Tuesday, May 11, 2010

A Written Review: Hill Street Blues


Hill Street Blues was a very unique series for its time. While it might seem very cliché to our modern sensibility Hill Street Blues practically invented many of the clichés that are common in most police dramas. Also, the use of a long for story was quite unique to a show made in this period. The acting was also very good.
I really enjoyed the acting in Hill Street Blues. Acting in this era of television (the early 80’s) tended to be fairly awful and not that nuanced or complicated. Not quite so much as more modern police dramas.
There was some fairly good camera work done for this show, once again, especially considering the time it was made. The 1980s are known for having some very shoddy camera work. Other cop shows of the period (such as later seasons of Hawaii Five-O) didn’t have particularly amazing camera work.
Also, the idea that there were several on-going arcs between the various seasons of Hill Street Blues in a time period where one episode story arcs were the norm was a brave move on the series producer and directors.
All-in-all, Hill Street Blues was an interesting series. Even though I only saw four episodes I am very interested in the rest of the series. As much as I love modern cop dramas such as Life or The Shield I do love some of the older, cheesier, cop shows such as Hill Street Blues. I would suggest anyone who does enjoy cop shows you should see Hill Street Blues.

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