Walker, Texas Ranger: The Complete Fourth Season – DVD Review

Also having his own resurgence of late is 80s Action Icon Chuck Norris, who was recently in the news because of his backing of Republican Governor Mike Huckabee’s run for the White House, as well as being an Internet phenomenon. Those that can’t get enough of the bearded Karate Champion can already find most of his adventures on DVD, with a steady stream of seasons from his show Walker, Texas Ranger also being released fairly regularly from CBS/Paramount. As it was with the first three DVD sets, with Walker, Texas Ranger: The Complete Fourth Season fans can expect the same face kicking entertainment they’ve come to expect from their favorite TV Law Enforcer/Martial Artist.

Now, for those that have never seen the show, fans looking for high drama/high acting and police work on the level as such series as Law & Order or The Shield should look elsewhere. Walker is a show designed for more family oriented entertainment, with plenty of ridiculous action to satisfy the fans of the series’ star. The episodes are pretty formulaic mostly, with at least one car chase and fight scene per installment, all tied in with some sort of mystery or manhunt for Walker to solve or chase. For fans that don’t mind their action with a big slice of cheese, this is definitely the show for you. Walker has adventures in this season dealing with everything from a child that might be the reincarnation of an important Buddhist monk to perhaps tracking down an assassin that could have been the shooter on the grassy knoll. It’s in these episodes that the show is at it’s the most fun.

For fans of the show, the episode that will probably bring the most entertainment will be “Codename: Dragonfly.” The installment guest stars Road House‘s Marshall R. Teague as Randy Shrader, a man who betrayed Walker in the Vietnam war and left him there to die in order to collect a bounty the V.C. had put on the Texan’s head. Decades later, Shrader has returned and is running drugs for the mob, even stealing a prototype helicopter called ‘The Dragonfly’ in order to help him with his nefarious plans. For fans of the cartoon series G.I. Joe, the Dragonfly helicopter in this episode is pretty much the same one that Wild Bill flew in the ‘80 cartoon series. With an awesome truck Vs. copter chase, gun fights, a bazooka-wielding Chuck Norris, and one of the best martial arts fights I’ve seen from a network TV show, this adventure comes the closest to being like an actual Chuck Norris movie as you’ll find on this set.

Also very entertaining is the installment “The Patriot”, which deals with a local group of white supremacists who end up taking a local minority-owned TV station hostage. The last fifteen minutes of the episode is a Die Hard-style showcase for Norris (albeit a low budget one), which has him all dressed in all black, taking out bad guys floor by floor until he gets to their leader on the top tier. This is probably one of the best examples of the show’s simple, but entertaining format, making use of one-liner’s for Chuck while setting up one fight scenario after another.

Where the show really goes awry is when it actually tries to tackle any sort of serious issues. An installment dealing with the rape of a young girl entitled “A Silent Cry” shows the limits and weaknesses in the show, as the acting and production values really can’t keep up with the episode’s grave subject matter, and really, takes a lot of the fun out of the show as well. It’s one thing for Walker to solve the case of a Native American ghost, its another thing for him to tackle a scenario more suited to a series like Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

For campy, Karate-filled fun, Walker, Texas Ranger: The Fourth Season is an amusing, but ridiculous set of episodes that thankfully knows exactly what its strengths are most of the time. Fans of Norris that have worn out their copies of Lone Wolf McQuade and Delta Force will find the same type of heroics here, just without the same level of budget or ruggedness. Action junkies that are looking for some light old-school diversion will find it here, I just wouldn’t watch this back to back with something profoundly good like 24 or The Sopranos.

The Show is presented in its original Fullscreen format with an aspect ration of 1.33:1. The transfer here is quite bad. The image often looks washed out, and there was obviously not much restoration done to these transfers. The same goes for the sound. The show’s Dolby Digital 2.0 mix is pretty much how it sounded when the show was first released.

Trailers – All you get in the way of features on this disc is some trailers for other Paramount-related TV shows.

While this show is really fun for Chuck Norris fans, this wouldn’t be a strong recommendation for people looking for a show featuring high drama or terrific acting. Walker, Texas Ranger isn’t a show that’s for everybody, but fans of the show will know what they’re getting into if they’re looking to purchase this fourth season.

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Paramount Home Entertainment presents Walker, Texas Ranger: The Fourth Season. Created by Christopher Canaan, Leslie Greif, and Paul Haggis. Starring Chuck Norris, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Sheree J. Wilson. Running time: 1222 Minutes. Not rated. Released on DVD: Feb 19, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.