*Tonight’s season premiere of “S.W.A.T.” takes on the police killings of African Americans as part of a systemic pattern, and you can thank star/executive producer Shemar Moore and executive producer Aaron Rahsaan Thomas for the choosing to focus on the subject matter.
“We’ve been successful for three years playing super-cops and entertaining folks,” Moore told the Associated Press. “For ‘S.W.A.T.’ to take on what’s been happening around this country, in the world, is very brave and very bold.”
Thomas said it’s a step toward fulfilling the vision for the series he co-created with Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”). It’s a reboot of the 1975-76 series with Steve Forrest as Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson, head of a mostly white SWAT unit. This time around, Hondo is an LA-born African American striving to uphold the law and connect his multiethnic team with the community it serves.
The episode, notes The AP, “is one answer to whether network TV dramas, ever reliant on law enforcement officers as unalloyed heroes, can reflect opposing views as the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others drive demands for systemic change in police practices.”
The “S.W.A.T.” story line is directly linked to Floyd’s death last May while in the custody of Minneapolis police. Watch the promo above.
The episode airs 9 p.m. EST Wednesday on CBS.
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