Lapd: The Series

 ((Mon. (11), 11:30 p.m.-12 a.m., KCOP))

By ADAM SANDLER

Taped in Los Angeles by QRZ Media in association with MGM/UA Television. Executive producers, Dave Bell, Dennis Bogorad; producer, Karla Kay Bair; co-producers, Andrew Jebb, Russell Livingston; field producers, Jeff Callaway, Ramiro R.F. Moreno; camera, Chris Borghesani, Eliot Fons, Peter Zasuly; editors, Ethan Hedayat, Hugh King, Joseph Weiss; sound, Greg Hartstein, Jeffrey Leemon; music, Scooter Pietsch. #Narrator: Andrew Geller. From the familiar "This is the city" intro reminiscent of its "Dragnet" predecessor, to the breathy commentary offered by the featured police officers about the thinning Blue Line, "LAPD: The Series" offers little new for viewers that hasn't been dealt with in other syndicated reality shows or on the nightly news. But "LAPD" does aptly illustrate with gritty
 

Show's producers also have taken the coverage to a new level, in the process challenging its reality show rivals with cameras affixed to patrol car doors and windows that capture from all sides the at times explosive action.

The show owes its '90s feel to colorful graphics, stylish badge-emblazoned bumpers and a narrator who puts the calls for service into context with the city's geography and current political climate.

However, the opening vehicle pursuit and the resulting capture of the bad guy is only likely to hold viewers through the first break, as segs featured in show's return are far from auspicious.

A laborious seg featuring a crowded Sunday afternoon at the beach and the time-worn explanation by a mounted officer that the horses encourage the public to interact with the saddle-bound coppers mar show's bow and is likely to cause a yawn or two among viewers.

The occasional out of sync radio chatter with the on-screen action also may bug some.

And while the show is a much-needed public-relations vehicle for the department -- especially in light of the recent brouhaha at the O.J. Simpson murder trial -- it is nonetheless unlikely to make converts of its critics.

Camera work and perfectly edited segments the types of dangers its series centurions daily encounter.