Wow! Such a good movie.

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

I was a Brooklyn South superfan back in the day (one reason...I was about to move to Brooklyn) and I own the DVD set now. With some perspective, I think the first episodes were the best, filmed on location, not in L.A., as they did later, and dealing with real situations street cops might meet. Ratings were not bad, but after Bochco's earlier hits (btw, he went to high school with me), CBS expected much and probably paid top dollar.When the show didn't go off the charts immediately, pressure from the network must have been intense, and the writers went off into spasms of incredulity, anything to try to get an audience. Suddenly these ordinary beat cops were uncovering all manner of big league crimes on a weekly basis, this week an international terrorist plot, that week a nest of bombers. The show became so unbelievable even I got turned off to it. They also added more and more characters, calling on beauty queens (Elana Elaniak) and popular actors from NYPD Blue. More characters is one thing it didn't need.Still, the acting was great and most of the cast have gone on to bigger things. Dylan Walsh on Nip n Tuck, Adam Rodriguez to CSI: Miami, etc. I just saw Gary Basaraba on the HBO Special "Recount".If they'd stuck to realistic plots, dealing with believable human drama (COPS finds plenty of it on the beat.), and CBS had given it a chance, we'd be watching Brooklyn South today. Instead, Bochco is still searching for the next big police thing. Hey, Steve, how about a show on cops on the beat...

The fact that this series ran only one season is a travesty. It's true it was competing with football etc...however, Steven Boccho and David Milch actually focused on the street officer in uniform. A tremendous cast of Gary Basaraba who made the show go..but outstanding performances by actors like James Sitking ( Hill Street Blues, Dylan Walsh, Michael Deluise (from NYPD Blue )Titus Welliver,Jon Tenny and Richard Jones. Klea Scott and Yancy Butler portrayed women police officers who interacted very well with their counterparts week after week and did their jobs very well. The series targeted the very essence of police work and that is, working the streets. It focused on the officer's duty,their personal lives, traumas and stress as they put their lives on the line every time they walked out the door of the 74th precinct. It is true there has been police series on TV, dating back to Dragnet (featuring detectives) Adam 12 ( almost robotic in nature ), William Shatner as TJ Hooker in 1982. Even Hill Street Blues featured the street officer in uniform, but was almost comedic when you consider the reflection of this mythical police department, where the officers didn't conform to the departmental regulation of the uniform..officers were allowed to wear corporate baseball caps, cowboy boots etc..with no fear of reprisal. James Sitking played a mercenary predator who was the commander of the SWAT team who wanted to utilize his latest weapons no matter what circumstances demanded. This is not to mention Renko (a loose cannon ) who in most departments would have been sent to see the department psycologist. But, none the less, it was a great show which lasted for years. The weekly scripts were outstanding addressing the controversial issues of the day while still reflecting the professionalism of the Police Officer in a positive way. This series may be history now, but it is available on DVD. I highly recommend it. Given what the choices are today, 10 years later..it should be welcomed back..regardless of critic opinion and "ratings". We lost a good series here.

I can still remember seeing BROOKLYN SOUTH during its only season (1997-98). It's really too bad that it didn't last any longer. The series struggled in the ratings, but it still had a chance to become a hit. If CBS had the courage to renew the series for a second season, it might have become successful.What sticks in my mind is the pilot, in part because it apparently made BROOKLYN SOUTH the first non-cable series to get the TV-MA rating (meaning Mature Audiences). But other than that, the rest of the episodes were rated TV-14 (indicating that it may not be suitable for viewers under the age of 14). The reason for the pilot's TV-MA ratings was because of the grisly shoot-out scene at the beginning, which involved a cop getting shot in the head by a sniper.The premature demise of the series was a big disappointment. I would have liked to see BROOKLYN SOUTH last five years or more. In fact, it could have been the HILL STREET BLUES of the new millennium.