Homicide: Life on the Street ★★★★★
SBS On Demand
It’s an all-time binge more than 30 years in the making. Having never been available on streaming, one of the finest shows of the 1990s is finally ready for rediscovery. Debuting in 1993, Homicide: Life on the Street transformed the police procedural and was a key influence on the 21st century television canon. The Wire, for example, does not exist without this idiosyncratic series paving the way. Over the next six weeks, SBS on Demand is putting up all seven seasons and the finale movie. That’s 122 episodes to enjoy.
The cast of the gritty Homicide: Life on the Street.Credit:
The show’s intent sounds simple, but it was a touch-and-go proposition in a network television era where a handful of free-to-air channels dictated programming. Creator Paul Attanasio and executive producer Barry Levinson, then a leading Hollywood filmmaker, wanted to capture the telling mundanities and brutal truths of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. The detailed non-fiction book, by Baltimore Sun reporter (and future creator of The Wire) David Simon, trailed a squad of homicide detectives for an entire year.
The choices made kept the show on the cusp of cancellation back then, but now give it a clarity that feels prescient. The cast was full of character actors and gifted newcomers, the visual aesthetic was primarily handheld with a Super 16mm camera, and the narrative was chaotic and overlapping – cases came thick and fast, some settled almost immediately, while others dragged out over several seasons, like a wound that could never heal. The visual fulcrum was the whiteboard where the cases of every detective were listed – red were open, black cleared. Judgment is never lacking.
The ensemble cast was exemplary. Veteran actor Ned Beatty (Deliverance) was aces as the squad’s old hand, Stanley Bolander, but the revelation was Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton. The late actor, who would go on to delight sitcom fans as Captain Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, was the last to be introduced in the pilot – his colleagues groused about him over lunch before he turned up. Braugher earnt the anticipation. Pembleton was a brilliant Black detective in a city where racial politics were a daily negotiation. He was insightful, stubborn, and marched to his own code. It’s an incantatory performance.
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The second season was just four episodes, a trial month after so-so ratings. You can track the efforts the producers and writers made to stay afloat. Veteran actor and Coen brothers fave Jon Polito was replaced after two seasons by the leading man looks of Reed Diamond. Other experiments, however, were invaluable. For the season two premiere, the story followed a single case involving the wife of a tourist family being shot during a robbery – Robin Williams was compelling as the devastated husband. Other Hollywood stars followed his lead and did guest slots.
Obviously, there are bits and pieces that have dated, but much of Homicide: Life on the Streets still feels of the moment. The workplace conversations, the coping humour of the overworked homicide detectives, and the stray character studies that came and went in a single episode give the show an immersive quality. And the bravura moments still shine: watch the face of Kyle Secor’s newcomer to the squad, Tim Bayliss, the first time he sits in an interrogation room – “The Box”, in the unit’s parlance – as Pembleton dismantles a suspect. There’s a mix of surprise and awe. That’s also what this classic series deserves.
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