Perhaps the strongest point of "Renegade" is its consistency: when you sit down to watch a random episode, chances are you will not get anything great, but you will not get anything bad, either. The series finds a comfortable "6 out of 10 stars" zone and mostly stays there. The premise stretches believability in several ways (Reno Raines does absolutely nothing to change his all-too-distinctive appearance after becoming a fugitive; Dutch Dixon knows that Reno usually hangs around Bobby Sixkiller's headquarters, but he doesn't even have his people watch the place; Reno initially doesn't want to get too involved with other women after his fiancé's murder, but after a little time he seems to meet "someone special" every three episodes or so; etc.), but the series is still written, directed and acted with enough professionalism to remain watchable. The action/fight scenes are usually brief, but of OK quality. Lorenzo Lamas acts better here than in any of his straight-to-video action films I've seen, and he has an amusing chemistry with Branscombe Richmond. Third-billed Kathleen Kinmont does not appear in every episode like the other two, but does occasionally get involved in the action. Series creator Stephen J. Cannell plays the No. 1 villain, Dutch Dixon, and he's entertainingly evil, though his ineffectiveness in capturing Reno and the way he loses him even when he does have him captured make him look like Wile E. Coyote at times! Several recognizable names keep popping up throughout the series, from Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa to Fred Williamson and from Tracy Scoggins to Kelly Hu, although my favorite male guest star is probably James Cromwell, and my favorite female guest star is probably Nancy Everhard, who appeared in three episodes in total, playing two different characters. So far, only the first 3 seasons of "Renegade" have been released on DVD; it would be nice to see seasons 4 and 5 as well, at least for completion purposes.
Review of Renegade
