Hill Street Blues: Not That Great

When I was a kid in the 80s, my parents watched "Hill Street Blues." It debuted in 1981, when I was 12 -- a little young for what was then considered a gritty cop show. I never watched it, but I was tuned-in enough to pop culture that I heard about it, plenty.

Fast-forward to 2012. My husband (who is 7 months younger than I, and had stricter parents, so I don't know why he was allowed to watch "HSB" when I wasn't, but whatever) wonders if the show is as good as he remembers it. It's available from Netflix, so we rent the first DVD. Last night, we popped it in the player.

I am saying this based ONLY on the first two episodes. That's not totally fair, but this is my blog. You want fair, write your own blog.

"Hill Street Blues" kind of sucked!

OK, I'm absolutely willing to believe it got better. It must have!

Based on the first two episodes:

The Good:
Hmm. Give me a minute. Well, Daniel J. Travanti, as Capt. Frank Furillo, has a sort of weary authority to him that I liked. I also like the way the show starts in medias res (that's fancy talk for "in the middle of things") and expects you to keep up. 


The Bad:  
On the other hand, many of the characters are -- at this point -- more cardboard standups from central casting than fully-realized characters. Officer Renko wears cowboy boots and a bolo tie. Joyce Davenport (defense attorney -- for some reason, I always thought she worked for the DA but I guess not) is tightly wound and for some reason everyone thinks she's hot. (She's perfectly fine-looking, but nothing spectacular).  I'm hoping for deeper character development as the show goes on.

Speaking of Renko, he and his partner (supercool black cop Bobby Hill) respond to a domestic disturbance, and find that a mom is threatening her naked teenage daughter with a knife because she caught the daughter (who looks 15, tops) in bed with her (the mom's) husband. (The husband is NOT the father of the daughter, thankfully). No one says anything about child molestation (in fairness, "statutory rape" is mentioned). In the end, Hill tells the mom to be more available to the stepdad, and tells the daughter to shut the bathroom door when she's dressing. WTF?

The Just Plain Silly:
Oh, where to begin?

Det. Belker bites people, and growls. Did I mention he bites people? He then gets upset when he's not given credit for NOT biting someone.

Sgt. Esterhaus (the guy who says "Let's be careful out there" every episode) is played by a 53-year-old actor. He just got divorced after 23 years of marriage. He looks -- easily -- 60. He's dating a high school senior. When he told this to Furillo's ex-wife in the first episode, I kept expecting him to say "Just kidding!" Nope. He continued talking about her in the second episode, and nobody seems grossed out by it. Except me.

There is a summit of the gangs in the (unnamed) city in episode 2 that really must be seen to be believed. The gang members -- I am NOT making this up -- wear matching vests with appliques! Fucking appliques! One gang has little bloody knives sewn onto its vests. It's adorable. It's like the costumer raided the high school drama department's costume closet. Some of the gangs wear little hats. I seriously wish I could find screencaps from this scene. It's that hilarious. (David Caruso pops up as an Irish gang leader with -- I swear -- a shamrock appliqued onto his vest.)

I found a picture!!! See, I wasn't making it up.

The show gets better, right? Or at least stays hilariously ridiculous?