'East New York' review: New police drama shows promise

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Deputy Inspector Regina Haywood (Amanda Warren, "The Leftovers") has been appointed commander of the 74th precinct in Brooklyn's East New York, and her trial by fire begins immediately. After a tourist and bystander are shot dead in a wrong-place-wrong-time encounter with a gunman, her boss, Chief John Suarez (Jimmy Smits), wants results, which means she has to set aside (for the moment) her lofty goals of trying a gentler style of policing than East New York is accustomed to. Meanwhile, the precinct is already skeptical of her approach, including veteran training officer Marvin Sandeford (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) and seasoned Det. Crystal Morales (Elizabeth Rodriguez, "Orange Is the New Black") and her partner, the ethically compromised Tommy Killian (Kevin Rankin, "Umbrella Academy"). "East New York'' comes from veteran producers William Finkelstein (''NYPD Blue") and Mike Flynn ("Queen Sugar"). This review is based on the first two episodes. 

MY SAY Two episodes in, "East New York" is close to the halfway mark of turning into a good series. Hot on its heels is the other show this wants to become — the standard-issue CBS cop procedural that's more boilerplate than hard-boiled. So which show will get to that halfway mark first?

The good one leads by a nose, but the CBS cop procedural does want to be what the CBS cop procedural wants to be. Decades upon decades of refinement (or practice) will do that: You take the A story and the B story and twist 'em together, but make sure you untangle them by the last commercial break so that the A one is neatly resolved. It reduces police work to a formula shaped by audience expectations and abetted with gunplay as the favored narrative hook.

Usually you shrug off this habit (or fault) except that there's a real-world community with a real-world precinct involved here. This is East New York's first prime-time close-up, and East New York is apparently not happy about that. New York 1 reported earlier this month that community activists and elected representatives are worried this will (in the words of one) "feed the stigma" of widespread street violence endemic in the '80s — although shootings have indeed surged this year according to NYPD stats. East New York is also home to the storied (once controversial) 75th precinct — called "the 74th" in the series — which has had its own complicated history with the community. The showrunners responded by saying (in a statement to NY1), "Our goal is for viewers who actually live in East New York to feel that their neighborhood has been accurately and respectfully portrayed on screen."

Has it been? That's for residents to decide, although "East New York" has made a good-faith effort to get some details right. On-screen, there's a real place with real people — the benefit of real location shots — and a sense that life goes on just like anywhere else in Brooklyn. Cops and residents circle one another warily, which is essentially the series' setup and why Warren's Haywood has arrived at the fictional 74th. She's an anti-"broken windows" type of cop, who wants to build bridges to the community and to her own staff (which warily circles her). Haywood's mentor is Smits' two-star Chief Suarez, who wants her to succeed but has distanced himself just in case she doesn't. She's the idealist and he's the pragmatist in a world (or at least precinct) that could care less about ideals. 

 Yes, it's a familiar-enough construct but if this newcomer gets the acting, writing and (above all) community right, then "East New York" could turn into something special. Early indications are that it just might.

 BOTTOM LINE A mostly promising start, with some unpromising distractions.