Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba’s Bad Boys TV spinoff, L.A.’s Finest, has been renewed for Season 2 at Spectrum, the cable service arm of Charter Communications. It is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and both Union and Alba are exec producers.
It’ll come back for a sophomore run despite the fact that it received negative reviews from critics and the showrunners were seriously injured in an on-set accident.
The series sees Union reprising her character, Special Agent Sydney “Syd” Burnett, from the second Bad Boys film. Burnett was an undercover DEA operative and sister of Martin Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett and love interest for Will Smith’s Mike Lowrey. “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.”
“We are overwhelmed by the audience’s response to LA’s Finest,” said SPT 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 description for the first season: Season One followed Syd Burnett (Union), who was last seen in Miami taking down a drug cartel and left her complicated past to become an LAPD detective. Paired with a new partner, Nancy McKenna (Alba), a working mom with an equally complex history, Syd was forced to confront how her unapologetic lifestyle was masking a greater personal secret. Taking on the most dangerous criminals in Los Angeles while skirting the rules, and speed limits, Syd and Nancy became a force to be reckoned with – on the streets, and in each other’s lives.
After the pilot was passed over at NBC, where it was initially developed, it was given a 13-episode, straight-to-series order at Spectrum. The series is created by Sony Pictures TV, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, Primary Wave and 2.0 Entertainment. The entities shopped it around after NBC passed, landing at Charter.
Arguably the most high-profile pilot of the season (with an expensive pilot said to cost $12M), NBC passing on the series was a shock as it features two movie stars and women of color. Union, who fronted the spinoff from the start, wanted to land a big name as her co-lead and personally sought Alba
Shadow And Act spoke to Union last year about the project. “We’re really excited. And to be able to co-executive produce with Jessica Alba…it’s like, we feel like boss bitches. It just really feels good that two women of color are the leads, are the executive producers, put the whole thing together and that we know that we are deserving of this opportunity. That nobody gave it to us, we took it,” she said.
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Photo: Spectrum
