Michael Robin Movies

Upon discovering that Quentin is dating Julia, Sean attempts to force him out of the business as Christian, outwardly at peace with the fact that Kimber has left him, is secretly torn apart over the break-up. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Soon after visiting a mortuary at which an employee has assembled the spare body parts of various women into a sort of post-mortem, female Frankenstein, Christian and Sean begin a procedure on a German woman and Sean attempts to sell a group of senior citizens on some procedures designed to restore their youthful appearance. In the meantime, Gina and Julia agree to become partners in a joint business endeavor. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Debuting June 13, 2005 on TNT,the hour-long cop drama The Closer starred Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Johnson, a blunt, outspoken law enforcement officer from Atlanta who is brought from Atlanta to Los Angeles and appointed deputy police chief of the LAPD Priority Homicide Division. It was Johnson's job to tackle high-profile homicide cases and solve them with a minimum of muss, fuss and bad public relations. The man who hired Brenda was Assistant Police Chief Will Pope (J.K. Simmons), whose decision, contrary to popular relief, was not motivated by the fact that he and Brenda had once been lovers; Brenda's main job qualification was her uncanny ability to "read" personalities and to extract confessions from perpetrators. But though he initially supported his choice, Pope began having second thoughts about Brenda the moment she set foot in LA, and their working relationship at best was tense. Never one to worry about trampling on other people's feelings, Chief Johnson was far from popular with her coworkers, notably Commander Taylor (Robert Gossett), who had originally been in line for her job. As for Det. Lt. Provenza (G.W. Bailey), he couldn't wait to see Brenda fall on his face, even though he admired her highly unorthodox style--and, thanks to a previous foul-up, he owed her his job. Tech expert Lt. Michael Tao (Michael Paul Chan), street-gang specialist Det. Julio Sanchez (Raymond Cruz), and Johnson's chief assistant Det. Lt. Andy Flynn (Anthony Denison) were others who found it hard to express fondness for the boss, despite the fact that she invariably got results. The only person on the team that Brenda could call a friend was the politely deferential and intensely analytical Sgt. David Gabriel (Corey Reynolds), though even he clashed with Johnson when she disapproved of his romance with Det. Irene Daniels (Gina Ravera). Brenda herself enjoyed a cozy personal relationship with Priority Homicide's FBI liason, agent Fritz Howard (Jon Tenney), a fellow Atlantan. But by the series' second season, this romance was showing signs of deteriation thanks to the pressures of the job at hand. The Closer was created by James Duff, whose other film and TV credits included The War at Home and The D.A. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Billed as "a disturbingly perfect drama," Nip/Tuck is set in south Florida, where doctors Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) have built their own medical practice and are enjoying great success as the premier plastic surgeons of the area. Though physical perfection is their business, their private lives are far from flawless. Christian is an unabashed womanizer and uses sex to fill the void left by his abusive father, while Sean continuously tries to live up to the morally righteous standard he has set for himself only to fall repeatedly into personal hypocrisy and guilt. He certainly does so with Julia (Joely Richardson), his wife -- their seemingly ideal marriage is perilously close to crumbling beneath their feet and both constantly look outside of one another for what is missing from their lives. Though Christian catches a lot of flack from the McNamaras for his playboy ways -- which are, to be sure, emotionally abusive -- Sean and Julia are hardly innocent. Sean flirted with the idea of an affair when Dr. Grace Santiago (Valerie Cruz) joined McNamara-Troy and actually realized one with a patient of his; Julia, meanwhile, is harboring the secret of Matt's paternity. Matt, the McNamara's teenaged son, is carrying a burden of his own -- in addition to dealing with the trials and tribulations of adolescence, Matt was involved in a hit-and-run car accident and has been hiding his role in it ever since. Tying everything together is the string of patients filing into McNamara-Troy each day, whose physical imperfections more often than not force Sean and Christian to take a hard look at their internal ugliness. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

With business booming, Christian decides to treat himself to a top-of-the-line Lamborghini and later has no qualms about McNamara-Troy becoming the primary source of plastic surgery for the Florida porn business. Sean, however, takes great offense at this idea and later struggles with his own perceptions of perversion when Sophia Lopez(Jonathan Del Arco), a kind-hearted transsexual, approaches Sean about fixing the scars from an operation he had hoped would remove his Adam's apple. Elsewhere, Julia is determined to get her medical degree and disappoints Sean when she clearly wants to study with a sexy male classmate rather than indulge in the romantic dinner he had prepared for them. Matt's relationship with Christian is strained when he believes he may have contracted an STD from a woman he had met at a porn party he had attended at Christian's invitation. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Sean and Christian are both shaken when they must perform plastic surgery on cadavers as part of their test to continue their medical practice. Elsewhere, Sean is rocked by the news that Megan's cancer is terminal and ponders the moral implications of helping her commit suicide. Julia finds out about the affair, but isn't sure of how to react -- part of her is furious, part of her pities Megan, and she can't help but acknowledge that she nearly had an affair with Jude(Phillip Rhys). ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

