21 Jump Street changes direction

An undercover unit of baby-faced cops investigating crimes in high schools, colleges, and other teenage congregations is essentially what 21 Jump Street is about.

What started off as a TV series that first aired in the 80s, 21 Jump Street got revamped into a movie in 2012 and even got a sequel. With an interesting premise and some high action, crime-fighting stunts sprinkled with comedy, both the original TV show and the movie reboots are well-liked by fans of the franchise.

According to wikipedia.org, 21 Jump Street is an American police procedural television series that first aired on April 12, 1987. It focuses on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers targeting teenage-related crime. The series features lead actor Johnny Depp playing the character of Tom Hanson, the rookie officer with an affinity for breaking his cop partners’ noses and getting into trouble. He was chosen to be one of the cops deployed under the special undercover unit Jump Street Chapel, named after their headquarters which was in a run-down church at Jump Street, along with his new partner Officer Doug Penhall, played by Peter DeLuise, Sergeant Judy Hoffs, played by Holly Robinson, and Sergeant H.T Ioki played by Dustin Nguyen.

Depp’s role as Officer Hanson was the breakthrough that sparked his career as a recognized actor. His thoughts on his recognition from the show was mixed with discomfort and frustration because being famous as a teen idol constricted his desires to “branch out into more eccentric roles,” according to cheatsheet.com. In the end, Depp was tied to the show due to a contract, but finally got out after the fourth season.

The show went on for one more season after Depp had left, airing until April 27, 1991 before the show finally ended.

Spanning 103 episodes with five seasons, 21 Jump Street is considered a crime drama, tackling sensitive topics and issues that the plot covers along the series. But while the show takes itself very seriously, the movie that came out about 21 years later after the series ended was straight-up comedy.

Jumping to film adaptation, we follow two cops, Jenko and Schmidt, played by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill respectively, as they are forced to relive high school in a drug-bust operation under the 21 Jump Street undercover unit. The premise is the same: our protagonists struggle with their standard police work and are sent to go undercover at schools, the deconsecrated chapel is still at Jump Street, and action scenes do not fall short. What’s different now, however, is that Officers Jenko and Schmidt are a comedy duo as they take down a dangerous drug ring hiding in high school. A sequel to the 2012 movie was released two years later and this time, our crime-fighting duo takes classes in college.

As the movies ramped up the comedy, all kinds of hijinks happen as our officers operate undercover with bigger highway chases and explosions following them along the story. The movies were received incredibly well because of their high-spirited action mixed with simply how entertaining they were, and it pleasantly contrasted the TV show series in a way.

21 Jump Street’s modern film adaptations managed to remake a franchise without losing its concept. A pleasant and even heart-warming surprise for the fans of the original show was Johnny Depp and his partner Peter DeLuise appearing in the 2012 film as cameos of their original characters. In the comedic spirit of the film, they both die almost immediately as they are revealed. Judy Hoffs also makes a brief cameo with Hanson and Penhall, as well as H.T Ioki in the sequel.

Whether fans preferred the crime drama of the 80s or the comedy action of later years, 21 Jump Street remains an iconic undercover cop franchise.