The following are some general thoughts I had on NYPD Blue's up-and-down second season. First, the bad news (my complaints), then the good news (stuff I liked): 1)LACK OF ANY LONG-TERM STORYLINES: This is not entirely the fault of Bochco, Milch, and Co. I'm sure there was a lot of juicy stuff planned over the summer that had to be thrown out the window after Caruso abandoned ship. Haverill's smear campaign against Kelly, for example, could have gotten a lot more mileage, until it ultimately culminated in the Webster two-parter - only this time, it would have been Fancy and Kelly going after Haverill instead of Fancy and Sipowicz. As good as that storyline was, think of how much better it would have been with Caruso still around. So I was willing to forgive the writers for the first half of the season, as they were scrambling to introduce a whole new character and make him fit in. But the second half of the season was really no different from the first. The longest any major story (Dan Breen's son, Webster, Joyce the Psycho Woman) lasted was two episodes. Virtually the only running threads we had going were relationship stories, and with the exception of Andy and Sylvia, all the others seemed to fit more in a soap opera (Bobby and Diane) or in a sitcom (Greg, Donna, and Dana). There wasn't anything like last year, which featured for most of the year, among other things: Sipowicz struggling to crawl out of the pit his life had fallen into; Martinez learning how to be a detective; and, of course, Licalsi having to deal with the repercussions of the Marino shooting. Looking back on my reviews from early in the season, I noticed that I'd complained that the Licalsi/Marino story lasted as long as it did. I should've been careful what I wished for - because the writers went in the completely opposite direction, trying to keep every episode as self- contained as possible. 2)RIGIDITY OF FORMAT/PREDICTABILITY: This ties in with what I talked about above. Virtually every episode could be broken down into the following components: 1)Andy and Bobby investigating a particularly vicious murder, which is always solved by the end of the episode; 2)A much more minor crime investigation, usually involving Medavoy and Martinez, and usually used as comic relief; 3)A few scenes of Andy and Sylvia preparing for marriage; and 4)A personal storyline for someone else (usually a romance, and usually involving Bobby). The format got played with a little - towards the end of the season, the godawful comic relief stories appeared much less frequently. (NOTE: I have nothing against comic relief, but the so-called comedy we were presented with this season, with stuff like the gypsy curse on Medavoy or Sipowicz disposing of Howie Hornbeck's corpse, was played so broadly that not only was it not funny, but it didn't fit in with the show's realistic tone. Bits like Andy arguing with John Irwin or James singing at Andy's bachelor party seemed much truer to life and were much funnier.) However, in general, the show's seemed so cookie-cutter that I felt like I was watching old Starsky & Hutch reruns instead of NYPD Blue. The writers shouldn't have been afraid to let them lose a case once in a while - it happens all the time in real life (and it happened all the time on Bochco's "Hill Street Blues"). Because we know that Andy and/or Bobby will have coaxed a confession out of the suspect by the end of the episode, there's really no tension whatsoever, and all the cases start to blend into one another. By making the crime stories on Blue seem so unimportant, the show essentially becomes a soap opera dressed up in police drag. 3)LACK OF EXPOSURE OF THE SUPPORTING CAST: Someone commented that the writers can't win with us: we complain when their aren't stories devoted to the supporting cast, and then, when there are additional subplots added to an episode, we complain that all of the stories got short shrift. The problem is, the writers haven't realized that there's a happy medium in between the two. I realize that Blue is about Sipowicz and Simone and will never be a true ensemble show. But too many weeks would go by this season in which, for example, Martinez's only line would be, "I'm gonna start the canvas, Bobby," or where Donna didn't do anything other than relay phone messages to the detectives. There are a couple of ways to easily improve the status of the supporting characters without hurting Smits' and Franz's status as the stars. For one thing, the "Big Two" don't have to get the spotlight in every single episode. On Hill Street Blues, there would be episodes where Captain Furillo barely appeared at all, but it was still clear that Daniel J. Travanti was the star of the show. Ditto for Homicide, where Andre Braugher is