6 rookie cops take on Morningside Heights in ‘NYC 22’ on CBS
Fresh out of the police academy, six rookie cops are put on foot patrol in the hellzapoppin’ neighborhood of Morningside Heights in upper Manhattan. That’s the deceptively simple premise of NYC 22, a gritty new CBS series premiering Sunday, created by novelist Richard Price and executive-produced by a quartet that includes Robert De Niro. But these are no ordinary wet-behind-the-cuffs flatfeet. Take Jayson “Jackpot” Toney (Harold House Moore). He’s a basketball star who washed out of the NBA for his party ways. There’s really only one career path after that: You sell the Maybach and the mansion and enroll in the NYPD.
Fresh out of the police academy, six rookie cops are put on foot patrol in the hellzapoppin' neighborhood of Morningside Heights in upper Manhattan. That's the deceptively simple premise of NYC 22, a gritty new CBS series premiering Sunday, created by novelist Richard Price and executive-produced by a quartet that includes Robert De Niro.
But these are no ordinary wet-behind-the-cuffs flatfeet. Take Jayson "Jackpot" Toney (Harold House Moore). He's a basketball star who washed out of the NBA for his party ways. There's really only one career path after that: You sell the Maybach and the mansion and enroll in the NYPD.
Curiously, Jackpot is the same height as Jennifer "White House" Perry (the petite Leelee Sobieski). You may think she looks about as tough as Taylor Swift in her police uniform, but I'll have you know, she's an Iraq war veteran, a Marine MP no less. Hey, why not make White House a UFC champion while you're at it?
The oldest member of the group is Ray "Lazarus" Harper (Adam Goldberg, fated to play New York cops forever). You may have noticed that NYC 22 is big on nicknames. Lazarus was a veteran reporter until his dying newspaper laid him off. He's the only guy in the precinct, apparently ,who doesn't have to stay clean-shaven. My favorite is Tonya Sanchez (Judy Marte) who, despite her J.Lo bombshell looks, is a member of one of the most notorious Latino crime clans in the city. She's the white sheep in the family.
Throw in a Muslim from Afghanistan (Tom Reed) and a sixth-generation New York cop (Stark Sands) and it's quite a troupe. The incredible thing is the way their diverse and specialized backgrounds prove to be perfectly — one might say uncannily — suited to the situations they get into on patrol.
Most of this is established, as you might imagine, in a rather lengthy, labored setup. The series eventually settles into a satisfying three-cases-per-episode format. There are some silly scenarios, as when the cops wade into a gang fight that seems to have come straight from West Side Story. To stop the kids from hitting one another with pipes, the officers start whaling away on them with their clubs. That's kind of like using a fire hose to break up a water-balloon battle.
Moments like those are the exception. NYC 22 for the most part is unusually compelling, with the best uptown flavor since the '90s Fox series New York Undercover. It's certainly more realistic than Blue Bloods, CBS's other NYPD series.
The primary thing that detracts from its street swagger is the pretty-face casting that lends the whole enterprise a farcical air. Of course, TV viewers are used to that artifice, the crazy convention where cops could pass for supermodels. We'll overlook it as long as their looks aren't the only things that are arresting.
Contact David Hiltbrand at 215-854-4552 or dhiltbrand@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @daveondemand_tv. Read his blog, "Dave on Demand," at www.philly.com/dod.
Television?NYC 22?10 p.m. Sunday on CBS3