Hill Street Blues

[Alberon]

I used to watch this back on Channel 4 in the late eighties and after finding High-Def copies I've started watching it again.

It was made in the early eighties and benfits from being shot on film rather than the smeary video of later shows like LA Law. I can't remember if it settles down later in the series, but the first two episodes are more than a little cartoony. Belker (the undercover cop) just growls a lot and has a reputation for biting suspects and the various gangs look more than a little silly.

One of them is the leader of an irish gang called the Shamrocks who is dressed like this.



And yes, that is a young David Caruso.

Among the rest of the cast is James B. Sikking as the leader of the tactical group who is a slightly more competent Arnold Rimmer.

What is perhaps most interesting these days are the differences in attitudes. A rape victim is interviewed in the middle of a busy police station office. In the first episode an undercover cop tries to chat up an attractive attorney without realising she's the girlfriend of the captain. He's supposed to be sleazy, but the amount of touching he does without permission is surprising by today's standards.

It all looks a little tame and naive by today's standards, but then again it is forty years old.

[Des Wigwam]

I used to watch this religiously in the mid-80s every Saturday. Absolutely loved it but some more harrowing bits have stuck in my head like the execution of the guy who killed the nun. It must be in later series.

I did start a re-watch a few years ago and was amazed at how much it was more like a comedy-drama than my Homicide: Life on the Streets memory of it. I did love seeing that depiction of the States though where it's so other worldly and might as well have been Mars for all the chance I would have had of going. Love that late 70s - early 80s aesthetic where even the phones sound cool and the cars all bounce like they have fucked shock absorbers.

Gonna put it on now (assuming it's still on All 4) for a bit.