NYPD Blue

This is one of the best cop dramas of all time. Gritty, raw in your face. Sad, violent and addicting.

I started watching NYPD Blue when I was in Year Eight at high school after my legal studies teacher said it was a good show. Turns out, I tuned in just when Danny Sorensen (Rick Schroeder) joined the show, and I had no idea about John Kelly or Bobby Simone.

No doubt, Dennis Franz as Detective Andy Sipowicz is the star of NYPD Blue, and the heart of the ensemble show. His journey from a season one racist, homophobic drunk through to a stationhouse commander by the time the twelfth and final season is over was highly believable, and Sipowicz, who saw more tragedy than most, is now an iconic television character.

That said, Jimmy Smits as Bobby Simone was brilliant: the final episodes of Smits' run, where Detective Simone was dying were some of the best episodes of any TV show I have ever watched. Wish we'd seen more of David Caruso's John Kelly. Marc-Paul Goesselaar as the more youthful John Clark did a solid job after Rick Schroeder left the show.

And what of the supporting cast? All brilliant - particularly Kim Delaney as Diane Russell, Gordon Clapp as the delightfully awkward Greg Medavoy, Bill Brochtrup as PAA John Irvin, Nicholas Turturro as the youthful James Martinez, Jacqueline Obradors as Rita Ortiz and the two squad leaders, James McDaniel as Arthur Fancy and Esai Morales as Tong Rodrigues. Who else? Charlotte Ross as Connie McDowell, Sharon Lawrence as Sylvia Costas and Andrea Thompson as Jill Kirkendall. All great characters, all with so much (often tragic) depth.

Violent, brash, at times highly emotional and very controversial given the content and the era in which it aired (though definitely not by today's 'anything goes' standards!), we will never see the likes of NYPD Blue again.

I just started watching some reruns of NYPD Blue on TV. Andy is the highlight of the show. His character is so unglamorous and anti- Hollywood stereotype that his character actually comes across as amusing. Let's face it. He's pretty darn fat, bald and ugly. But what makes his acting so funny are all the sneering looks and rude attitude he gives to the skanks and low lifes he has to confront on a daily basis. He's always brimming with condemnation and disgust. Every facial gesture screams it out loud!!! His attitude becomes so relentless and over the top that it's a hoot to watch. It becomes fun to call dirt bags - dirt bags!!! It's a great innovative show....not sure there are any other crime shows that are similar. If so, I haven't seen them.

This masterpiece is good from beginning to end. It will make you a better human being. It will bring you to a certain maturity about life and what are the most important parts of it. The acting is out of this world amazing. This is an all-star cast and don't you worry about loosing some great characters along the way, they are replaced by other very talented and interesting ones. The core actors of the show stay on for long periods of time and this allows you to truly feel as if they are your close friends. This show will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you think and most importantly, if there is something going on in your life and you need certain guidance, Andy is there for you and he will most definitely have the answer you are looking for during one episode or another.

No doubt in my mind : If this TV show was a mandatory watch in high schools, the world would be a better place.

Consider that in the first 50 years of ABC television, NYPD Blue was on for 12 of them. Was it better, more edgy the first couple of seasons? Yes. Was it at the end? Not so much. Yet, it was still appointment television. It was ground-breaking, and if you missed it from Day One, sure you can buy the DVD's as they come out, but it was so different than anything on TV then, and it changed what we expect out of television dramas.

The character of Andy Sipowicz, played by 4 time Emmy winner Dennis Franz, was the most realistic character ever created on television, faults and all. He was a modern-day everyman, and that was why we rooted for him, even when he was in one of those moods. It was why we continued to watch right up until it's triumphant end.

It came along when the one-hour drama on network television was all but dead; it re-defined the look of prime time drama with language and wardrobe (or lack their of), as well as how it was filmed; and when you speak with anyone that is or ever has served in law enforcement in this country, they'll tell you it was the best show at capturing "The Job" from a realism and accuracy standpoint.

Thank God for re-runs.