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...

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.

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!