Rewatching 21 Jump Street! This is the crazy, futuristic sci-fi episode! Unfortunately, the cyberpunk-y setting merely masks the fact that this is a clip show. Freakin’ clip shows. It’s season four, episode fifteen, “Back From the Future.”

What’s goin’ down: It’s the year 2037. Officer John Cogan of the Metropolitan Police Force is stuck behind a desk because he’s too young-looking to work the streets. He learns about the old Jump Street program from Adam Fuller, Captain Fuller’s grandson. Cogan tracks down the former members of Jump Street to learn their stories.

Future hair.

Here’s Hanson: At age 70-ish, Hanson lives not in an apartment, but in a “cubicle,” where he blasts rock music all day long. He’s totally rocking the Doctor Who look.

Time lord.

Penhall’s prerogatives: Older Penhall has apparently become some sort of space monk. He says he found God after his wife was deported a few episodes back. Also Peter Deluise directed this episode!

Monks are the new black.

Undercover blues: Future Hoffs pursued a career in politics, Future Fuller is still alive but confined to a wheelchair with a breathing apparatus, and Ioki is rocking the wizened samurai look. Janitor Blowfish has become a billionaire, complete with musclebound bodyguards in shiny gold shirts. Also, in 2037, there’s a cure for AIDS (!), and the Chinese have “purchased” the USA.

Goin’ to the chapel: The episode concludes with the aged cops paying a visit to the chapel, which is now some big, futuristic blue-lit complex. (Are there any Vancouver experts out there who can tell me where this was filmed?)

In the future, everything is blue.

Torn from today’s headlines: TV shows used to (and sometimes still do) these clip shows that are mostly footage from older episodes, as a money-saving device. They’re always dreadful.

Trivia time: The 21 Jump Street movie tells us that Hanson and Penhall are dead, but this episode proves (proves!) that they survived into their 70s.

Jumpin’ or not? The actors are clearly having fun playing old-timer versions of their characters, but this is still a clip show. Freakin’ clip shows.

Next week: Down on death row.

****

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