There had been robust detectives on television before 1971, but none quite this… ornery. Sure, William Conrad’s performance as the title character in Cannon doesn’t exactly present the guy as an anarchic ass - as crass and frankly direct as he is, he is (for the most part) a gentleman - but compared to other crime drama television characters of the early seventies, he stands apart.

Cannon is a loner, and an unapologetic one. Where folks like John Rockford (James Garner) and even Detective Columbo (Peter Falk) were intrinsically warm and open, Cannon is a downright cantankerous. This guy doesn’t have an assistant, he doesn’t have BFFs, he doesn’t have romance knocking on his door – Cannon is a man with a myopic desire to solve crime.

Now don’t get me wrong; the guy’s not lazy. He does what needs to be done to nab the bad guy. But Cannon is almost robotic in his efficiency as a detective. He’ll unleash a capable (if not impressive-looking) control of violence in a fight, but this guy ain’t a show-off. He’ll find who he’s looking for, beat him up if he has to, then clock his time card and head home.

And herein lies Cannon’s dormant charm. Like the stubborn, unlikable uncle who always buys you the best birthday presents, Cannon is a guy who is pretty damned likable in his unlikability (so to speak). No matter how you slice it, the guy goes out of his way to help people out – and he does it just because it’s what he does. As curmudgeonly as the fella might be, he has the greater good in mind.

However, the charisma that Conrad exudes continues to not be enough to keep Cannon buoyant as a series. In this first half of Cannon’s second season (Paramount, again, refuses to give season-long releases of their catalog TV-on-DVD titles - AARGH!), as admirable as Cannon’s presence might be, it’s not enough to keep the show from ever escaping the event horizon of unimaginative crime-TV territory. Conrad imparts a perfect level of presence and finesse to his performance, but the scenarios given to him in each of these episodes are mundane at best.

There are highlights, though (as there almost always are in TV box sets like this one), and they invariably involve guest stars. The involvement of Monkee Mickey Dolenz is a head-scratching thrill, and any TV show that utilizes the talents of Clu Gulager is okay in my book. William Daniels and Louise Troy (among others) also pop up in this first part of Cannon's second season.

At the end of the day, though, as was the case with the show’s first DVD box sets, I must resort to this simple critique of Cannon: Conrad is a great actor who has taken on a fantastic part, but it’s just a so-so show.