At the end of NYPD Blue's eighth season, Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder), the troubled young partner of the 15th precinct's Detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz), had disappeared under sinister circumstances after a botched undercover operation. It was not until season nine got under way that Danny's murder was confirmed, sending Sipowicz -- not to mention the rest of the 15th -- into an emotional spiral. In the fine revolving-door tradition of NYPD Blue, Danny was immediately replaced by another handsome young detective with personal issues: John Clark Jr. (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), the son of a veteran cop (Joe Spano) who happened to be an old enemy of John's new partner Andy. To compensate for the defection of another longtime series regular, Kim Delaney (Detective Diane Russell), Jacqueline Obradors was added to the cast as Det. Rita Ortiz, formerly of the vice squad who had transferred to the 15th at the insistence of her jealous, possessive Assistant DA husband, Don Harrison (Stan Cahill). Inasmuch as the series was falling into a pattern of predictability by this time, it was hardly surprising that Rita Ortiz would have been minus one husband and plus one new boyfriend (John Clark Jr., of course) by the end of season nine.

Of the holdover actors from previous seasons, Esai Morales had neatly settled into the role of Lt. Tony Rodriguez, the no-nonsense replacement of former 15th precinct skipper Lt. Fancy -- and had brought along his own emotional baggage in the form of a vengeful Internal Affairs Bureau captain (Casey Siemaszko) who had seemingly made it his life's work to force Rodriguez out of his job. The inner demons of Det. Connie McDowell (Charlotte Ross) surfaced to plague her when she attempted to touch base with Jennifer (Katie Fountain), the daughter whom she'd given up for adoption 16 years earlier. Gay cop John Irvin (Bill Brochtrup) took a brief respite from his duties to embark upon an African "safari" with his new boyfriend. And the off-again, on-again relationship between Det. Baldwin Jones (Henry Simmons) and ADA Valerie Haywood (Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon) took on a new and slightly melancholy dimension when Valerie became pregnant. As usual, it was top-billed Dennis Franz as Andy Sipowicz who bore the brunt of the dramatic developments. In addition to having to adjust to the tragic loss of another partner, Dennis also found himself enmeshed in the financial intrigues surrounding wealthy old eccentric Mrs. Hornby (Elmarie Wendel), for whom he worked as a bodyguard in his off-hours. And, of more importance to future plot developments, Andy finally made a romantic decision between two of the women in his life, Connie McDowell and the very-much-younger Cynthia Bunin (Juliana Donald) -- or rather, the decision was made for him following a traumatic hostage crisis. With Steven Bochco replacing the departing David Milch as senior executive producer, NYPD Blue was poised to begin its ninth season in early October of 2001 -- thereby breaking the tradition established in the past two seasons, when the debut date had been moved up to January (or mid-season) due to backstage intrigues and scheduling conflicts. However, the tragic events of September 11 obliged both the producers and the network to delay the season opener until November 6, by which time several scripts had been rewritten to reflect the 15th precinct's reaction to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season eight of NYPD Blue began minus the services of longtime executive producer David Milch, who left to develop a project of his own. Steven Bochco, who'd co-created the series with Milch, took full charge of the series. This was far from the only eighth-season personnel change. Andrea Thompson (Det. Jill Kirkendall) had already quit the series in order to launch a new career as a TV news anchor. Kim Delaney, who played Kirkendall's partner, Det. Diane Russell, remained on the scene, the better to develop a new plot strand involving a steamy romance between Russell and her troubled colleague Det. Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder). But by the end of the season, Delaney was gone -- as was Schroder. One of the series' mainstays since its 1993 debut, James McDaniel, announced his intention of leaving his role as 15th precinct skipper Lt. Fancy after the first 13 episodes of the season. Fancy's initial replacement, hypersensitive feminist Lt. Susan Falto (Denise Crosby), had such a negative effect on the 15th that she herself was quickly supplanted by Lt. Tony Rodriguez (Esai Morales), a by-the-book type who (surprise, surprise) almost immediately clashed with gonzo "I make my own rules" detective Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz). Andy's private life was no less turbulent than his professional one; the moment the bone-marrow tests of his son Theo (Austin Majors) came back positive -- thereby resolving one of the unresolved subplots set up by the previous season's cliffhanger finale -- Andy began considering a reconciliation with ex-wife Kate (Debra Monk), but instead became sidetracked with a blossomed May-December relationship with Cynthia Bunin (Juliana Donald), the niece of Andy's old cop pal Gibson (John F. O'Donohue).

