NBC would have us believe that "Prince Street" is a show that "has the makings of an ensemble crime drama you haven't seen before."
Why, then, did so much of it seem so familiar?"Prince Street" (Thursday, 9 p.m., Ch. 5) is a show about dedicated, earnest police officers risking their lives to protect the citizens of a major metropolitan city. You know, like "NYPD Blue" and "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Law & Order."
And television has a long history of shows like this, including "Cagney & Lacey," "Crime Story," "The Equalizer," "The FBI," "Hawaii Five-O," "Hill Street Blues," "Mission: Impossible," "Police Story," "Wiseguy" - all the way back to "The Untouchables."
What sets "Prince Street" off from the current crop of cop shows is that these detectives are undercover - deep undercover. We're told that only about a dozen people outside the agency even know of the existence of the agency.
And the detectives can't even tell their family members what they do - which could be used to dramatic advantage in the series, but it will have to be handled better than it is in the pilot.
The cast of characters is pretty much what you might expect. The tough-but-caring Lt. Tom Warner (Joe Morton); veteran Alex Gage (Vincent Spano), who questions himself and his career after a tragedy; James Tasio (Lawrence Monoson), a recovering alcoholic; tough single-mother Mina Echeverria (Mariska Hargitay); rookie Anthony Libretti (Steven Martini), whose uncle is a mobster; and smart-but-tough Dianne Hoffman (Dana Eskelson).
It's a diverse group, but - again - all of them seem at least vaguely familiar. And some of them seem like little more than cop-show stereotypes.
The cases on Thursday include one about a terrorist bombing plot - which is contained within the episode - and another about Russian mobsters, which is open-ended. And they're the best part of the show.
There are also unsuccessful attempts to make us care about all those characters. Maybe that will come with time, but it doesn't work in the first installment.
And, while we're told that the cases in "Prince Street" are based on the real-life adventures of a similar unit that operated in New York, some of it just doesn't ring true. Like when the detectives lose sight of a colleague who's gone undercover, search frantically for her and . . . well, you can guess what happens in the end.
Or like the scene where detective Tasio rushes from an undercover operation to the hospital, arriving just in time for the birth of his baby.
Is real life really that cliched?
The show's pilot episode is well produced, and the writing, acting and direction are above par. But "Prince Street" is hardly distinctive.
Even though it's a brand-new series, it caries the aura of a rerun.
Although "Prince Street" is premiering on a Thursday, next week it moves to its regular time slot - Wednesdays at 9 p.m. - for the next few weeks. In turn, "Law & Order" will make a temporary move from Wednesdays at 9 p.m. to Thursdays at 9 p.m., while "ER" temporarily moves off the schedule.