The Milch Studies - Brooklyn South, The Wrap-Up

Brooklyn South, to its credit, did run for a full season.  That’s actually a decent run, when compared to other Milch programs (NYPD Blue’s twelve-year run was very much an outlier.)  The show, however, is pretty weak tea when compared to what most viewers expected from another Milch/Bochco cop drama.  The first season of NYPD Blue brought us a young lead in the midst of a divorce, an older lead crawling his way out of alcoholism, and various supporting players that ranged from a nice guy with a stutter to unrepentant adulterous scum.  Brooklyn South doesn’t give us a Sipowicz.  We don’t even get a Mike Roberts.

The Milch Studies - Brooklyn South

Brooklyn South debuted in the Fall of 1997, just as NYPD Blue was entering its fifth season and Total Security was dying a fast death on ABC.  Even though it aired on competing network CBS, Brooklyn South was intended in many respects as an NYPD Blue spinoff.  And, in many ways, it wasn’t.  This is confusing.