Stylishly produced, with haunting music, darkly diffused lighting and some surprising violence and raw street language, "EZ Streets" has loads of bite and texture. Based on Sunday night's two-hour preview episode, it has the potential to be one of the new season's best dramas. [27 Oct 1996]

Prepare for top-notch dramatic writing, exceptional camera work and complex characters. [27 Oct 1996]

The "EZ" dialogue is terse, suggestive, pointed and often ambiguous. The complicated "Streets" story deals with issues of truth, honor, justice, vengeance and loyalty. Its stark moral conflicts, set in a shady criminal underworld, deserve positive comparisons to "On the Waterfront," "Serpico," "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and the first year of "Wiseguy." [25 Oct 1996]

A fascinating and challenging new drama series. [27 Oct 1996]

EZ Streets sustains a mood of despair unlike any other drama on television. ... And yet, for all its solemnity, EZ Streets somehow manages to avoid melodrama.

An ambitiously moody exploration of moral ambiguity. [27 Oct 1996]

It's achy, moody, glum, stylized and almost criminally pretentious. ... All the performances seem mannered. The show is plagued with arch, actorly acting, the kind that rings false and calls attention to its own falseness. ... Already some critics have hailed the show as a breakthrough. True enough -- it's a breakthrough from tedium into torpor. [27 Oct 1996]