This episode (6:16 T'ain't Misbehavin) seems a good example of what NYPD Blue became as an on-going series following the death of Simone.
For me personally, by this point none of the personal relationships within the main cast felt believable or authentic. Many of the conversations between them felt very forced, just overly stylized writing by Milch. The conversation between Sipowicz and Sorenson about his girlfriend's pregnancy was just hard to watch.
Sorenson: They told her she couldn't have a baby, her doctors. She went on their word.
Sipowicz: You were who was present. You're in a better position then me if she's shootin' you through the grease.
Sorenson: Yeah, . . . I don't think she's shootin' me through the grease.
Sipowicz: Fine, good, leave it at that. . . . So you thinking' a large ceremony?
Sorenson: We are not talking' marriage Andy. We're talking' me takin' proper responsibility.
Sipowicz: You takin' proper responsibility given the givens how she lays them out assumin' the assumptions.
Sorenson: Yes Andy, correct. Assumin' the assumptions, given the givens.
No actors could deliver such lines and appear to be actual human beings. Ricky Schroder's very limited range only served to emphasis leaden writing of this nature.
What saves this episode is a great performance by guest actor Ray McKinnon as Ted, the slow witted criminal. Without him this episode is lifeless and meandering.
I love NYPD Blue, and I love David Milch, but the show simply was not good by this point. Schroder had a very difficult task, trying to fill in for the departed Jimmy Smits, and I could blame the shows rapid decline on his sleep-walking single note portrayal of Sorenson, but that probably would not be fair. Schroder is who he is, and in the end he was only the most obvious problem of a show by now more defined by problems than qualities. It is a shame that Bochco and Milch did not push themselves harder at this point to maintain the series. It had been one of the best shows on television for five years, and I hated to see it implode like it did this season.