unquestionably the show's big gun, even though his character doesn't investigate every single case. Every once in a while, it would be nice to see Greg and James work a big case, or to have a show where Fancy has to run an investigation because the squad is shorthanded. The reason we complain sometimes about storylines getting short shrift comes from the fact that every episode is seemingly required to have a major story about Simone and/or Sipowicz, which eats into any time devoted to the supporting characters. If, for example, there's an episode where Andy's getting another tooth pulled - and therefore, only five to ten minutes of the show are focused on Franz - then Greg, James, Art, Sylvia, and Donna should get enough time. Then again, the writers don't even have to go to that extreme (of essentially writing out one of the main characters for an episode). On ER, for example, certain running storylines may only get a few minutes an episode, but they appear in every episode (for example, Dr. Benton's problems in caring for his mother). Hill Street used to employ this technique at times, too, and it has a double effect: 1)You can give everyone something to do in an episode; and 2)You can stretch a storyline out much longer without making it seem like overkill. In addition, bits like Donna's love of hockey or James' forays into boxing should get more play. Even in an episode that's almost entirely devoted to Andy and Bobby, devoting thirty seconds to Martinez and Fancy talking about combinations (or, like they did in the finale, Medavoy bitching about traffic from Long Island) makes the supporting characters feel more human and not just foils and lackeys for the stars of the show. 4)THE FEMALE CHARACTERS ARE ALL APPENDAGES: I wrote a long post about this in mid-season, and there has also been a lot of discussion on this topic recently, so I'll keep this short. If the male supporting characters are second-class citizens, then the female ones are fifth-class. We always see them in relation to the men in their lives, and very rarely do they get storylines of their own. A classic example of this was Sylvia's rape storyline, which we saw entirely from Andy's perspective (or how we saw all of Andy's anxiety towards the wedding in the finale, but got almost none of Sylvia's). In the recent infamous TV Guide featuring Sharon Lawrence and Gail O'Grady, there's mention that a scene of Donna and Sylvia discussing office romances got left on the cutting room floor, which seems pretty par for the course - after all, if none of the men were in it, what possible reason could the producers have had for leaving it in? 5)CHEEZY SETS: Say what you will about Law & Order, but when I watch it, I actually feel like I'm watching a show set in New York, because it's entirely filmed there. Because NYPD Blue is shot mainly on Hollywood studio backlots (with occasional trips to New York to film, for example, scenes taking place right outside the 15 building), a lot of scenes feel really phony to me. I realize that shooting entirely in New York costs a fortune (which is one of the reasons why Law & Order has such a high cast turnover rate: the cost of filming itself is so high that the budget for the cast has to be fairly low), but I'm hoping that there are either more trips to film in the Big Apple next season, or else they start spending more money on dressing the sets so I don't feel like I'm watching Sesame Street every time we see an exterior scene. Okay, I realize I've been a bit harsh here, so I'll get to the good stuff now before I entirely alienate any of the behind-the-scenes people who may be reading this. :) Here it is... 1)THE TRANSITION FROM CARUSO TO SMITS: At the time Caruso made his power play, I was very upset, because I loved his performance and had never been crazy about Smits. But in the long run, I think Caruso's decision will turn out best for the show, because as bloody brilliant as he was at times, he was a bit too intense for the long haul of a TV series - there are a lot of people on this group who were already sick of him before the first season ended. The fact that Smits has come in, essentially playing a softer version of John Kelly, and has fit in so well is a real testament to his abilities as a performer. I was really looking for a reason to dislike Smits, but by the end of "Simone Says," I was already in his corner. One of the best things about Smits' presence is how well he and Franz play off each other - Caruso and Franz never had that same level of chemistry. 