Un flic dans la mafia

The first season of Wiseguy was by far the best, mostly due to Spacey. For all you Kevin Spacey fans, if you have never seen his performance in this show, it is a MUST. I had not been exposed to him until then, and his performance had me mesmerized, hooked, wanting more. Because of his performance in this particular show, I made it a point to see many of his other works over the years. If you are a Spacey fan, make it a point to watch the reruns of the first season of Wiseguy. (It's probably on DVD...somewhere). This show in general, especially the first season had some additional memorable performances also by Ray Sharkey and Joan Severance. I so looked forward on Wednesday nights to the show and only wished it had survived at least a few more years.

After Wiseguy vanished from Sky One I believe the UK rights were acquired by the Family Channel which then closed down or changed hands.

Presumably the broadcast rights are now in limbo.

I agree that the one-off TV movie was pretty dire but Steven Bauer's version was rather good and should have been allowed to develop.

Wiseguy, in either version, is one of the best crime shows ever and it's tragic that only a tiny number of people in the UK got to see it on satellite TV. This means that there may never be a region 2 DVD release

Great storylines, great acting, great drama. I still think the Vinnie - Sonny interaction was monumental. I was hooked on it from the first episode. Perhaps it is because I was younger, but I still haven't found a series who would overwhelm me so much.

The first 10 episodes is so good, it's like a long good movie you have to see through it's end. But once he leave the mafia family, the series sort of loses itself and becomes a bit too absurd.

But still interesting with new plots, twists and excellent actors and characters.

My only gripe is that the main character is a bit too perfect and kind of turns into a Mary Sue: Does all the right things, says the right things, morally higher than everyone and every woman falls in love with him.

A bit hard to relate to a guy like that for the majority of viewers and sort of takes away the realism.

7 / 10 score.

Thank God for those reruns, allowing those of us who weren't smart enough to tape it at the time to do so now! There isn't anything I don't like about this series, other than the fact that it ended. Great acting, great scripts, great production values - this is a production everyone involved with can be proud of. It was unique and ahead of its time in that watching it now I don't think it looks or feels dated at all. There are some great contemporary crime dramas on TV now, but none with the arc structure that made Wiseguy so compelling. Even though the story lines ran in arcs, each episode is eminently watchable in and of itself. Gosh, I miss it, and I sure miss Ken Wahl.