Believe-it-or-not, I never watched this show until I bought the DVD when it came out. I just never watched it, even though I enjoy crime shows. Anywhere, here are my thoughts, just randomly said:
David Caruso may have gotten top billing as the star of the show but Dennis Franz is the actor who dominates when on screen. He is the most dramatic figure in this crime series that features character studies, almost to the point of being soap opera-like. In fact, all the love-lives of the main characters are explored, especially as the episodes developed that first season.
In the beginning, some sex scenes were used to grab viewers. This was new to TV then. All the characters in the show may not have been likable but they were all interesting. To me, the most likable was Nicholas Turturro's "Martinez."
The cops - men and women - all talked tough and the show's writers liked to insert words like "a-hole" and "prick" because, I suspect, they could get away with using them. This was TV's first drama to use words like that and have the open sexuality that was shown here. We saw side shots of breasts and Caruso's butt, etc. Speaking of Caruso, he left after this first season and that really annoyed a lot of the viewers, I am told. After an unsuccessful movie career, he landed back on his feet in TV with the very successful CSI: Miami show. Franz, meanwhile, stuck it out for the long NYPD run.
I found the first season interesting but too much soap opera and not enough straight crime story didn't encourage me to buy any further season DVD sets.
David Caruso may have gotten top billing as the star of the show but Dennis Franz is the actor who dominates when on screen. He is the most dramatic figure in this crime series that features character studies, almost to the point of being soap opera-like. In fact, all the love-lives of the main characters are explored, especially as the episodes developed that first season.
In the beginning, some sex scenes were used to grab viewers. This was new to TV then. All the characters in the show may not have been likable but they were all interesting. To me, the most likable was Nicholas Turturro's "Martinez."
The cops - men and women - all talked tough and the show's writers liked to insert words like "a-hole" and "prick" because, I suspect, they could get away with using them. This was TV's first drama to use words like that and have the open sexuality that was shown here. We saw side shots of breasts and Caruso's butt, etc. Speaking of Caruso, he left after this first season and that really annoyed a lot of the viewers, I am told. After an unsuccessful movie career, he landed back on his feet in TV with the very successful CSI: Miami show. Franz, meanwhile, stuck it out for the long NYPD run.
I found the first season interesting but too much soap opera and not enough straight crime story didn't encourage me to buy any further season DVD sets.