Brooklyn South
Brooklyn South
| 22 September 1997 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
  • 1
  • Reviews
    ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
    Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.
    Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
    Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
    Bokononist1917 Brooklyn South was an innovative and Gritty show when it hit the air. Focusing on street cops in uniform over detectives, and making a thorough commitment to realism, it was unlike most anything else on TV. The writing and acting was top notch, and the show is able to serve up verbal confrontations just as vicious as the physical ones.Still, it hasn't aged well. Given the time period and the fact that it aired on CBS, Brooklyn South is relatively tame by today's standards. This isn't necessarily bad, such as in most classic Victorian literature, where the author invents a way to refer to sex and violence much more entertaining than a straight description. The problem is that Brooklyn South presents itself as gritty and revealing, (which it was for the time) and the actual content of the show ends up being a let down, rather than a delicious metaphor. Many of the issues that Brooklyn South is obviously trying to tackle, such as abuse of power, the slippery slope of committing evil deeds in the name of good, and what constitutes morality when your paid to use violence, it can only hint at. Thus the watcher is slowly drawn into these issues, only to be let down when the show switches subjects just before truly exposing them.Given this I'd recommend Brooklyn South to hardcore fans of the crime genre, because even after aging it's still entertaining, and for it's historical importance as one of the first cop shows to focus on realism and morally ambiguous characters. Beyond that it's safe to say that HBO's The Wire is everything Brooklyn South wanted to be, and better done to boot.
    preppy-3 A pretty good cop show by Steven Bochco. It got a lot of controversy at the time because the pilot show had (for TV) a pretty graphic scene where a man gets shot in the head.It started out with fairly good ratings but slowly sank till it was canceled. It was was no masterpiece but people kept comparing it to "NYPD Blue" which was a better show--there was no way they could compete. Still it was well-acted and written--I especially liked Jon Tenney as one of the main characters. Towards the end (in a desperate attempt to get higher ratings) they had an episode where Tenney showed his butt and publicized it a LOT. Unfortunately it didn't save the show.So, a pretty good show that deserved a better chance.
    movieman_kev A Steven Boncho production that lasted only one season. Partly because of airing opposite of the target audience's Monday Night Football, partly because of not one of the characters connecting to the little audience this show managed to keep after maybe a handful of episodes. I watched perhaps 4 episodes before I gave up on it during it's network TV run. Later, when it was released on DVD, I decided to give it another chance primarily on the strength of the superb first episode alone. Again I found that as the episodes wore on, my interest began to wane again. This show may be realistic, it may be well acted, but it doesn't have the spark that either "Hill Street Blues", "NYPD Blue", or to a less extant "S.W.A.T" did. The show committed the sin of not having anyone in the cast that stands out and is relatable for me. It just seemed a retread of story lines from other better productions.My overall grade: C Complete Series DVD Extras: Commentary by Co-creator David Milch on the Pilot; a 14 minute interview with Steven Boncho; Cast & Crew bios; and a list of police response codes
    Piper12 I have to disagree with the others who have posted in praise of "Brooklyn South." As a die-hard fan of "Hill Street Blues," I have to say that "Brooklyn South" didn't come close to matching the earlier series in quality and watchability.Don't get me wrong: I WANTED to like this series very much. It just didn't hold my interest, perhaps because so many of the situations seemed so incredibly far-fetched: One character's shrewish wife - who is even prepared to frame him for a murder - is conveniently killed off in a car accident; the first precinct captain was so cartoonishly clueless as to be laughable; the Terry Doyle character was so annoying I was actually HOPING he'd be killed off.Actually, for me, the only character I cared about and who really came to life for me was Gary Besaraba's Sgt. Santoro. His scene in one of the early episodes with his son's grade-school teacher - who is copping a superior attitude to the sarge and his wife - was great. I also had a sneaking respect for Jim Sikking's character, a career Internal Affairs investigator with ice-water in his veins.A good try, but no cigar.