I am a Cop, a Big City Cop. At least I was one for nearly 35 years, which was just about all of my adult life. So, just because life doesn't require sitting through at Roll Calls, patrolling the streets, nor attendance in various Court Rooms, from Traffic Court to Felony Courts and the Grand Jury; the identity is still the same, a Cop.And, being that the Statute of Limitations have now run their course, the time is ripe. They say that Confession is good for the Soul, so it must be that time. It's high time to get all of this off my chest. So please, bear with me. Thank you.I like Cop Shows, good Cop Shows, that is. Certain Series such as : "ADAM 12", "POLICE STORY", "HILL STREET BLUES" and the perennial NBC Favourite, "LAW & ORDER" and its family, these are programs that combine a certain level of realism, blended in with high entertainment value.Sometimes, the public forgets that Policemen are just like any other grown-up boys, only more so. Cops like their toys and they like their fantasies. When DIRTY HARRY with Clint Eastwood hit the Screens in 1971, it was all Clint Eastwood for America's Cops. So we saw Dirty Harry type haircuts, Harry like sport jackets and the like. And there wasn't a Smith & Wesson, Model 29, .44 Magnum Calibre Pistol left for sale in any gun shops in these United States.So a little make believe can go along way, for anyone, even the Police.In "BROOKLYN SOUTH" we have a Stephen Bochco Production that has quite a Family Tree. It's a cousin of "NYPD BLUE" and is also distantly related to that most prolific progenitor, the Abraham of Cop Shows, "HILL STREET BLUES".Like all the previous efforts from Mr. Bochco, quality reigned supreme. The writing, the cinematography, costuming, color work and cast were all tops. A fine group of actors, both veteran and youthful, formed a sort of repertory company of NY City Police. Among those featured, my own favourites were: "HILL STREET" veteran, James B. Sikking as Captain Jones, Michael DeLuise as Officer Phil Roussakoff and the very underrated and unappreciated Gary Basaraba as Desk Sgt.Richard Santoro, who got promoted to Lieutenant during the short, 22 episode run of "BROOKLYN SOUTH".* Mr. Bochco and Company were attempting to do what is most difficult, and that is namely, to do a successful series not about the 'Big Heat' Detectives; but rather one dealing with the 'grunts', the infantryman of the Police Department, the Uniformed Patrolmen.NOTE: * We see that the entire series is available on DVD. Quick, someone tell my family! Christmas is just a little more than 2 weeks away.

The pilot to Brooklyn South was one of the most hyped-up of all time; what with the TV-MA rating and the promise of "intensity".Unfortunately, it completely failed to deliver on the promise as the shoot-out was poorly filmed and uninvolving. Staging in particular was much to blame for the lack of impact as the whole thing looked as fake as possible (of course the director was given an Emmy to show once again that awards care about hype, not quality).As to the death of an officer, given that we hadn't met him before it fell flat dramatically.POTENTIAL SPOILER To follow up, the writers made much to do over whether a murderer who had been shot seven times died of being kicked in the ribs. The audience's answer: to leave the show in droves, and who could blame them? Seven bullets in the body and the guy dies of a kick in the ribs? How realistic is that? Clearly the writers were thinking Albert Louima, but they forgot Louima was pretty much an innocent victim while their cop-killer was... well, a cop-killer. Hard to feel any angst over his well-deserved death.After that the show meandered, hampered by a ridiculously huge cast (thirteen main characters by the end of the show) meaning that even as the first season ended nobody cared about any of those strangers.Overall a big waste of resources.

This is the best cop show to come on TV since Law & Order. I don't why they took it off the air, I did not no it was on in 1997-98. It has one if not the best shot out scenes at the start of the series of any show that has ever came on TV. The main characters of the show are all excellent and I had never seen most of them in movies before. The Desk sergeant who they call boss is so good that he must have had some great acting lessons or been a real cop. I have watch a lot of police shows and movies in my time and this one is equal if not better than most of them, I still can not believe they took it off the air after only one year but they did the same thing to the Blue Knight and look how great that TV show was and still is, there is no accounting for taste in this world some people do not no what they are missing in good shows!

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.