Baretta - Season One

Baretta - Season One
by Bernard L. Kowalski, Charles S. Dubin, Don Medford, Jerry London, Michael Schultz

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Movie Reviews of Baretta - Season One

Movie Review: Long over-due DVD! Anticipate other seasons soon.
Summary: 5 Stars

Baretta is a short man of Italian heritage, with a few good friends and a cuckatoo, working in what has to be the bleakest looking cityscape you have ever seen, with some bad, shady, weird, and wonderful characters.

He is a cop who will go to any lengths using what little he has to go on. These are his few steady friends, his beat up car, his street smarts, and a willingness to dress up and masquerade as someone, being as stereotypical as he can be in order to con the bad guy.

He is not always a success in the job, and unlike other cop shows, he isn't a success story. He loses his soon-to-be wife in the first episode, and this haunts him thereafter. He doesn't ever think himself better than anybody, and unlike other reviewers, his colorful speech may seem today politically incorrect. But to me, this actually makes him far more believeable as a character. After all, what do you base your disguises on, and the part you play when you wear them? He carries them off like someone who is trying to be a part, and if that sets on a stereotype that don't sit well in minds today, so be it. Back then, I don't think it would have been a cause for concern.

This is the same era that brought up Blazing Saddles (Far more colorful in all respects "politically correct"), The Warriors, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, and Welcome Back Kotter. Compared to this fare, Baretta's an altarboy.

What I really remember about him best is that he was a cop that was rarely sipping coffee at the station house. Too many cop shows of that era had a stationhouse as a backdrop. Baretta is a cop that gets his hands dirty, knows his neighborhood, and is respected for it because he is always seen working within it.

I enjoyed this when I just started my teens, and I really enjoy it now that I don't have to watch it on VHS anymore. While you could give a kid something better to model himself on, Baretta is the kind of person you'd probably like to have around. No B.S., straight-talkin' cops that go after real crimes, and don't see every rule in the book as something you hammer people with just because you can.

Summary of Baretta - Season One