jblanch3 t1_ja5hvwb wrote on February 27, 2023 at 12:04 AM

It's already looking like this thread is going to have the same discussion it seems to have every other day about which shows declined in quality and stuff like that. It's nice that you brought up New York Undercover, I didn't know it was streaming. I know BET was airing reruns recently and I watched a few episodes. I used to watch it back in the day, I think I stopped around Season 3 or around there. It was a really long time ago, so I can't really elaborate on what exactly changed, but I know I wasn't enjoying it as much as I used to so I stopped watching. It was a very unique show for its time, in that the two main characters, detectives were minorities and their captain was a woman. And it felt natural, it didn't feel like they were pandering. It had that Dick Wolf feel like Law and Order, but it had a more gritty, on the ground quality since it was just about the cops. I'm just giving my really basic assessment; again, I hadn't watched it in a very long time until recently, and only a couple of episodes at that. Malik Yoba and Lauren Velez seem to have had pretty decent careers, I still see them in stuff to this day. I don't know what happened with Michael DeLorenzo, I don't recall seeing him in anything after this.

stevenw84 OP t1_ja5izcl wrote on February 27, 2023 at 12:12 AM

Two non white cops with a female boss. Characters using racial slurs to help drive the point of the episode home (for example white kid accused of bombing black churches). Pretty edgy for the time but it was Fox, after all.

One thing the show portrayed was a strong, black man that was an attentive father. It often bucked stereotypes but sometimes would fall victim to some obvious preaching.

Then maybe halfway into season 3, the show became more generic, and lost some of the "urban" feel. I'm as white as they come, but grew up in an area where I was the minority.

Another thing that stuck with me was the subject matter. Lots of kids being killed on camera, and other brutal crimes relating to children either as victims or perpetrators.

Lastly, it made NYC look just as dirty as it really was at the time.

jblanch3 t1_ja5joke wrote on February 27, 2023 at 12:18 AM

Yes, I believe New York Undercover was part of Fox's Thursday night bloc, which were all shows with a (mostly) minority cast. I believe it was Martin, then Living Single, then New York Undercover (since Fox's prime time slot was just two hours, and still is today).

Your view on what changed about the show sounds about right. I can't point to anything specific (that time/memory thing yet again), but it started feeling "samey". A part of television since its inception has been shows about cops and the law, and so many of them seemed to hit the same exact note. New York Undercover appealed to me because it felt so fresh and raw compared to the other cop shows airing at that time. My theory is that the ratings were flat and the consultants at the network wanted to boost them up, so they "retooled" it and took away what made it fresh and raw and different. Again, something you see to this day.