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Hill Street Blues
The Complete First Season DVD

Hill Street Blues
Critic Score
Metascore: 86 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.5 out of 10
based on 9 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?
based on 8 votes
read user comments
rate this tv show

Starring Daniel J. Travanti, Veronica Hamel, Bruce Weitz, Michael Conrad, Barbara Babcock, Charles Haid, Keil Martin, and James Sikking

Twenty-five years after its premiere, the groundbreaking cop drama finally arrives on DVD.

GENRE(S): Crime, Drama
CREATED BY: Steven Bochco
Michael Kozoll
RELEASE DATE: January 31, 2006
# OF DISCS: 3
# OF EPISODES: 17

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Baltimore Sun David Zurawik
"Landmark" barely starts to describe it.
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100
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
The 17 episodes on the DVD set are extraordinary, with few false notes among them -- and more than enough good notes to compensate.
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100
LA Weekly Robert Abele
Overlapping dialogue, countless characters, envelope-pushing humor, adult relationships, smartly observed dialogue, a sun-up-to-sundown time frame per episode -- Hill Street Blues forever made a particular brand of good guys/bad guys hour instantly ancient, willfully disrupting the purity of a cops-and-robbers consciousness that had been the calcified norm in prime time.
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100
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Barbara Vancheri
Its chaotic roll call, its use of handheld cameras, its grittiness, its layered stories and its talented cast of regulars are timeless.
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80
IGN Filip Vukcevic
If you are a television-lover, no matter what your favorite genre, decade, or creator, you owe it to yourself to watch this show.
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80
Amazon.com Donald Liebenson
Once daring, Hill Street Blues seems almost quaint today... But the human dramas at the heart of Hill Street still make for arresting television.
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75
Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker
HBO and Bochco's own subsequent series NYBD Blue have rendered Blues' innovations tame. [3 Feb 2006, p.59]
70
Newsday Noel Holston
Freed from expectations of realism, "Hill Street" now plays as funny as the best sitcoms of its era.
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70
Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart
After “Cops,” “Hill Street Blues” may be the funniest police show ever made.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this tv show is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Keith D gave it a10:
The omly way this DVD could be bettered would be in the 'Extras'. The series itself has aged well, & many of the storylines remain relevant today. A msaterpiece.

Rob P gave it a10:
Absolutely superb

Keith H gave it a10:
Simply the best overall cop show ever on TV. Gritty down to earth, the characters remain with you for a long time. Realistic definitely i was in Law Enforcement for over 25 years.

Brian T gave it a10:
The first, and after 25 years of successors, plagiarists and copy-cats, still the only premiership side in the game. Way to go... "Hill Street Blues" All the rest of you... eat your hearts out!

laurence l gave it a10:
the best show I've never seen. alas, noone know it in France!!!

Tom W gave it a10:
Hill Street Blues was the first truly realistic, gritty, police drama on the books. It had unique regular characters who grew and developed over time, did not limit itself to plot resolution in one episode, recurring characters, all the drama and comedy of life blending into a narrative that was multi-layered and never predictable. The show was one of the only truly redeeming features of the 80s, and the DVD is definitely a must have that a lot of people have been waiting for for a long time!

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