The guy's a Ferrari. No matter how hard you push the pedal, there's always more there,' said Steven Bochco, one of the creators of NYPD Blue (Pearl, 8.30pm), of his leading actor, Jimmy Smits.
But in the new season starting tonight, Smits, as Bobby Simone, begins to run out of juice. From the opening scene on we know he is ailing, and the make-up artists have given him black rings around his eyes to drive the point home.
Smits, who has been the sensual foil to Dennis Franz's overweight, bigoted and frumpy Sipowicz, announced last year that he was leaving the show. NYPD Blue fans can look forward to some vintage, emotionally-taut episodes leading up to his departure. Surprisingly, it was Franz, not Smits, who won the best actor Emmy award for their efforts.
From his first fleeting appearance in Miami Vice in the early 1980s, Smits has rarely been absent from the TV law scene. Five years as the token Latino attorney on LA Law was followed by NYPD Blue, taking over the lead when David Caruso handed in his badge after the first phenomenally successful season.
Smits was the actor whom Bochco had first envisioned in the role of Caruso's John Kelly. Simone turned him into an American heartthrob, voted, for instance, one of Harlequin Romance Novels' Top Ten Most Romantic Men, a dubious honour he shares with the likes of George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington and John F Kennedy Jr.
Cop dramas have never been my favourite television fare but I do enjoy NYPD Blue for its stylishly dark depiction of New York life and its array of strong characters and talent. In dealing with Simone's health crisis, the early episodes of this season are particularly strong on the personal drama.
