Rush is an Australian police drama television series created by John Edwards and Christopher Lee and set in Melbourne, Victoria, which follows the lives of members of the prestigious Tactical Response team (TR), which is based on the real life Victoria Police Critical Incident Response Team.
The series aired in Australia on Network Ten from 2 September, 2008 to 17 November, 2011. There are 70 hour-long episodes in four seasons.
Rush premiered in South Africa on DStv's M-Net Action channel on Friday 24 July 2009, at 18h00. It was moved to DStv's M-Net Series channel for the fourth season. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Season 4 premiered on M-Net Series on Thursday 9 February 2012, at 19h30. New episodes broadcast weekly. There are 13 episodes in the fourth and final season.
Synopsis
Rush is an action drama series set in a critical incident response police unit. They are trained to be smarter, tactically superior and technologically advantaged - Melbourne's take on a cutting edge trend in policing worldwide.
Rush is an insider’s view of police under pressure – defusing crises, saving lives, preventing crime rather than catching the bad guys after the deed is done.
Rush gives us a close look at a recent phenomenon in modern policing: the development of the highly trained elite police units with the capacity to respond to a crisis imaginatively and almost immediately.
Enter the Tactical Response team.
Tactical Response (TR) is a bunch of exhaustively-trained young cops, on 24-hour mobile duty, who can respond immediately to a crisis, bringing negotiating skills, lateral thinking, less lethal weaponry and a fresh attitude to both crime and civil disorder.
Their brief is to strive for a fast and specifically non-lethal resolution to an incident. They get to the scene first and hopefully they resolve problems without shooting people.
And they’re fast...
They are always on the road, patrolling, keeping in contact, always ready to respond to the whiff of a crisis.
A bank robbery, a hostage situation, a sniper, a desperate escapee on the loose, a threatened suicide, a missing person, a bomb threat, a visiting overseas dignitary under threat – these situations need more sophistication and intelligence, backed up by a ‘war room’ at the cutting edge of technology.
The type of critical incident that is faced by TR needs lateral thinking – a creative approach by hi-tech people with the capacity to see beyond the immediate situation.
Seasons
Note: the first two seasons aired on M-Net Action and the fourth on M-Net Series.
Season 1 (13 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Action | Premiere: 24 Jul 2009 | Finale: 16 Oct 2009 | Fridays, 18h00
Season 2 (22 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Action | Premiere: 22 Jan 2010 | Finale: 18 Jun 2010 | Fridays, 18h00
Season 3 (22 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Action | Premiere: 25 Jun 2010 | Finale: 1 Apr 2011 | Fridays, 18h00
Season 4 (13 episodes)
Channel: M-Net Series | Premiere: 9 Feb 2012 | Finale: 3 May 2012 | Thursdays, 19h30