Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba are coming back for more action.
The pair’s cop show “L.A.’s Finest” has been renewed for a second season by Spectrum Originals, despite the 13-episode first season being largely panned by critics and enduring a major on-set accident.
“L.A.’s Finest,” the first show to launch on the cable provider’s on-demand platform, is a “Bad Boys” spinoff starring Union as a police detective with a complicated past who relocates to Los Angeles from Miami and finds an odd-couple partner in Alba. Union’s role is a revival of the Syd Burnett character she played in the 2003 Sony blockbuster “Bad Boys II.”
The Sony Pictures TV and Charter Communications co-production had to shut down in February when co-showrunners and EPs Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier were involved in an on-set accident involving a stunt car and a metal shipping container. They were both rushed to hospital and Sonnier had to have his leg amputated below the knee as a result of the incident.
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“We’re thrilled ‘L.A.’s Finest’ has resonated with our subscribers in such a major way. When I first saw the pilot – a show about two strong women learning to trust and support each other and still getting into plenty of trouble – I knew I’d follow them anywhere,” said Katherine Pope, head of Spectrum Originals. “Kudos to Gabrielle and Jessica, as stars and executive producers, along with creators Brandon Sonnier and Brandon Margolis and everyone else involved, for helping us launch our first original series and making the decision to greenlight a second season incredibly easy.”
Exec produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the series is the first be greenlit by Charter, which in January recruited TV veteran Pope to spearhead the Spectrum Original Content initiative. Charter picked the series up from NBC who passed on it at the pilot stage.
“We are overwhelmed by the audience’s response to ‘L.A.’s Finest,’” said Sony Pictures TV president Jeff Frost. ”Gabrielle and Jessica are brilliant together and our incredible showrunners Brandon Sonnier, Brandon Margolis and Pam Veasey did an amazing job of crafting an action-packed and riveting season one. We can’t wait to work again with this amazing team of prolific and talented executive producers and dive into the next chapter for Syd and Nancy.”
The show is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television and 2.0 Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures TV. Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba executive produce alongside Bruckheimer, Margolis, Sonnier, Jonathan Littman, KristieAnne Reed, Pam Veasey, Doug Belgrad, Jeff Gaspin, Jeff Morrone and Anton Cropper, who also directed the pilot.
In his review of season 1, Variety critic Daniel D’Addario called the show a “tonally disastrous half-comedy, half-melodrama.” Despite judging Union’s performances to be “as strong as ever,” he added that “L.A.’s Finest” seems “designed to be vaguely, generically acceptable to have on in the background.”