practices waving his samurai sword around. He so respects the way of the samurai that he got his hair cut like "Samurai Jack". Every episode is written by Steven Seagal's favorite writer: Steven Seagal. Oh, and one of the squad members has a droopy eye and is played by an actor credited as "Big Sleeps". Mr. Sleeps is the third-best actor to play a droopy-eyed detective on TV. (#1 is Forest Whitaker, #2 is Droopy Dog). If you love Steven Seagal - and how could you not? - you'll love this show.
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8/10
solid seagal thriller
edwbur20 March 2011
Warning: Spoilers
i have been a fan of seagal for a long time. i have almost all of his movies and he is my favorite action star. this movie deadly crossing is a 2 part straight to DVD episode to his new show true justice. he plays Elijah Kane. the leader of a special undercover unit. this movie was also written by Steven seagal. it is a solid action movie. being a TV show, it looks and feels like a movie. not in a bad way. seagal look awesome in it, and you see some of old seagal that we all know and love. and he put some new seagal in there that most of us including me love. it has a very strong supporting cast and each cast member has there own moment in the 80 minute movie. also there are no voice overs by seagal. in his straight to video movies he has done that. the ones that come to mind most are kill switch, submerged, and attack force. however his other straight to video movies don't have voice overs and if they do, its only a sentence or two in one or two scenes. this movie only had one scene of voice overs by seagal and in the scene seagal didn't talk much at all. the 2 part movie is currently released on DVD in england. i got it from ebay and i suggest you do to. warning, make sure you have a region free DVD player or the DVD will not work. great movie and its worth the time and money. the 2nd and 3rd episodes of true justice are being released in england as one movie called street wars on April 25. I'm defidently getting it from ebay. but for deadly crossing only see it. for street wars. if you like deadly crossing. see street wars. trailer for street wars is on youtube.
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6/10
Deadly Crossing (27/12/10) DVD
dolemite7228 December 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Another month another Seagal release. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, except that 'Deadly Crossing', is in fact, a two episode compilation of Sensei's latest TV show 'True Justice' (Which although a bit of a con, may either gain interest, or warn off potential viewers) Sadly to say, i don't think it'll gain Seagal any new fans, but the (ever-forgiving) die-hard Seagal buffs, may find something to enjoy here.

Seagal stars as Elijah Kane, head of a Seattle unit of undercover cops, that use 'Unconventional methods' (Tm) to take down various bad guys (usually Russians) from Crimes (usually drug deals) in a variety of 'glitzy' locations (usually strip clubs) The plot (already hard to follow, due to the fact that it's been edited from two 'open-and-shut' episodes to resemble one full case) is strained even further, by not giving Seagal enough screen-time and instead concentrating on secondary characters (who mostly resemble 'Sunset Beach' rejects) Seagal looks in OK shape (we've seen him look heavier) but seems to constantly doubled in any shot that shows him from behind (i'm not entirely sure why this is?) But there's no audio dubbing of his voice. The other actors (as mentioned) seem more like 'models' and 'clothes pegs' rather than characters...but Seagal interacts OK with them.

Now being a TV show (and more importantly not a H.B.O TV show) the profanity and nudity is non-existent The fight scenes (despite the expected 'erratic' shaky-cam) still contain a few 'trademark' Seagal moves, but lack the brutality of recent fare (like Driven To Kill or A Dangerous Man) Some of the more basic stuff looks doubled, yet more of the better moves are Seagal (he even throws a kick or two) but rarely does any scene last longer than a few frames (fights or otherwise) One plus point, is that the production values of this show looks more professional than some of Seagals movies (of late)

The one big annoyance being the whole 'sped-up' and 'Fast Zoom' camera techniques, that punctuate the beginning of nearly every scene (seriously guys....move on, 'Nypd Blue' finished years ago) Any fans expecting this show to be a C.S.I rival, can think again. The plot occasionally has a bit of police procedure and cop-lingo.....but little running time goes into solving the case, other than receiving tip offs, or being at the right time at the right place. Hopefully, this show will have more genuine 'detective' work, if it intends to have a second season.

As a whole, 'Deadly Crossing' should have been released in a £5 price bracket, as it's not a genuine movie, yet is rather misleadingly advertised as one. Casual punters paying full price for a TV show, may resent and unjustifiably overlook any future projects, due to feeling shortchanged with this one. Optimum DVD (who seem to be releasing most of Seagals recent offerings) don't even offer up a trailer (despite a trailer actually existing) and the cover art features 'Helicopters and explosions' (very 'Out For A Kill') despite the fact that none are featured in the movie.

After the (dissapointing) Born To Raise Hell, this release is a misleading misfire, and it's deception/pretension of being perceived as a genuine release, won't win any Seagal new fans (nor help drum up any interest in future stuff) I'd have sooner Seagal knocked out a genuine 'quickie' dtv movie, than to follow up 'Machete' with a TV show (but hey, i guess these decisions are way out of his hands)

Big Lee gives this movie 6 (and a half) out of 10
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7/10
Amazing? No. Entertaining? Yes.
sacredheartband26 July 2011
The premise isn't bad - though nothing new: well respected, kick ass cop, leads a detective/strike team against the scum and villainy of Seattle.

Seagal - though I'm a fan, I get incredibly frustrated at his mumblings, dubs and can't be bothered style of acting - is OK in this.

What let's it down is it's lack of detail, the rushed script and the one dimensional and somewhat stereotypical characters.

But the fights are excellent, the cast - though a little weak (and of course they're hardly stretched) - do an alright job.

