Pilot

I'm watching this for the first time in 2018, and I was definitely charmed. The show's reputation for violence and bare flesh preceded it, and this pilot episode provides more of the latter than the former: there's two sex scenes, one involving David Caruso and Amy Brenneman, and the other involving Dennis Franz and Shannon Cochran. Both add some grit and raciness to the proceedings, though it's hard to escape the feeling that they're just there for salaciousness's sake.

The story is interesting but unoriginal, with Caruso's Detective John Kelly looking to get even with the mob led by Joe Santos as Angelo Marino. His underling Alphonse, played by noted Batman cartoon voice actor Robert Costanzo, has a rivalry with Franz's Detective Sipowicz, and it flares up in a big way by episode's end. The acting is pretty good, though Franz and Santos are the standouts. Coursing through the background of the episode is Sherry Stringfield as Laura Kelly, who is starting to initiate divorce proceedings with her husband; both still clearly have feelings for each other.

While the whip-pans and shaky camera movements give a "you-are-there" look to everything, there's nothing else particularly unique here. The narrative is kind of soapy, and it's very TV-like, in that no one is going to be watching this and mistaking it for a realistic depiction of what a policeman's job is really like.

As the staging ground for a fun drama, though? It succeeds mightily, and I'm looking forward to seeing what shenanigans Detective Sipowicz and friends get into next.

This is a decent beginning of a benchmark series. Dennis Franz takes his Norman Buntz personna and moves it to New York. He is an alcoholic chain smoker with a hair trigger temper. David Caruso is his long suffering partner who is trying to rein him in. Sipowitz is embarrassed in court after using suspicious methods to attack a gang boss. He decides to go after him personally. Andy, meanwhile, is shot and this sets things in motion.