I remember too see this series in the late 80's (the other favorite of mine was WISEGUY) and i just simply was stick to the TV.This series was unique in the 80's because the style and the look of the 50's something like i never see before,the cars,the music,the girls,the food,the action,the cops,the criminals...Everyhting was handle with a great direction and the scripts was incredible.Of course the cast was amazing.Dennis Farina (RIP) was like always incredible,Bill Smitrovich,Steve Ryan,Bill Campbell and Stephen Lang was incredible too...The chemistry between this guys was amazing and still miss all this characters in the TV.Simply one of the best cop series i ever see in my life and when i mention to people if they remember this series EVERYONE says:"oh men!! what a AWESOME series!!! They don't make series like this!!!" and you know what?...They are right!!!

The 1986 NBC drama 'Crime Story' is often credited as a predecessor to today's greatly serialized TV show such as 'The Sopranos' or 'The Wire', and as the prototype for this kind of series whose story-arcs span multiple episodes. Set in the 1960s it's about policeman Lt. Mike Torello and mobster Ray Luca who rises through the ranks. The first season takes 22 episodes to tell their story, however – being among the first shows to not be completely episodic – it is not as brave in its approach as the shows that would follow it are, and there are a lot of episodic stories weaved into the overarching plot. The show still feels quite episodic because of it, and you can tell that the writers at the time didn't feel the viewers would be able to appreciate a single narrative over the course of about 18 hours. This is especially obvious with the inclusion of season 1 'episode' 12 "Crime Pays", which is nothing but a 45 minute recap of what had happened in the previous 11 episodes. There are other moments later in the show, as it generally declines quite a bit, when there are long flashbacks, too.As far as I'm concerned that's a blemish for the show, as it insults the viewers' intelligence, even though the times and their viewing practices might have warranted that. The show does have a bit going for it, though, other than retrospectively exploring the beginnings of today's great shows' narrative structures. It features some very good acting, especially from Dennis Farina (playing Lt. Mike Torello), and Jon Polito, whose character Phil Bartoli doesn't get enough screen-time, though. A young Julia Roberts has a guest role in one of the episodes, too, as well as Kevin Spacey and other great actors. Also, there's some fantastic work being done behind the camera. Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, King Of New York, The Addiction, …) directs the two episodes spanning pilot and Michael Mann (Heat, The Last of the Mohicans, …) produces the entire series.It's quite evident that this show was made in the 80s, and it feels like the 1980s 90 percent of the time (not only because of the constant anachronistic 1980s score), even though its story takes place in the 1960s, but that doesn't really deter from the production quality of it all. Where the show – at least for me – ultimately falls short of being a great one, though, is in the writing. There's just not enough substance to it. The story definitely has the potential for it, as Michael Scorsese later showed in 'Casino', which was inspired by 'Crime Story', as he himself admitted, but the show doesn't quite live up to it. The episodic elements don't help, but in the end it comes down to the characters not being refined enough. Torello and Luca are interesting enough in the beginning, but character-wise they stay where they are for the rest of the series. They are mainly identified by their hatred for each other, their ambition and their hotheadedness. Unfortunately, there's little beyond that. We get to see them with their significant others and similar things like that, but little is done to further the characters anyway, and in the end there's just too little to care about, especially when the main storyline regularly gets interrupted by often uninspired cases-of-the-week. The dialogue-writing is sharp enough for it to be a decent show, yet sadly the characters aren't fleshed out well-enough. The plot- writing is also not up to par. It often takes the cheap way out and generally lacks credibility and quality. There wasn't nearly enough for it ever to be a great show, but it could have been a good one with a few tweaks. All of this, by the way, is only talking about the first season. The second one is generally another notch below the first one.

Crime Story was a strange, hard and often inspired tv series from the mid-eighties. It was made by the producer of Miami Vice, Michael Mann, and the cast is stocked with Michael Mann regulars - Stephen Lang, Bill Smitrovitch, Ted Levine and Dennis Farina (all except Ted Levine are in Manhunter). Although Farina and his crew throughout the series chase after their arch nemesis, Ray Luca and his gang (Pauli Taglia, Frank Holman), the story comes in two parts. The first part, allegedly set in Chicago, the second set in Las Vegas. Throughout the series, the director tries for a fifties, early sixties feel, even though that's tough to maintain. Great music, every episode is introduced by Del Shannon's "Runaway". However, very often the focus is the psychological dynamic between Mike Torello (real-life Chicago cop Farina) and Ray Luca (played with a psychopathic coldness by Anthony John Denison). Torello may be on the right side of the law, but there is an equally uneasy quality about the doggedness with which he keeps going after Luca. What would his life be without him? Torello is also frequently tempted to cross the line and behave in a more effective, but illegal way himself. If you haven't seen it, and you like Wise Guy, or the feel and look Michael Mann gives to his productions, don't miss this series. As this is a classic 80s series, there are also lots of cameos from familiar actors and actresses.

Just got the DVD of this movie, the pilot episode for the TV series of the same name. Wow, did this take me back! Excellent performance by the cast and crew. This is a return to the days when TV shows didn't stoop to using 3/4 naked women and super-suggestive themes to attract the more sophomoric viewers. Now, if I could only find the entire series on tape or DVD.................