Customer Reviews

Brooklyn South: The Complete Series

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Brooklyn South was a stellar police drama from producer Steven Bochco which ran on CBS for a single season. The show was basically a 90s update on Bochco's earlier cop ensemble series Hill Street Blues, but with more edge. Brooklyn South was just as great as NYPD Blue (another Bochco production) but failed to pull in the numbers CBS wanted to justify another season. Where on NYPD Blue the focus was on the work and personal lives of the detectives, Brooklyn South focused on the sector patrol - the "beat cops" - while flawed, still exhibited glowing pride in their work. This is exemplified in the show's patriotic opening theme by veteran composer Mike Post.

Although Brooklyn South featured great storylines and performances, CBS seemed to suffer from the "single season curse" whenever they put out a new quality drama. Brooklyn South, EZ Streets, Turks, and Michael Hayes were ALL quality shows that never made it past one season due to poor viewership, despite good reviews. Though with Michael Hayes, I always suspected that viewers still harbored resentment [at the time] toward David Caruso for leaving NYPD Blue so early in its run.

After Brooklyn South ended several of the cast members went on to more successful projects, not surprisingly, police drama-related. Richard T. Jones (Officer Clement Johnson) went on to star in Judging Amy; Yancy Butler (Officer Ann-Marie Kersey) starred as the heroine in Witchblade; Gary Basaraba (Sgt. Richard Santoro) stars in Boomtown; Klea Scott (Officer Nona Valentine) appeared as a Pre-Crime cop in Minority Report; And Adam Rodriguez (Officer Hector Villanueva) formerly of Roswell, stars in CSI: Miami;

I can't recommend this DVD enough. The episodes themselves are MORE than enough to justify the purchase. This DVD could signal the future release of those other great shows I mentioned earlier. Man, the possibilities are definitely expanding now! Think how cool it would be to own DVDs of Reasonable Doubts or Murder One - both with TWO SEASONS under their belts. Until then, my copy of Brooklyn South is already bought. Oh yeah!

Here in the United Kingdom we have our own cop drama's, the most famous being The Bill, but I find watching American shows far more interesting and entertaining.

Brooklyn South premiered on Channel 5 (Britains newest fifth channel, aren't we lucky having 5 channels? anyway thats a whole different subject) Channel 5 had been on air a year, and half of the population couldn't even get this show. Whcih is a shame as it deals with important issues in a realistic way, not portrayed in "i know this is a tv show" way, for a while you're sucked into believing the people are real, well they are, but not really, are you confused?

Sadly, by the time I'd got into this show and got used to the constant moving the episodes from 9pm to 11pm the show was over, and really over as it was cancelled the previous year it aired in the UK.

I've bought the DVD set to enjoy time and again and I recommend you invest in a copy, this show is one of the best dramas to come from the states in years

This is another great Bochco production. Everything Bochco learned working on Hill Street Blues he refined on this show. Great storylines, great dialogue. This show was cast very well too with the likes of James B. Sikking, Klea Scott, Michael DeLuise, Richard T. Jones and Jon Tenney. CBS should have let this show grow. It's too bad the networks demand high numbers right out of the box. They forget their own recent history, many shows took a few years to develop big audiences and numbers, like Cheers, The Simpsons, X-Files, and they have turned into cash cows.

I'm not a profession review writer -- not even amateur. This is my first and it will be short and sweet. I bought Brooklyn South without much knowledge as to it's content. By the end of the first episode I already knew it was realistic, well acted and something I was sorry had been canceled after the first season. My mid-west home is far away from NYC, but while I watched this series I was right there on Manhattan Island putting myself next to one side or the other and not always the police. As I took the final DVD out of the player I did, indeed, morn that there were no more episodes and no more seasons to watch! My apologies for a short review. You can get that from others who wrote lengthy reviews. I'm just an amateur DVD owner and watcher who hopes this will encourage you to buy, watch and enjoy Brooklyn South as I did ! ! ! I don't think there is any chance that you will be sorry.

This is a good show that has been ill-served by defective copies. I bought two new, sealed copies of "Brooklyn South" from Amazon sellers and each disc in each set is marked and smeared. Maybe it's a bad coating, I don't know, but the discs are unplayable. The best bet may be to purchase a "Like New" or "Very Good" copy; at least those have been inspected and perhaps proven to be playable.

this series had everything. wonderful preformances,with writting that was impeccable. from the same who brought us hillstreet and nypd...nypd was at is's prime when this drama could have used the producers added attention as it began to fall thru the network cracks,but i imagine it is near impossible to keep two gold stars shinning at all the right times. when viewership and sched probs arose nypd received the attention it needed and south went south...never-the-less stories,directors,sets and talent are in abundance. this is one that should not be missed...the dvd is too expensive esp. since there are not even subtittles. but the commentary on the pilot alone is worth some of the problems,which are few...top notch.

I watched this show when it was on the air and loved it. And, when I bought the DVD set and watched it again, I still enjoyed it tremendously. This was first rate crime drama with some very memorable characters. It's a dirty rotten shame that it was cancelled after just one season. Just another quality show that bites the dust, while rubbish continues to get renewed and stay on the air. And they wonder why people turn to cable stations for their programming enjoyment. I'm really surprised that C.S.I. is still on the air because it is a quality show and quality shows tend not to last very long on television.

SHOULD OF CONTINUED FOR 7 OR 8 YEARS! MAYBE LONGER I MEAN LONGER!! VERY VERY GOOD SHOW! SO MANY IDEAS COULD OF BEEN USED! THE CAST ROCKS! LOOK AT WHERE THEY ARE TODAY. SHOULDA WOULDA COULDA WE ALL MAKE MYSTAKES. YEE HA!!

buyer beware is right. i bought brand new from amazon the first time and like the person said before me all the disc had fingerprints and marks on them. the picture would begin to break up and stop. i sent the set back to amazon and received the new package. all the disc have fingerprints and marks on them. I have not had time to play them yet.I will report on how the dvds play. I am very upset with the producers of dvds. they do not check the quailty of the product. but to amazons credit they do make it right when you have a problem with a purchase.

I picked this up from the Amazon marketplace brand new for about $5. What a great series; a shame that it lasted for such a short time. I suppose though, that if it had a long run then many of the series we have seen since would not have been so great. Pretty much every single actor in this show has been on another related popular TV series. Definitely worth a look.