Taxi Brooklyn was a Police Procedural airing on NBC and starring Chyler Leigh and Jacky Ido. It was loosely based on the Taxi movie series by Luc Besson.
Following a crash during a violent bank robbery and ensuing chase, NYPD Detective Cat Sullivan loses her driving license, while French-American taxi driver Leo Romba is facing jail time as a possible accomplice for the robbery. With Cat eager to prove her competence, and Leo desperate to prove his innocence, the two team up to solve the bank robbery, and thus begins an unusual partnership.
This series contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Jewish: At the end of the pilot, Cat's dad's grave is shown to have several small stones left on the headstone, suggesting that he was Jewish, but it's never really made clear either way. Cat herself is stated to be a "recovering Catholic".
- Armored Closet Gay: The murders in "Black Widow" were all ordered by a closeted congressman who was being blackmailed by one of the escorts his wife hired.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Leo has a unique knack for reading people after several years in prison and several more years as a taxi driver.
- Bank Robbery: The series is kicked off with a violent bank robbery where Leo is forced to become a getaway driver. Cat happens to be nearby and gets involved.
- Batman Gambit: The B-Plot in "Ambush" involves Cat trying to set up her mother with Capt. Baker because the latter has been riding her harder than usual and the former keeps talking about starting to date again, and Cat figures that she can kill two birds with one stone by setting them up. At the end of the episode, it turns out John and Frankie were already seeing each other in secret, but were afraid that Cat would meddle if she found out, and thus manipulated her so that she would think that setting them up was her plan, making it harder for her to object to the pairing.
- The Beard: In "Black Widow", Jeanette Vandercroix is a beard for a closeted gay congressman.
- Big Bad: Anabella Capella, the new leader of the Capella crime family, who has a very long grudge against Cat because she provided an alibi for her dad when he killed Anabella's grandfather.
- Big Blackout: "The Longest Night" takes place during a citywide blackout.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: In "Black Widow", the three victims are all well-hung young men.
- Black Widow: The episode "Black Widow" initially appears to be about this trope, as Cat and Leo investigate the murders of male escort and all the evidence seems to point to a woman whose first husband died under mysterious circumstances. The truth turns out to be more complicated.
- Boxed Crook: In the pilot, as he's still a suspect in a violent bank robbery, Cat handcuffs Leo to the steering wheel of his taxi so that he can't run away.
- Broken Pedestal: Cat is rocked to find her father had been on the take for years.
- Camp Gay: Ronnie, Leo's roommate, is very flamboyant.
- Clear My Name:
- In the pilot, Leo agrees to help Cat in order to prove that he wasn't a willing accomplice in a violent bank robbery.
- In the final episode, Cat is framed for the murder of Luke Capella, the man who killed her father.
- Cowboy Cop: The car crash in the pilot is just the latest in a string of reckless behavior by Cat, who has become so notorious that nobody else in the department wants to work with her and the only reason she hasn't been fired is because her dad was a hero cop.
- Dirty Cop: Cat's beloved father was on the take from the Capella family.
- Disappeared Dad: Leo's father disappeared when he was little, and with his mother already being dead, he was raised by his grandparents. It pains him that he's now become a disappeared dad to his own son, Nico, whose mother remarried while he was in prison.
- Driven to Suicide: At the end of "Love Hurts", Cat's stalker kills herself after realizing that Cat will never return her feelings.
- Drives Like Crazy: Cat is a lethally bad driver, hence why her license was taken away.
- Hypocritical Humor: In "Black Widow", Leo defends male escorts as providing a valuable service, no different from being a gardener or a housekeeper... until Cat volunteers him to pose as an escort for a sting operation.
- Internal Affairs: The 125th Precinct occasionally butts heads with their IA liaison, Hudson, especially in "The Longest Night", when he becomes a suspected accomplice in the murder of two police officers.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Cat frequently butts heads with the FBI. The fact that the local liaison is also her ex-husband doesn't help.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Styx set up the attack on the 125th in the hopes of getting killed by cops before he died of cancer, feeling that a death in bed would be shameful. After the cops managed to fend off his gang, they arranged for him to be sent to a hospital so that he would live just long enough to die in a hospital bed.
