good back-story, and good acting

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

One of the best crime shows since The Wire. Full of strong, witty, intelligent dialog. Great case work and crime solving, along with strong acting and good cinematography. Finch was one of the greatest characters to come out in a long time. His strange persona, but upbeat and quirky way of getting things done was epic. This show got so damn good towards the end of the season, I bet this would have progressed so much in just a few more seasons. This is now the 4th or 5th show ABC should have not cancelled, including the Playboy Club and Prime Suspect, and a few others that slip my mind. Shame on you ABC. You don't know a great TV show if it smacked you in the face.

I will admit that the first episode was pretty hard to sit through and I was a little disappointed. I'm not sure what they did but it seems that the show quickly moved in a new direction for the better. I started out with Blue Bloods being my favorite new crime series after they made the horrible mistake of cutting the original Law & Order.However, by the season's end Detroit 1-8-7 was by far my favorite winning over Blue Bloods and Chicago Code. I mention these two titles since the rumor is Detroit 1-8-7 is being canceled leaving these two as alternatives for anyone interested.If there was a police drama out there to replace NYPD Blue this would be it. Each character is unique and engaging as well as having depth. I started out not liking Imperioli's character in the first episode but like I said they toned it down and refined the atmosphere of the series. I really like the idea where a few episodes revived cases from the past that the more veteran detectives were originally a part of. The setting being in Detroit is a key part of the series and really plays a roll well.I would highly recommend this series and would ask another station to pick up this series if canceled.

This show is fresh and very original, not another cookie cutter murder show and always the second suspect as the killer. Writers are terrific and the give the excellent cast some quality material, nice job how the story lines are interwoven. It's not just another cop drama, feels like real people with real life situations and problems to solve or resolve, including their own self conflicts. Every symbol, tool or character has a reason to be there. Characters are grounded and well thought out, compelling and we actually root for them, no mystery here, no hidden alcoholics or drug abuse by the show's cops (we've seen it so many times before). Even my 13 year old son has an interest in the show because of the good action and strong story arcs which actually make sense -- no sci-fi effects, these are people facing true crises and figuring it out. Refreshing, refreshing, refreshing! ABC you have a hit, let it mature some more, you'll win recognition for this -- reward your actors, writers and producers, with more episodes, they all deserve it! So does your growing audience.

Well, it is filmed it Detroit. At least so far. I wouldn't be surprised if that changed at some time in the future; and they went to filming somewhere else with canned Detroit footage. Detroit's one of those places it nice to be from. A long way from. Detroit is probably near the top 10 of the top fifty cities in the United States. As someone who moved away 15 years ago I know of what I speak. That being said, there are other problems; for instance a murder is not a 187 in Detroit. They probably got to far into the project before they figured that out. Someone was trying to build a show in the pattern of other shows where the city was the star like NYPD Blue and most especially Homicide: Life on the Streets and The Wire. Sadly they did a direct rip off a concept from Homicide. The great Yaphet Kotto played Lt. Al Giardello the interesting black cop who was cultured and spoke Italian. So apparently that seemed like a good idea because they have a black higher ranking detective who speaks Italian and is worldly. It's really sad to see such blatant stealing of a concept. I worked in an emergency room in Detroit for several years and there lots of stories there. The producers and writers of this show just didn't bother to go to the trouble to look for those stories. And lastly Detroit has lost most of what gave it personality. Detroit is mostly abandoned homes, offices, factories, even skyscrapers. It has to be challenge for the director to find shots of the city don't look like a war zone. Baltimore has serious problems, but nothing like Detroit. I remember about 15 or 20 years ago a common bumper sticker was "Will the last person to leave Detroit please turn out the lights" I even saw a review of this show that said this is realistic. It's far from realistic 80% of homicides in Detroit are drug related, 5% random violence, 15% family killings. And 90% are black on black crime; because the city is 90% black. And this show contains the usual assortment of skinny attractive people playing cops. Not that the murder cops in Detroit are ugly; but most don't look like this bunch. They would be better served by actually looking at Detroit's crime stats there are plenty of interesting stories there. I wasn't even a cop and I've seen several incidents that would make better stories then they've come up with so far. I imagine the mayor's office makes sure no one sees the real Detroit. Detroit was once the largest bedroom community in the world. Most of those neighborhoods are now filled with vacant and burned out husks of homes, with tens of thousands of vacant lots. To sum up. While this isn't a bad show; it doesn't hold a candle to NYPD Blue, Homicide, or The Wire. I hate to think that people will watch this show and think Detroit looks like a fun place to go to---it's not, there's very little night life that's safe to take part of.