Took me a long time to get into this but now I’m hooked. Great story telling – so many scenes and locations and it goes bang-bang-bang. The first ep had the detectives and DAs relating personally to the tale (is everyone in New York an alcoholic or former alcoholic or is it just writers rooms?) but thankfully they dropped that. I love all the exposition and the 50 worders and dailies trying to hit the mark, the varying quality of the actors. I even liked the “ripped from the headlines” and “hey lets talk about a social issue” ness of some stories (eg AIDS mercy killing.)
It took Chris Noth a few eps to figure out how to play his character but once he did (i.e. as smug) he was fine (apart from that one episode where he emotively bangs against a window). Michael Moriarty and Steven Hill are terrific, love that method mumbling where you can understand every word. Richard Brooks, the black assistant DA, isn’t as good – he keeps sighing and looks like a guitarist from In Living Colour. Dan Florek has these great sad eyes to play the chief cop.
The guest cast is a constant delight. It’s great fun to see future stars like Michael Mancini from Melrose Place, Leo from West Wing, Miranda from Sex and the City, the intense black guy from seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter (giving the same performance), Samuel L Jackson (a very small role as a lawyer), Philip Seymour Hoffman (rapist), Christine Baranski (mobster’s sister), Ron Rifkin, Fritz Weaver, etc.
The show was surprisingly PC – the killers are usually rich wives, drunk doctors, Harvard grads, white cops, corrupt cops. The oddest ep was the child abuse one - this felt cut about, as if it had been edited for legal reasons. I didn't like the prostitution ep that much until the final twist. Consistently superb show.
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