NBC’s ‘Taxi Brooklyn’: Don’t hail this cab
An NYPD detective teams with a French cabdriver to solve crimes.
This is something that really exists on an American TV network.
Detective Caitlyn “Cat” Sullivan (“Grey’s Anatomy’s” Chyler Leigh) has gone through five partners in the past year, wrecked three cars in a month and has been busted down to foot patrol.
Taxi driver Leo Romba (Jacky Ido) lied on his immigration forms to conceal a criminal record.
In exchange for his driving her around the city, she promises to help keep him from being deported.
Thus, you have “Taxi Brooklyn” (10 p.m. Wednesday, KSNV-TV, Channel 3).
NBC might have had something if anyone involved in the series — based on Luc Besson’s French action-comedy “Taxi” that spawned the dud Jimmy Fallon-Queen Latifah remake — embraced the ridiculousness of the scenario.
Especially considering that Leo often is a better detective than Cat.
“Rohypnol,” he says, repeating a key piece of evidence.
Cat: “Yeah. Date rape drug.”
Leo: “I know. I watch a lot of ‘CSI.’ ”
Cat: “I don’t really care.”
Instead, you get scenes like the one in which Leo, after being held at gunpoint by a bank robber and forced to flee police, yells after his escaping captor: “Hey! What about my fare?”
