Hondo is back. But more importantly, so is the theme song.
Barry De Vorzon’s undeniable bop has been part of the “S.W.A.T.” DNA since the 1970s TV series, so it’s only fitting that the familiar music is there to raise the curtain on “S.W.A.T.: Exiles,” Sony’s continuation of the popular procedural that survived multiple cancellation attempts before CBS finally pulled the plug after eight seasons last spring.
Debuting Friday on Starz, “Exiles” is being marketed by the studio as either a spinoff, a sequel or some combination of the two. But it’s actually a fairly transparent attempt to keep a valuable brand alive, even if it means keeping costs down by cutting bait with most of the original cast.
That makes for an awkward, maybe even alienating, balancing act. There’s not enough new here to make “S.W.A.T.: Exiles” feel meaningfully different from “S.W.A.T.,” but just enough has changed to make us miss the faces we’d grown to know and care about during the previous show’s near-decade run.
When last we saw Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson (Shemar Moore), he was still leading the LAPD’s 20-Squad, heading off with his team to answer yet another call. “Exiles” jumps forward two years, with Hondo having been forced into retirement following a fatal shooting that left his career in tatters.
Naturally, the demands of public safety (and franchise management) mean retirement doesn’t take.
Hondo is tasked with creating an experimental S.W.A.T. unit comprised of LAPD misfits who haven’t found a home elsewhere in the department. The recruits include Jude Callan (Ronen Rubinstein), Ethan Cole (Freddy Miyares), Cassidy Reed (Zyra Gorecki), Malik Anderson (Adain Bradley) and Sammy Bishop (Lucy Barrett).
Incoming showrunner Jason Ning gives the new series a little “Bad News Bears” energy, with Hondo trying to turn a collection of departmental outcasts into a functioning unit. They’re decidedly procedural plug-and-play: Sammy is a gun-show influencer! Jude is the bad boy with baggage! A brain injury has left Ethan channeling Data from “Star Trek”!
The generational friction is fitfully amusing, though Sammy’s dialogue occasionally has the teeth-grinding quality of Gen X writers trying very hard to channel Gen Z lingo.
For eight seasons and more than 160 episodes from 2017 to 2025, “S.W.A.T.” perfected a very specific kind of TV comfort food that’s typified CBS since the network became a haven for procedurals in the early aughts: banter at headquarters, trouble in somebody’s personal life, a crisis requiring tactical intervention and enough gunplay to leave audiences satisfied. It wasn’t reinventing television, but it knew what it was and did it dependably well.
Given how the new show went into production with much of its predecessor’s behind-the-scenes infrastructure intact, it understandably retains the slick action and pacing. Meanwhile, Moore slips back into Hondo like he never left (which, to be fair, he really didn’t).
At 56, he remains impressively physical in the tactical set pieces, and Hondo’s new status as elder statesman to a batch of rowdy recruits gives the actor a new gear to play. The problem lies more with the ensemble surrounding him.
Part of what made the previous series work was the accumulated affection for its cast. Eight seasons of watching these people change jobs, start families, leave the team and come back to it meant the actors had developed the kind of easy chemistry that only comes with time. “Exiles” is asking viewers to start the process over again, just over a year after “S.W.A.T.” left the air. The old team hasn’t exactly had time to become the old team yet, which makes the changing of the guard feel all the more jarring.
While Jay Harrington and Patrick St. Esprit briefly pop up as Deacon and Hicks in the premiere (with David Lim slated to reappear as Tan later in the season), their presence only underscores what’s missing. Seeing Hondo alongside his old colleagues restores the familiar rhythms just long enough to remind us we have a new status quo.
The ensemble is certainly game, but these newbies have yet to make the case for needing to trade the old team for this one. And Hondo has bigger problems than getting his charges to play nice: There’s a season-long conspiracy involving higher-ups trying to bring down Hondo and S.W.A.T., complete with a mole on his new team.
This puts an interesting spin on his role as mentor while adding some connective tissue between episodes, giving him something to worry about between hostage situations and heavily armed bad guys.
Even with a streaming-era 10-episode order instead of the 20-something broadcast viewers used to get, the underlying engine is largely the same. Then again, maybe that’s the point. Sony certainly seems confident there’s enough gas in the tank for more, with “Exiles” already renewed for a second season before the first has even premiered.
For many longtime fans, the simple pleasure of seeing Shemar Moore kicking down doors again in tactical gear will be plenty. After eight years with the old crew, though, the missing chemistry is tough to ignore, and that’s not something “Exiles” can simply inherit.
But for now, Hondo and that theme song have returned. The rest of “S.W.A.T.” may just take a little longer.
“S.W.A.T. Exiles” premieres Friday on Starz.
