'Big Apple' is quality to the core

It's a mark of how much the TV landscape has changed in the past few weeks that this isn't an early obituary for a CBS show called "Big Apple."

The law-enforcement drama from "NYPD Blue" co-creator David Milch will premiere tonight against a first-run episode of NBC's "ER." And while no one's necessarily expecting "Big Apple" to take a bite out of TV's most popular drama, Thursday night suddenly feels as if it just might be big enough for both of them.

Like CBS' "Survivor: The Australian Outback" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," two shows that have made a place for themselves opposite NBC's "must-see" lineup by bringing more people to the set, "Big Apple" is television that rewards viewers for paying attention.

That's just the kind of line, of course, that's helped kill some pretty good shows, from CBS' "EZ Streets" to ABC's "Wonderland." Networks must hate to read them, knowing that for every review describing a series as "challenging," or "thought-provoking," they can probably kiss a ratings point or two goodbye. "Provocative" is good, with its hints of partial nudity, but even "groundbreaking" smacks more of the grave than of new construction.

But now, thanks to the success of "Survivor" and "CSI," we know there are not only enough people available to watch TV on Thursdays to keep both NBC and CBS fat and happy, but that some of them actually like to be surprised.

There are surprises galore in the stylishly directed premiere of "Big Apple," which after an eye-catching sequence involving two FBI agents and a helicopter, begins like any episode of "Law & Order," with a pair of police detectives standing over a body in a Park Avenue penthouse. A woman's dead, the doorman's missing - but when he finally shows up, well, it's not like anything you'll see on "L&O."

No one writes cops quite like Milch, whose police detectives speak a language that may be more Milch-ian than NYPD-issue. Witness this exchange between Detective Mike Mooney (Ed O'Neill - yes, "Married. . .With Children's" Ed O'Neill) and his much younger partner, Vincent Trout (Jeffrey Pierce):

"Pay stub in the bag - Paradise," says Mooney as they look over the body, whose bloody hand occupies much of the screen.

"That's that t-- bar on 44th?"

"Speaks well of you, the address coming so quickly to mind," remarks Mooney drily.

There's more than a touch of "NYPD Blue's" Andy Sipowicz in Mooney, who at another point demands of his partner: "What are you, half a homo?"

But unlike "Blue" and "Brooklyn South," Milch's previous show for CBS, "Big Apple" doesn't confine itself to the NYPD. When their case threatens to derail a federal undercover investigation at the Paradise, Mooney and Trout find themselves suddenly "deputized" into the FBI and working in uneasy cooperation with Agent Jimmy Flynn (Titus Welliver).

Not even the feds on "The X-Files" have the kinds of high-tech toys available to the FBI's Manhattan field office in "Big Apple," where Flynn monitors the progress of a confidential informant (Michael Madsen) through his desktop PC (and gets an eyeful when the informant inadvertently shows more than he's been telling).

While Flynn seems to be dwelling in an ethical no-man's-land, "Big Apple's" not rotten to the core, or even as short on moral compasses as it may look at first. Flynn's boss, Will Preecher ("L.A. Confidential's" David Strathairn), for instance, is already looking like someone you'd want on your side in a sticky situation.

The sticky situations that crop up tonight don't look as if they'll be going away any time soon. Here's hoping the same can be said of "Big Apple."