Policías de Nueva York T'aint Misbehavin (1993–2005) Online

Well, this season was a carnage with no less than 4 cool characters being written off : Bobby, Sylvia, Dolores and Nadine… This may be the most interesting fact of this 6th season as for me, it was indeed painful to watch.

As I said for my 5th season review, this DVD edition without subtitles explains a lot but in the same time, if I cut Bobby's long agony (5 episodes), i had really the feeling to watch 17 times the same show : a DOA, a suspect quickly apprehended and long tense/hard interview at the house to close the case. Sure, this repetitive and circular narrative is logic for a TV show but i know other formula shows which are more creative : « X-files » for example : if it was a monster of the week, at least, the setting, the locations were new every week. With « NYPD », you got only limited outdoor scenes, the indoor scenes looks all the same and i have just said, everything happen in this derelict « house » !

Funny : The other problem had plagued also « X-files » : so, they are cop shows with maybe some personal back-stories tied to the main characters. Up there, this balance is fine. But things degrade quickly as soon as the writers put sexual tension between partners : From my personal life, i don't understand relationships on job and here this romance is a bit provocative : it's like Diana was doomed to have Danny as boyfriend since his arrival.

My best pick would be 6.16 : it was a good illustration of an office with partners tense and offended. I just like how Andy makes tons about it. A last line for Jimmy Smits who did an outstanding job playing an dying Bobby.

This episode (6:16 T'ain't Misbehavin) seems a good example of what NYPD Blue became as an on-going series following the death of Simone.

For me personally, by this point none of the personal relationships within the main cast felt believable or authentic. Many of the conversations between them felt very forced, just overly stylized writing by Milch. The conversation between Sipowicz and Sorenson about his girlfriend's pregnancy was just hard to watch.

Sorenson: They told her she couldn't have a baby, her doctors. She went on their word.

Sipowicz: You were who was present. You're in a better position then me if she's shootin' you through the grease.

Sorenson: Yeah, . . . I don't think she's shootin' me through the grease.

Sipowicz: Fine, good, leave it at that. . . . So you thinking' a large ceremony?

Sorenson: We are not talking' marriage Andy. We're talking' me takin' proper responsibility.

Sipowicz: You takin' proper responsibility given the givens how she lays them out assumin' the assumptions.

Sorenson: Yes Andy, correct. Assumin' the assumptions, given the givens.

No actors could deliver such lines and appear to be actual human beings. Ricky Schroder's very limited range only served to emphasis leaden writing of this nature.

What saves this episode is a great performance by guest actor Ray McKinnon as Ted, the slow witted criminal. Without him this episode is lifeless and meandering.

I love NYPD Blue, and I love David Milch, but the show simply was not good by this point. Schroder had a very difficult task, trying to fill in for the departed Jimmy Smits, and I could blame the shows rapid decline on his sleep-walking single note portrayal of Sorenson, but that probably would not be fair. Schroder is who he is, and in the end he was only the most obvious problem of a show by now more defined by problems than qualities. It is a shame that Bochco and Milch did not push themselves harder at this point to maintain the series. It had been one of the best shows on television for five years, and I hated to see it implode like it did this season.