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This TV-on-DVD set will make you want to either strap on your bulletproof vest and vigilantly march into harm's way or put on your boogie shoes and shake your booty....
Shout! Factory / 1080 Minutes / 1975-1976 / Unrated / Street Date: May 22, 2012
There's a discord to the disco/violence juxtaposition in S.W.A.T., but I bet it's what gives the show such a cult-adored sheen. On The Final Season, the most memorable moments of S.W.A.T. come when the team straps on their gear and prepares for the worst... while the peppiest, most zippy disco dance track you could imagine thumps as background. There may be hostage situations in and around town, but there's no reason not to boogie oogie oogie in anticipation it.
In short, S.W.A.T. on DVD is the kind of thing that only those who adored the series during its anemic run in the mid-1970s will find watchable. Lieutenant Hondo Harrelson (Steve Forrest) assembles a mighty troop here - it's always a TV-nostalgic thrill to watch Robert Urich chew cop-drama scenery - but nothing much happens on S.W.A.T. after everybody gets geared up. There are a few shots fired here and there, but the fear of rampant violence on the part of the team members never seems to amount to all that much: there's danger, sure, but it's more of a mind game than a shoot-out.
In any case, S.W.A.T. devotees looking to flush out their DVD collection of the show's episodes will likely get their money's worth here, even if Shout! Factory hasn't exactly gone all-out with technical or bonus material ambitions with this TV-on-DVD edition. A collection like this one is unlikely to spurn a new generation of hardcore fans, but that hardly seems the point - this is the kind of box set that allows S.W.A.T.-lovers to take a trip down memory lane, a path that just so happens to include a lot of machine-gun loading and booty-shaking disco music. Who woulda thought?