I remember 2000 like it was yesterday. The TV was deadly boring. The fresh ideas weren't fresh. And the year's new shows were horrible. Review with me: The District (Grrrrrr!), CSI (extreme Grrrrrr!!), Sheena and Dark Angel were the action ones (????!!!!!), and Curb Your Enthusiasm with Malcolm in the Middle were the comedic ones (extreme????!!!!!).
I was following only Secret Agent Man, Survivor, maybe Falcone, and - yes - 18 Wheels of Justice.
The formula is known by heart: a runner from and after evil power, helping others running from and after other evil powers. Since Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive (1963), the American TV doesn't get enough of many Kimbles. He can be 4 Vietnam vets (The A-Team - 1983), a nice married couple (Hot Pursuit - 1984), a nice yet quarrelsome and unmarried couple (P. S.I. Luv U - 1991), one American ex-cop biker (Renegade - 1992), one Chinese Kung-Fu fighter (Vanishing Son - 1995), and so on and on.
This round, our Kimble is another fugitive, however he works as an agent for the Justice Department; to destroy his archenemy Jacob Calder, help himself to prove his innocence, and help many other people along the way too. It seems to be (Renegade) all over again, but with a lorry not a motorcycle, a shaved lead, and a she-assistant!
Anyway, it was well-made fun. At the time, this show looked like an old memory from the 1980s. True that (G. Gordon Liddy) seemed like absolute idiot more than evil, and the format wasn't that new. But it did entertain.
(Lucky Vanous) as (Michael Cates/Chance Bowman) aside from being attractive as a 40-year-old gallant man and wounded widower, he delivered such a natural performance; I believed him utterly. (Lisa Thornhill) is a different charismatic beauty. (Billy Dee Williams) is always a delight to watch, being the best black sidekick that this lead could have had.
There is no strong sex or violence at all, which is a sincerity towards the fluff TV of the 1980s. The plots managed to keep the show watchable. There was a solid quality that distinguished the whole thing. Even the musical theme of it was catchy and thrilling.
So amongst the shows of 2000, the "Fugitive" ones, or whatever I watched--18 Wheels of Justice is something to enjoy and remember. It's the kind of shows that you have to miss nowadays.
