I thought that 2/5 episodes rank as a 6/10; The brutal Central Park murder could have been done in a far more convincing way. But the back stories of the killers were rather uninformative, and there was not much of a story to be told beyond the extremely gruesome murder. Two more rank as an 8/10, and the final episode was the most gut-wrenching and easily deserves a 9/10/. It's documentary style and it is not often riveting. But I found it to be compelling and it held my interest. It's not sensationalized and is rather low key. The stories are carried by the detectives and attorneys who lived the experiences and I found them to be extremely compelling. If you enjoy police/legal procedurals or true life crime sagas, then you should enjoy Homicide: New York. It's pretty low key with limited use of dramatic effects (either visually or through the use of music/sound). It's much less slick than Law and Order.
Review of Homicide: New York
