Really Surprised!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As a real deal employee of the LA County Sheriff's Department, allow me to just say that this was one of the most ridiculous and unrealistic productions...EVER. This show makes even the "new" Adam-12 and Dragnet seem like documentary films. For instance, 1 show, deputies pull over a couple in a sedan that are dressed in formal attire, NO REASON FOR the traffic STOP whatsoever. During the course of NORMAL CONVERSATION, our 'hero' smells something rotten and asks BOTH tuxedo wearing driver and bride's maid dressed female out of their plain wrapped, run of the mill, upper middle class car. After 15 seconds of banter, guns are drawn by ALL, The bridesmaid was wearing a 'GARTER holster' if you can swallow that, another radio car pulls up DURING A GUN FIGHT, directly in to crossfire, joins shooting at bad guys who are directly in the middle of both sets of cops; bad guys die; Sgt investigates on scene; solves the 'case of the wedding gift robbers' and EVERYONE is back on patrol within 30 minutes. WOW !!! Sadly, this was about the BEST scene I can even describe, so that said, you'll be left to guess how truly awful the other parts of the acting, scenarios and realism were. Sad too, as Ernie Hudson is usually an outstanding actor.

This show reminds me of the days when I was a "Rookie" Police Officer for the City of Ventura, California. I could relate totally to the way Deputy Amonte was being treated like "Crap" by the other Officers. You got a sense of how you're not fully accepted into the group until you "Prove Yourself" to the other Officers that you work with. In that sense, the show was very realistic.It was amazing to me that with all of the chase scenes, shootings, taking of hostages, fist fights, etc; I never once saw ANY of the Deputies show any type of Report Writing.I realize that this is Hollywood & they try to show all of the exciting action type "stuff" but they need to show some type of realism because, all of the above mentioned situations requires some type of Crime Report, Incident Report, Traffic Report, etc.Report Writing is the "Backbone" of Police Work, yet the show never even "skims the surface" of this important function.Further, Deputy Amonte seemed to always get the "Pretty Women" & he was just a "Rookie". I KNOW that this NEVER HAPPENS during the period when you are a "Trainee." Another thing I noticed was the relationship between Deputy Amonte & his "Training Officer" Deputy Barns (Ernie Hudson), was for the most part "too friendly." especially as the series progressed into the later episodes.When I was a "Trainee," there was NO relationship that even resembled anything like "Friendly," In fact, we HATED our Training Officers!!! When these "dynamics" began to be noticed, I felt it impacted the show in a "negative" way.I guess that's the difference between playing the part of a Police Officer & actually BEING a Police Officer. I feel that in order for a Police Show to be "credible" it must show ALL aspects of Police Work & not just the "exciting" part of it.The "ironic" thing about it is the fact that the person who only "plays" the Police Officer role as an actor gets more money than the person who's REALLY out there doing "REAL POLICE WORK"!!!All of the other aspects of this show were portrayed pretty good for the most part.

I like what a previous poster said about this show feeling like it was from the 1970's, along the lines of cop dramas from that era. I couldn't agree more. I thought pretty much the same way myself, and saw a little "Hill Street Blues" tossed in as well.Perfect ensemble show. Ernie Hudson is a great actor, and I found myself liking the rest of the cast, as well.Give it a look. Congratulations ABC TV, "10-8" and "LA Dragnet" have got me watching your network, again.2005 update.So, ABC cancels it.

This is an old-fashioned cop show, like The Rookies or TJ Hooker. As such, it acquits itself nicely, but it's unlikely to attract much attention. In the right timeslot, it might last long enough to smooth out the storytelling and develop the characters, in which case it could build up a loyal audience. Ernie Hudson brings the proper authority to the gruff training cop, and all three rookies are appropriately green. I guess what I'm saying is that if there's not anything else you're hooked on watching, 10-8 makes a good solid backup. But I wouldn't invest too much interest in the show, as it's not a good bet to stand the test of time.