‘Big Apple’ tastes like juicy drama

By Lynn Elber, ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES, For New York City police Detective Mike Mooney, deciding whether to sit down is a power play. The dour Mooney refuses to pull up a chair in the office of FBI agents trying to commandeer a murder case and orders a young colleague to stand his ground as well. It’s the kind of tactic that would do a schemer on “Survivor” proud. But Mooney inhabits the world of “Big Apple,” a new CBS series helping to allay fears that reality TV means the death of drama.

While ‘NYPD Blue’ is heart and grit and ‘Miami Vice’ was flashy sex, ‘Big Apple’ is a sophisticated chess game.

TAKE A BITE out of “Big Apple,” premiering 10 p.m. ET Thursday, and be reminded how satisfying well-written TV can be. Its plotted conflicts are far juicier than faux-reality ones and ultimately more satisfying.

Big Apple is from two heavyweight police series producers, David Milch, co-creator of NYPD Blue, and Anthony Yerkovich of “Miami Vice.” Their joint effort puts a new polish on the genre.

While NYPD Blue is heart and grit and Miami Vice was flashy sex, “Big Apple” is a sophisticated chess game in which crooks, cops and G-men plot intricate moves that put lives and souls at stake.

The result is a drama of subtle complexity that bears watching, and watching again. Even those devoted to the adrenaline rush of NBC’s “ER,” which airs against “Big Apple,” might consider a change of pace. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

POLITICAL MINEFIELD

Ed O’Neill (leaving his last series, “Married ... with Children,” behind in impressive fashion) stars as Mooney, a hard-nosed lawman who’s unfazed by power or its trappings.

When the FBI tries to dissuade Mooney and his partner, Vincent Trout (Jeffrey Pierce), from investigating a Park Avenue penthouse murder, Mooney thumbs his nose by interviewing the victim’s strip club co-workers.

That earns Mooney a summons from FBI official William Preecher (David Strathairn) and an unexpected offer: Work with the agency on the murder case, which intersects with an FBI probe of Russian mobsters.