“In 2020, times are tough. This man’s tougher.”

Justin’s rating: I tried to explain the plot of this to my teen daughter and she looked at me as though I had worms sprouting from my skull.

Justin’s review: I always wondered what astronauts did when they retired, especially with all of their extensive and specialized skillsets. Silly Justin, I should’ve known the answer was “suiting up in a powered exoskeleton, hopping onto a bike full of gadgets, and fighting crime on the street.”

This is the true saga of Super Force, a two-season scifi series that kicked off with a TV movie back in 1990. Set in the far-flung year of 2020, astronaut Zachary Stone (Ken Olandt) returns from Mars and finds out his cop brother was killed in the Crime Zone.

That’s right, in the future all crime is sent to a Zone on the honor system.

Casting aside any thoughts of book deals or think tanks, Zachary suits up in his old spacesuit (I guess NASA lets you keep these when you come back?), jumps onto a gadget-laden motorcycle, and heads out onto the streets of Metroplex to vastly confuse the criminal element. He finds himself pitted against a corrupt police force (which is decidedly NOT super), his not-so-dead brother, and a sinister corporation with an Asian influence.

Zach’s not going to have to go it alone, though. His support team includes the geeky black guy from Revenge of the Nerds as an inventor/hacker (it was the only role you could get if you were African American with glasses in the ’90s) and his dead mentor who got uploaded into a computer. The three of them provide the most entertainment as they banter with extremely dated references (Wizard of Oz! James Bond!) and talk about “getting action” on deep space missions.

With questionable criminal activity (headbutting bus windows?) and people throwing explosive Post-It notes in slow motion, Super Force didn’t really sell me on the idea that this 2020 is a horrible hellscape in need of saving. It honestly looks better than the real 2020 with the riots and epidemic and killer hornets. But every time an action scene went down, the synth score went into overload and backlit fog streamed out to tell me that this was the Best Thing Ever.

A little bit RoboCop and a little bit Iron Man and a little bit Blade Runner and a little bit Batman, Super Force is the sum of the excesses of the ’80s before the ’90s course-corrected into something slightly less ridiculous. It’s all stylish and dorky while thinking very highly of itself, and that’s a glorious combination that deserves to be cherished.

Intermission!

• Mars looks like it has an atmosphere these days
• That is an exceptionally tiny capsule to make a Mars trip
• What a very messy parade
• Zachary, that’s the most early ’90s shirt I’ve ever seen
• Ah it’s those computers that project their screens onto the viewer’s body with blinding detail
• If you turn down a prostitute, she’s likely to slash your chest with her three-inch nails
• “If you’re going to play explorer in this part of the town, better learn the rules of the jungle.”
• This movie invented digital photo frames
• Oh man those high-tech VR shooting sessions
• Wow he went through Cop School in the span of two scenes
• People still use pay phones in 2020
• One look at goo: Oh, that’s some sort of “genetically engineered plasma enzyme” YOU JUST MADE THAT UP ADMIT IT
• Glasses are more futuristic if you have rear view mirrors on them
• “I didn’t survive burned-out power sources and zero gravity just to watch everybody I care about die!”
• Watch out, it’s a Post-It grenade!
• Those police station walls are paper-thin and begging to be head-butted
• “Repent — the world is never coming to an end!”
• Head-butting your way into a bus is the only way to do it
• Always a good idea to get so close to criminals that they can kick your uzi out of your hand
• “Welcome to the Crime Zone!”
• You’re truly evil if you feed a mouse to your snake
• Lots of bad dudes toting around flamethrowers these days
• “I can’t believe it, reincarnated as Fred Flintstone!”
• THE SOLICITOR’S SQUARE
• That girl’s shirt is ultra-ruffled
• Women can start wars “just because they’re a woman”
• “Avon calling!”
• “The animals are in the burgs now, you can’t keep us locked downtown forever!” (repeated three times)
• This hostage taker just won’t shut up, will she?