SIPOWICZ RETURNS...FINALLY; BUT `NYPD BLUE' CARRIES SOME NEW BAGGAGE.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

It's certainly been an eventful season for ``NYPD Blue'' already, and the show doesn't even return until this evening. Any chance to capitalize on the momentum of last season's emotional melodrama - which was more or less bookended by the deaths of Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) and Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence), detective Sipowicz's partner and wife, respectively - was torpedoed when ABC elected to extend the run of critical darling ``Once and Again'' in the stalwart cop show's time slot.

Series creator Steven Bochco, never shy about speaking his mind, immediately cried foul - demanding an outright cancellation so he could shop the series to another network. Even multiple Emmy winner Dennis Franz, who has essayed one of TV history's most indelible characters in Sipowicz, admitted hurt at the perceived lack of respect. Viewers, for their part, were given plenty of time to find a new show to watch - specifically, the kinder, gentler ``Judging Amy,'' which stars former ``Blue'' actress Amy Brenneman and reigns as the season's breakout hit; it's ``NYPD Blue's'' competition.

After the war of words comes tonight's chance for ``NYPD Blue'' to step up to the plate and belt one out of the park, thereby simultaneously shaming ABC and silencing critics who charge the series has lost some of its urgency. Instead, it hits a clean double off the wall, a solid show, yet short of the series' incendiary best. Worse, next week's episode is, to pursue our baseball metaphor, merely a single through the hole. ABC clearly has done the series a disservice by delaying its return to the schedule - it has put a magnifying glass to the mere competence of the new episodes, rather than the expected brilliance of the past. And maybe the show's writers have put themselves in something of a hole: In writing out characters with such dramatic flair, they've hamstrung themselves this season. If poor Sipowicz gets dumped on any more, the show will veer dangerously toward soap opera. But that also means Franz won't get to do what he does so exquisitely, which is suffer stoically.

Which brings us to tonight's episode, in which Sylvia's death must be old news, because there's little acknowledgment of it; detective Diane Russell (Kim Delaney) seems to be well over the death of her husband Bobby, as well. Sipowicz and his latest partner, Bobby Sorenson (Rick Schroder) investigate a beating death that two cops swear they did not commit; they're lying of course, and Sipowicz grouses that he has to mop up their ``bag of crap.''

Next week, Sipowicz also complains about catching ``a bag of crap.'' Careful - that could end up being the motto of this, the series' seventh season. He and Sorenson deal with a parolee who's apparently not succeeding in his efforts to stay on the straight and narrow, while Russell and detective Jill Kirkendall suffer professional friction from their personal lives while investigating a crack prostitute's dead baby found in a dumpster. This plays as tiredly manipulative, even without the seemingly requisite, flamboyant transvestite hooker. Thompson still seems waiting for the writers to give her something to do; Kirkendall's troubled-ex story line is boring.

These episodes introduce Sorenson's next squeeze, Mary Franco (Sheeri Rappaport), who apparently will bring new levels of emotional angst to the squad room. It will take more than that, however, for the series to reclaim the intensity and veneration that has made it compelling in the past.

THE FACTS

--The show: ``NYPD Blue.''

--What: Return of Steven Bochco's gritty crime drama.

--Who: Dennis Franz, Rick Schroder, James McDaniel, Kim Delaney.

--Where: KABC (Channel 7).

--When: 10 tonight.

--Our rating: Three stars

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo: (1 -- 3) Rick Schroder, left, Kim Delaney and Dennis Franz star in ``NYPD Blue,'' which returns tonight to open its seventh season.

Box: THE FACTS (see text)