As 45 minutes of action/drama, made for TV - it'll do. Does it have much of future? I can't imagine it - but it keeps me entertained for a little while on a Weds eve. CSI:NY it ain't, but with the right producers, and a better cast, it could be along those lines...
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10/10
The best drama on TV now
True Justice in my opinion as it is in most people's view, is probably regarded as second to maybe The Wire as one of the greatest shows on television.

True Justice is not just a cop show either, just like The Wire. In True Justice you see politics, family issues, sexuality, and many other hard hitting topics that The Wire covers.

I was lucky enough to watch True Justice on a 40" HDTV and slowly made my way through the vice and darkness that surrounds the show and its characters.

All I can really say is The Wire has only barely just topped True Justice in my opinion as a hard hitting gritty show. Both are almost fully fair in greatness, if not for The Wire beating the other by an inch. Through True Justice, you are tagging along on a journey with Steven Seagal and his team, through some harrowing and disturbing stories to the finale of this amazing show. Just as the The Wire is considered to be an analysis of society, I believe True Justice is too more so through the police but you still see both sides of the same argument from the political and criminal side too.

As each season passes and new ones open, we are left with many questions, awaiting answers. We await retribution, vengeance, and just deserves but we keep watching as it it so addictive. True Justice barely scrapes the top of the world of policing, especially in a city like Seattle, but it does a good job and comes close to the scale The Wire takes on. Tear jerking acting, top-notch plots and directing. True Justice to me and many others is right up there next to The Wire.
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6/10
Too few Aikido scenes
cjonesas20 March 2020
13 users reviewed True Justice, which is an awful number. The average number of people reviewing is a mess in general and it just shows their indifference. So sad. Anything below 150-200 is users faults. They just don't care and that's a terrible mentality to have.

On True Justice_ Well nothing special to add besides some good scenes, some nice martial arts, mainly Aikido, beautiful cinematography and overall average to good soundtrack.

I won't be harsh on the script / storyline (very average) because as creator and one of the producers, that is not Steven Seagal's job to come up with something shiny. It's like B-style direct-to-video summed up in a series.

It just should have had less shooting and more Aikido moves, which are very instructive. On a side note, Steven Seagal should really shed some 60-70 pounds. He just let go of his fitness a long time ago. A shame for someone who was so lean and alert.

True Justice is just a series to enjoy if you are a Steven Seagal fan, which I am and I'm sure many of you, out there, are too.
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9/10
Solid action TV series not for the faint hearted
georgeszaslavsky9 March 2017
I didn't have the chance to watch the TV series when it was on TV, so I bought it on DVD. First of all, the cast whether it concerns the first or the second season is solid and the acting is excellent. I have also discovered some Canadian as well as American actors and actress that I have never heard of before. The series tells the story in the first season about Elijah Kane former CIA and black ops agent who is now a member of the SIU (special intervention unit) of the Seattle PD.His team is composed of Mason, Radner, Juliet and Sarah who among the episodes catch and kill bad guys (drug dealers, Nazis, gang members, mafiosis, scum).Nicolai, one of the guys Kane caught will be the trigger of the attack on Kane's precinct at the end of the season 1 killing two of his best friends and partners Juliet and Radner.At the beginning of the season 2, we see Kane bury his friends and retiring from the police, in order to go undercover for the CIA and work with Marcus Mitchell, who will later be proved to be a sell out and to have betrayed Kane.He forms a new team with Sarah, Simms, Garcia and Finch with the help of his friend Castillo who recruited the last two members for him. Mason will get killed in the beginning of season2 by the ghost. Over the episodes in season 2, Kane kills the cuts outs and the expendables who might threaten him and his team, he also tracks who was at the head on the hit of his older team and discovers that Marcus was compromised and deals with another former army man called Lynch who wanted to steal a nuclear device.The end of the season 2 is sad because Castillo, one of Kane's oldest friends is critically wounded, Simms and Sarah wounded too, Garcia and the Russian female operative got arrested.And Kane says in his talkie walkie: "Operation went sideways. We got compromised." The fighting scenes are quite spectacular and for his age, Steven Seagal is in great shape, though his fighting style is very different from the one used by Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li but it is always enjoyable to see. The shooting scenes are also well done. There is not a single shooting and killing bad guys scene where Steven Seagal hasn't a 1911 pistol. I think this series deserves a second chance because it has a lot of potential and it is completely different. Watching on DVD is what I can recommend.
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10/10
Great Show Very Well Done
lovettstough16 July 2018
I like Steven Seagal. I met him while I was in the U.S. MARINES during doing cold weather training up in Alaska. I like pretty much all his movies. This is a great show very well done & scripted. I wish they were still doing it or that Netflix or Hulu or somebody like that would start making it again. It reminds me a lot of CHICAGO P.D. with Hank Voight. As Hank said in CHICAGO P.D. once you need some cops like him to take the truly really evil dangerous criminals off the street & out of this world for good in one fell swoop or else nothing is going to change. I really believe this & I am not a republican or conservative or anything from the right. Steven Seagal character & his team remind me a lot of CHICAGO P.D. & Hank Voight & his team. I'm so glad I can at least watch it on NETFLIX now from the beginning up to the end where it was cancelled or whatever. As I said I wish one of the streaming services would pick it up & start up filming it again with new episodes.
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10/10
Might be the greatest TV show of all time
heywood_jablomey10 November 2022
This might just be the greatest TV show of all time. Right up there with Boardwalk Empire, Sopranos and Sesame Street. I can't praise it enough. Watch it and it will engross you, educate you and most of all change your life. I cannot stress the effort and level of writing and professionalism that has gone into this well crated TV show. Producers will be standing in awe in decades to come, to understand how every aspect of this show melded together to create what is perhaps a masterpiece of it's era. The cinematography. The beauty, the dialogue, the gratitious nudity, amazing feat. Whatever you do today, just watch this.
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