NYPD Blue Seasons 1-3
by Adam Nimoy, Andy Wolk, Brad Silberling, Charles Haid, Daniel Sackheim
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dennis Franz, James McDaniel, Jimmy Smits, Nicholas Turturro, Sharon LawrenceDirector: Adam Nimoy, Andy Wolk, Brad Silberling, Charles Haid, Daniel Sackheim
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Subtitled
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-21
Movie Reviews of NYPD Blue Seasons 1-3
Movie Review: The first three seasons were the best
Summary: 5 Stars
Seasons 1-3 of NYPD Blue are basically two different shows. Season one plus episodes 1-4 of Season 2 make up the "John Kelly Episodes". During this time, NYPD Blue emphasized the "Blue" part of its title with strong sexual content that was often excessive. With the departure of the central character of the show, detective John Kelly, the entire show had to shift gears. First off, Sherry Stringfield, who played Kelly's ex-wife and primarily acted as a source of John's Catholic guilt over his divorce, essentially had nothing to do after his departure, and was thus written out of the show. Likewise for officer Janice Licalsi (Amy Brenneman), who was John's lover during the first season. She is given a light prison sentence for her part in the killing of a mobster, and never heard from again.
Thus, from episode 5 of season 2 through season 3, we basically have a brand new show with more emphasis placed on the character development of Andy Sipowicz as well as the solving of individual cases. Over the next few years Sipowicz is transformed from the alcoholic, bigotted, less-than-adequate detective we see in the pilot to an admirable man with a somewhat tarnished halo. Also, Andy's new partner, and the actor with star billing, detective and widower Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) is introduced. Simone has a less hectic personal life than his predecessor Kelly, as well as a less hard-boiled approach to the job. Towards the end of the second season, Simone starts a romance with detective Diane Russell (Kim Delaney) that continues throughout the joint duration of their tenure on the show.
One of the more puzzling developments in the show was the addition of detective Adrianne Lesniak (Justine Miceli) at the beginning of season two. From the beginning it seemed the writers didn't know quite what to do with her. At first she is the object of affection of Det. James Martinez (Nicholas Turturro). Not wanting to get involved with a fellow officer, she lies about her sexual orientation. Or is she lying? Even she eventually seems confused about the answer to that question. Eventually, she and Martinez do get together, but she is so controlling that the romance almost immediately collapses. Afterwards, Det. Lesniak is written out of the series at the end of season three leaving us wondering...just what WAS her purpose in the show to begin with?
By the end of season three, PAA Donna Abandando and Det. Greg Medavoy have tried and failed at romance and Donna has left New York for a job in California; Bobby and Diane's romance has progressed to the point where Bobby feels a proposal is in order... and Diane's response is to practically leave skid marks on the carpet in her retreat (it takes the entirety of season 4 to get to the bottom of this reaction); and a great personal tragedy throws Sipowicz' three-year stint of sobriety to a hault. All of these developments take season 4 in a different direction than seasons two and three, and, quite frankly, I think it marks the end of the best of the NYPD Blue years. The only thing I can say that is better in season four is the expansion of John Irvin's role (Bill Brochtrup) as PAA. I always thought he was much more interesting than anyone else that held that job.
I guess I'd give seasons 1-3 five stars for content but give this package deal only two stars. The main reason for the two-star rating is that these three seasons together cost more than if you buy each season individually. Also, it always seems that eventually popular multi-season TV series come out in excellent quality DVD box sets that make you regret your earlier purchases. Take "Homicide: Life on the Street" for example. For years, you could only buy individual seasons at exhorbitant prices and the series-capping movie couldn't even be found on VHS. Several months ago the whole series plus the movie plus bunches of bonus features came out in one boxed set that cost roughly a third of what it would have cost to buy all 7 seasons individually. This is probably the eventual path NYPD Blue will take too. The questions are, when will this happen, and are you willing to wait until it does?