With a title like Rush, surmises David Knox, this new cop show had better deliver.

2008 is surely the year of the cops. Underbelly is the only breakout drama of the year.  Seven is elated by the audience rapture for City Homicide. This week Nine also launches The Strip, but failed to send a preview in time for this newspaper’s deadline. So it was logical for the network light on local drama, TEN, to find its own franchise with Rush.

Rush was originally conceived in 2004 as Rapid Response, a critical response unit who tackle everything from hostage sieges to suicide attempts. During the last season of The Secret Life of Us, TEN sent out a decree to trim the production order and have producer John Edwards spend the budget on making a cop show pilot based on an earlier script of Police Rescue. But it didn’t pick up the option which had starred Mathew Le Nevez, Libby Tanner and Corrine Grant. Fast forward to the US writer’s strike when everyone went back to the drawing board.

The revamped Rush, now with Rodger Corser, Catherine McClements, Samuel Johnson and several newcomers is very good indeed. It opens with a high-octane chase, distinguished by a stunning helicopter shot over Melbourne and a frenetic footrace enacted by a nimble stuntman.

Unlike the suited cowboys of City Homicide, the Rush squad resemble a SWAT team. They are armed with high tech communications, including mobile cameras, which add to the show’s contemporary feel. It is chockfull of hand-held camera work, overlapping dialogue and tense music. You can sense a revamped Police Rescue DNA here, with a dose of 24 to boot. While Rodger Corser shines as the Team Leader, Sam Johnson works at the Operations Centre, co-ordinating the team via TV screens, computers and radio.

Catherine McClements arrives to Rush as a gutsy Inspector, while Callan Mulvey is a tough but temperamental Sergeant. Nicole da Silva, who was so strong in Edwards’ Dangerous for FOX8, will be one to watch.

As with Seven’s cops, Rush is part of a generic ‘State Police’ which allows producers to depict a flawed force. Police violence rears its head in the opening episode. Significantly, the drama also dares to give some of its stories an imperfect ending, creating a more realistic sense of police life than the heroes we are usually presented with. These traits alone suggest Rush is worth the ride.

Rush premieres 9:30pm Tuesday on TEN.

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