Bronx SIU is a 2018 crime investigation procedural drama premiering on the Urban Movie Channel set around a team of detectives working the streets of the famous NYC borough.
We’re certainly not wanting for more police dramas on TV, the genre so over-saturated already, it often seems the only thing on television is cop shows. And cooking competitions. Made incredibly popular in the 90s with the likes of Law & Order and other stalwarts like CSI and their many iterations, we’ve become accustomed to murder, mayhem, and justice in episodic fashion, a kind of Pavlovian thrill in testing our own investigative skills while watching.
Over at the new Urban Movie Channel – a relatively new television market showcasing feature films, documentaries, original series, stand-up comedy, and other exclusive content for African American and urban audiences – their newest addition to their already growing lineup is a crime drama called Bronx SIU, a police procedural that looks to tackle all kinds of street action that mixes professional and personal stories of cops on the job.
In anticipation of the the show’s July 19th premiere, we were given early access to several of new series’ first episodes, giving us a sneak peek into the storylines and characters. So, is it worth tuning in for another gritty streetwise detective show? Well, yeah.
The show centers on the Special Investigations Unit of the New York Police Department in the Bronx, where a group of cops, including Detectives Jimmy (Brian White), Yoland (Shanti Lowry), and Darius (Ameer Baraka) struggle to fight not only gangs and thugs on the streets but corruption among those in power.
Like most in the genre, things kick off with a murder, in this case, a nun, which has many in the church’s small community in a panic, putting some added pressure on the team who are dealing with some inner demons of their own. Not only that, Internal Affairs is coming down on Darius, who makes a connection with a young street kid trying stay out of trouble.
In another episode, a new detective joins the crew, Tarik (Keeland Ellis), joining forces to help find the Mayor’s (Sal Rendino) missing son. This leads to a criminal organization called the Dragon’s Shadow and a man on the inside (Raymond Ma) that Jimmy calls upon for help. Meanwhile, Yolanda goes missing and faces some disturbing personal hurdles.
Like most series television, it’s about building a relationship with the viewer. If we don’t care about the people on screen, there’s no way we’re sticking around to see where it goes. If anything, Bronx SIU does have some strong characters, made more so by good work from the cast, with White, Baraka, and Lowry (who is quite affecting) real standouts. The show has a limited budget, made obvious from the start, but it’s production quality is hardly flimsy, the film taking on a kind of street-level film style that keeps it close and tight, lacking maybe the glitz and polish of major leaguers on more prominent channels, but still punching with some weight nonetheless. That UMC allows profanity and less censored violence and sex makes the show feel a little more authentic than most on TV, even as it sometimes steps into some of the more conventional trappings of the genre.
The show does get better as it goes, with these characters genuinely compelling and performances all around absolutely elevating the material. The stories are solid if not a little familiar, yet the writing is top notch with plenty of believable dialogue and convincing conflicts. I gotta admit that I was right in it once I got to know these people and what drove them. These are flawed personalities (even if most of them could be runway models) and while that’s nothing new in shows like this, it’s handled well, especially as episodes progress.
Bronx SIU is not without competition, but at least co-writer and director Mike Mayhall (who is behind all 8 episodes of the premier season) layers in plenty of flair to give this its own identity, surely capable of building a strong fanbase. If you are a fan of this kind of television, it’ll absolutely scratch that itch, and should earn enough merits to maybe see a second season. Often hard-hitting, and loaded with great moments, Bronx SIU makes a strong impression.