I am a fairly young person and I was very pleased to find such a wonderful show on DVD. The title of the show through me off, but after reading a bit about the show I was intrigued and bought it.
At first the show mainly focuses on the situations and what the cops are doing, but after a while the show starts to focus only on the squad-room where the detectives convene.
Barney Miller is always getting into other peoples business. When a criminal comes in he Interrogates them and tries to get the whole story out of them and also tries to put his own opinion or label on it.
Most of the stories are very light-hearted, but some do hit close to home. The show is funny, comical, and well played, but some episodes do have a serious vibe at the end of them.
By season three the cast is permanent and the show gets its real humor on. Each detective has an impressive amount of character depth. It was interesting to learn about each of them as I watched all of the episodes. By the end, I felt as if I knew each of them personally.
The only parts of the show I didn't like was Lt. Scanlon. His character was played so well, I truly didn't like him. Inspector Luger was played by a veteran actor, but his character seemed a little dim-witted. By the end of the series, the only set you would see is the squad room. After having visited a couple different stage sets (for example: Barnies apartment, Fish's apartment and the hide-out apartment) it seemed very confining to only use the squad room in the later seasons.
The exits of Fish and Yemada were torture on the show. Fish was great when it came to quick and ironic humor while nick tried to do the same, but his character was never truly replaced.
Overall, I love this show and I continue to watch it often. The humor, the stories, the backgrounds of the people are all interesting and entertaining. This show is recommended for all who love comedy and also recommended for all who wish to enjoy a simple show.