2)THE PERFORMANCES OF FRANZ, SMITS, AND JAMES MCDANIEL: Critics suggested that Dennis Franz couldn't carry the show after Caruso left. Whoops. For virtually the first half of the season, as the writers were trying not to make Smits incredibly prominent, Franz *was* the show, and he was even better than he had been last year. Moments like his reaction to the murder of Dan Breen, his "beep beep" interrogation of the wife-beater, and the story about the baby fed to the dog were all riveting. Caruso came and left and the show didn't suffer incredibly, but if Franz were to go, I would, too. Which is not to say that Smits was exactly chopped liver, either. I'd always been ambivalent about him - on LA Law, he struck me as a fairly bland guy who was supposed to be charming but wasn't. But on NYPD Blue, he was a revelation. Instead of playing a charismatic character, he had charisma - the storyline with Joyce the Psycho Woman was Smits at his very best. And he also showed depth that I didn't think he had - in the scene at the end of "Innuendo" where he plays the tape of the 911 call for Fancy, while he's still upset over shooting a man, Smits was so emotionally naked that it was scary. The only real problems I have with the character of Bobby is that he's become a bit of a male slut - going to bed very rapidly with both Benita and Diane - even though he's still trying to get over his wife's death, but that's a writing flaw, not a flaw in Smits' performance. James McDaniel has also been excellent, making the most of every story he's given. McDaniel is incredibly charismatic - when there's a scene involving Fancy, it's hard to watch anybody else. And though he's at his best when Fancy is being stoic or angry, McDaniel got a few chances to show the lighter side of Art to great effect - particularly in any episode that featured Vinnie Greco. 3)GOOD RECURRING CHARACTERS: While the "true" (i.e., in the opening credits) supporting characters often got short shrift, the guest stars that appeared more than once were all uniformly excellent. People like Dan Breen, Vinnie Greco, and John Irwin, got more depth in a few episodes than a lot of the regular characters got all season. This is somewhat of a recurring theme for the show: in the first season, while Laura, Janice, and James (all in the main credits) were all getting little to no screen time, Sylvia, Donna, and Greg were all being given plenty of interesting character work. This season, all three have joined the main cast and have been relegated to the background a lot - maybe they should ask the producers to take them out of the opening credits so they can have more stuff to do. :) 4)ADRIENNE LESNIAK: She probably belongs in the previous category, but I have enough to say about her that she gets her own listing. Lesniak was the one exception to the "women as appendage" problem. In her limited appearances, she's been established as a very good cop (so much so that both Greg and James are deferential to her when they work a case together) who's independent and won't put up with any crap from her coworkers (on her first day on the job, she told off Kelly and Sipowicz!). However, as the season wore on, the storylines Adrienne was placed into were questionable - there was one month where every single case she investigated involved a sexual deviant, for example; and the silly plot involving Martinez's crush on her - until she eventually vanished until the finale. However, I happened to like Justine Miceli's performance in the role and think the character has a lot of potential if she's used right. If she's brought back next season, let's hope that she's given more to do than politely fend off James' advances. 5)SOME DAMNED FINE EPISODES: Somebody commented recently that there wasn't a single episode this season that stacked up with a show from season one. Bullshit. "Dead and Gone" (Caruso's swan song), "In the Butt Bob" (Webster pt. 1), "Vishy Vashy Vinnie" (Webster pt. 2), and "Innuendo" (the mad shooter) all compare *very* favorably with the very best season one had to offer - and only one of these four featured David Caruso. If you look back at season one, there were some gems at the beginning and the end of the season, but some of the middle episodes were no more exciting than stuff like "Boxer Rebellion" or "The Final Adjustment." Well, I'm going to wrap this up, as the hour is getting late and my fountain of ideas is running dry. If people from the show are in fact reading this (just because guys like Michael Most haven't posted in months doesn't mean they're not still out there), I hope you won't take my criticism in the first half of this post the wrong way: I still love the show dearly, and I only want it to get better as time goes on, which is why I made these suggestions. See ya in the funny papers... -Alan Sepinwall -sepinwal@mail.sas.upenn.edu -http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~sepinwal/ (NON)RANDOM QUOTE "That was my Tit-Cup!" -Carmine Caridi, "NYPD Blue"