- Locked Room Mystery: In "The Longest Night", Cat has to figure out how a random gangbanger managed to steal a pistol from the evidence room and shoot two police officers. Meanwhile, the 125th Precinct is under lockdown.
- Make an Example of Them: The final episode sees Leo and his family being targeted for extermination by the mobsters his old gang robbed, who want to demonstrate to their rivals that even leaving France won't save them from their wrath.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: The reason why Cat still has her badge is because of her dad's heroic reputation.
- Now or Never Kiss: Ronnie gives Esposito one just before the latter heads out on a dangerous mission in "The Longest Night".
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In "Love Hurts", Leo knows that something is terribly wrong when Cat actually asks him to accompany her to a crime scene.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: In "Ambush", Leo brings up the idea of Cat setting up her mother with Captain Baker, telling Cat that her mother has needs that ought to be met. Cat tells him that she makes a conscious effort to avoid thinking about her mother's sexual needs.
- Poor Communication Kills: The plot of "Revenge" hinges on Cat not answering her cellphone for several days.
- Power Outage Plot: In the episode "The Longest Night", half of Brooklyn, including the 125th Precinct gets caught in a blackout, and the cops have to deal with a shooting within the precinct and a siege outside.
- Product Placement: The Microsoft Surface tablet plays a heavy role in the series, as Leo uses his quite frequently.
- Psycho Lesbian: The culprit in "Love Hurts" is a female prosecutor who became obsessed with Cat after seeing her on the stand for the Park Slope Stalker trial.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: Whenever Leo speaks French around Cat, no subtitles are provided, in order to emphasize how annoying it is for Cat, who doesn't speak French. Subverted when Leo speaks French with his son or Frankie, where subtitles are provided.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In the final moments of "Precious Cargo", Cat and Leo figure out that Tristan lied about killing his foster mother in order to cover for his little sister. Though Cat is obligated to tell the police, she and Leo agree not to say anything, because then the kids would all have to go through the investigation again.
- Suicide by Cop: In "The Longest Night", Styx set up the attack on the 125th because he knew he had cancer and wanted to go out getting shot by the cops rather than dying in a hospital bed.
- Taken Off the Case: In the pilot, Cat Sullivan is removed from the investigation into a violent Bank Robbery because she caused a car accident while trying to chase down the suspect. It's also mentioned that she's in the doghouse for repeatedly ignoring orders to stay away from the investigation into her father's murder.
- Terminally-Ill Criminal: In "The Longest Night", the precinct is under siege by a gang whose leader has cancer and wants to be shot dead by the cops before he ends up wasting away in a hospital bed. He ends up mortally wounded, but the NYPD keep him alive just long enough so that he dies in a hospital.
- Trauma Button:
- Anytime Leo is stuck in a confined space, his claustrophobia kicks in.
- In "Love Hurts", Cat suffers panic attacks after the Park Slope Stalker case is reopened, and in order to get her through the case, the NYPD agrees to pay Leo to stick with her for the length of the case.
- Villain with Good Publicity: In "Precious Cargo", the victim of the week was an abusive foster mother who had gotten a sterling reputation with social workers because she was willing to take in kids that nobody else wanted.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Leo spent years in solitary confinement while in prison, and developed severe claustrophobia as a result.
- Witless Protection Program: In the episode "Ambush", a witness in a mafia trial is being transported via a prison bus that gets hit by mobsters, even though she was traveling under an assumed name. Subverted in that the mobsters don't know her real name or what she looks like, so WITSEC at least didn't screw that part up.
- Working with the Ex: Cat used to be married to Gregg, the NYPD's FBI liaison. She still occasionally has to deal with him.
- Yandere: On top of all the other crap that Cat has to deal with in "Love Hurts", she also has to contend with Giada, the nutjob with whom Gregg cheated on her, who is convinced that Gregg is cheating on her with Cat. In the final episode, she is murdered in order to frame Gregg.
- You Need to Get Laid:
- In "Ambush", Leo suggests that Captain Baker would be less of a hardass if he had a woman in his life.
- In "The Longest Night", Leo suggests that Esposito start dating.