Along with Esai Morales and Juliana Donald, Charlotte Ross, and Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon joined the series, respectively cast as Det. Connie McDowell and new Assistant DA Valerie Haywood. Initially shunned as a possible "spy" from Internal Affairs, McDowell quickly proved her mettle and earned the right to remain at the 15th -- and in the process set the foundation for future plot complications by revealing that, 15 years earlier, she had had a daughter out of wedlock whom she had given up for adoption. As for Haywood, she almost immediately got off on the wrong foot with the extremely touchy Det. Baldwin Jones (Henry Simmons), in the tradition of the first-season flareups between Andy Sipowicz and the late ADA Sylvia Costas. But also like Andy and Sylvia, Baldwin Jones and Valerie Haywood quickly found themselves extremely attracted to one another.

The opening episodes of season eight resolved a dilemma left hanging during season seven, that of the 15th precinct's possible complicity in the drug-smuggling operations of Don Kirkendall, ex-husband of the beleagured Jill Kirkendall. The closing episodes established a brand-new crisis, concerning a botched undercover operation which may or may not have cost the life of the missing-in-action Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder). Viewers would have to sweat it out until the beginning of season nine before Danny's ultimate fate would be revealed. For the second year in a row, NYPD Blue's season opener was not seen until January, due to backstage hagglings between the ABC network and the producer. Also, only 20 new episodes were produced, rather than the standard 22, reportedly an economical rather than artistic decision. The late start and diminished output did not affect the series' popularity, nor prevent it from garnering another Emmy Award nomination for series star Dennis Franz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first teaming of Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder) and Diane Russell (Kim Delaney) is not an easy one for Diane, who still hasn't gotten over the loss of Danny's predecessor, Bobby Simone. Her grief has resulted in profound depression, and may lead her back into her old drinking habits. In other developments, the squad forms a protective circle around Jill Kirkendall's (Andrea Thompson) young son, Kyle (Courtland Mead), who has witnessed a stabbing. While still pursuing the old Suarez murder case, Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) and Sylvia (Sharon Lawrence) discover that the original informant against Suarez may have actually been the guilty party, and both Greg (Gordon Clapp) and John (Bill Brochtrup) worry that their judgment may be clouded by their affections. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The big news attending NYPD Blue's sixth season was the imminent departure of series star Jimmy Smits, who played Det. Bobby Simone, the new husband of Det. Diane Russell (Kim Delaney). While the particulars of Simone's exit were kept secret from the public, it became obvious from the season opener onward that Bobby was not long for this world; having developed a serious illness, he needed an immediate heart transplant, and even then the doctors could guarantee nothing. It was in the season's fifth episode, "Hearts and Souls," that the saga of Bobby Simone was terminated fatally, much to the shock and dismay of millions of the series' fans. Bobby's replacement was Det. Danny Sorenson, played by former child star Rick Schroder. Although both the grieving Diane and Bobby's irascible partner, Det. Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz), initially resented Sorenson's presence, Danny quickly proved his mettle both on and off the job. But in time-honored NYPD Blue tradition, young Mr. Sorenson brought with him some heavy emotional baggage, which would be revealed bag by bag over the next three seasons, culminating in yet another "shocker" of a climactic episode. Elsewhere, the 15th precinct's gay Anti-Crime Unit assistant John Irvin (Bill Brochtrup, who was moved up from recurring-character to regular) developed a close friendship with the squad's new PAA, Dolores Mayo (Lola Glaudini), a troubled young woman who ultimately quit her job and turned to prostitution. It was Dolores' death during a weekend trip to Atlantic City with wealthy drug dealer Malcolm Cullinan (Todd Waring), coupled with the murder of Sipowicz' old nemesis, shady private eye Mike Roberts (Michael Harney), that led to the series' violent sixth-season finale, a courtroom shoot-out which claimed the life of Andy Sipowicz' wife, ADA Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence). Once again, NYPD Blue copped a handful of Emmy awards. This years' recipients included series star Dennis Franz, recurring guest actress Debra Monk (as Sipowicz' ex-wife, Katie), and director Paris Barclay, the latter two earning their statuettes for their work in the pivotal episode "Hearts and Souls." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide