muscle" to solve cases. The network promoted the character as "a true crime fighter of the technology-driven 90's". Throughout the season, Randall provides information about cases to Mac. Al is demoted from being a beat officer to working at a desk. Storylines include a rock singer who is denied a divorce from her abusive husband, a woman whose son is kidnapped by her ex-husband, and a man who ties up and tortures his victims by driving them with golf balls. Guest appearances include Jennifer Garner, Drea de Matteo, and Ice-T. Many commentators noted the show's use of violence, particularly that the pilot's opening sequence involves nine deaths. Despite its frequent inclusion of violent scenes, the show does not show blood or gore. Critics compared the violence in Swift Justice to the crime drama The Equalizer and the 1988 action movie Die Hard, and the Orlando Sentinel'''s Hal Boedeker identified it as an "urban western". Co-creator and executive producer Dick Wolf likened the series to "Batman without the mask", and characterized its tone as politically incorrect. He based Mac on the gunfighter Paladin from Have Gun – Will Travel and compared his friendship with Randall to Martin Riggs' partnership with Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon films. Production and broadcast history Produced by Wolf Films in association with Universal Television, Swift Justice was created by Wolf and Richard Albarino. According to New York's Maureen Callahan, the episodes, shot on location in New York, were low-budget productions. During filming, Jean-Claude La Marre, who guest starred as a hustler, was nearly arrested by a police officer. La Marre accused him of racial profiling. Representatives from Swift Justice and the NYPD did not comment on the incident. Rick Marotta produced the music, which Variety's Todd Everett described as having a good synthesizer- and percussion-based sound. Swift Justice was the first time that Gary Glasberg wrote for an hour-long television program. Referring to the experience as his "big break", he would later be a showrunner for the police procedural NCIS.Swift Justice was part of UPN's "aggressive new spring schedule" that expanded the network's programming to three nights per week. Picked up as a mid-season replacement, the series was broadcast on Wednesday nights at 9:00 pm EST. Thirteen episodes aired between March and July 1996. Rocky Mountain News' Dusty Saunders cited the series as an example of the network shifting toward action-adventure programming. Mediaweek's Scotty Dupree