In this era of streaming, I'd wondered why one of the most compelling, dramatic police procedural series,
HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS, was never available.
A few weeks ago, I saw the series on Tubi and immediately added it to my list. Darling Hubby and I have watched it on the weekends, and it's easy to see why it won so many awards.
Apparently, it finally reached streaming on Peacock a year ago. The reason it took so long was because of one thing that made it so good—the music in the soundtrack of each episode.
Many of the great older TV series were awash in fabulous music—music which has complicated and expensive music rights that make it difficult to bring these shows to a new audience in the streaming era.
At long last NBCUniversal cleared the music rights for the TV show as well as for Homicide: The Movie which followed the end of the series.
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
The TV series is based on the book,
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, by
David Simon, published in 1991. (
A new edition of the book is available on Amazon.)
Mr. Simon, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, was the first reporter ever to gain unlimited access to the homicide unit. He wrote a stunning book that told the truth about a year on the violent streets of the historic city.
In the book, the story a veteran investigator, a black detective in a mostly white unit and a naive rookie as they investigate murders and other brutal crimes.
The TV series follows that format and shows the good, the bad, the evil, the lost, and the common people trying to survive in a city where violence is the order of the day.
The show is stark in its presentation of the perpertrators, the victims, and the men and women who try to deal with a city awash in violence and generational change.
THE CAST
The large regular cast reads like a Who's Who of television. Here are the main players in alphabetical order by character name. You'll know the names and the faces.
Detective Beau Felton (
Daniel Baldwin), Detective John Munch (
Richard Belzer), Detective Frank Pembleton (
Andre Braugher), Detective Meldrick Lewis (
Clark Johnson) Lieutenant Al Giardello (
Yaphet Kotto) Detective Kay Howard (
Melissa Leo) Detective Steve Crosetti (
Jon Polito), Detective Tim Bayliss (
Kyle Secor), Detective Stanley Bolander (
Ned Beatty), Lieutenant Megan Russert (
Isabella Hofmann), Detective Mike Kellerman (
Reed Diamond), Chief Medical Examiner Julianna Cox (
Michelle Forbes), Crime Scene Videographer J. H. Brodie
(
Max Perlich), Detective Stuart Gharty (
Peter Gerety), Detective Paul Falsone (
Jon Seda), Detective Laura Ballard (
Callie Thorne), Detective Terri Stivers (
Toni Lewis), Detective Rene Sheppard (
Michael Michele), FBI Agent Michael Giardello (
Giancarlo Esposito), and Assistant State's Attorney Ed Danvers (
Željko Ivanek).
GUEST STARSIt would take too much space to list the guest stars—many of them like Edie Falco were just starting out. Many of them were hitting it big in 1990s like Robin Williams, Alfre Woodard, and Chris Rock.
Many of them were icons like James Earl Jones. If you'd like to see detailed lists of the Regular Cast, the Recurring Actors, and the guest stars, visit the Wikipedia page for the series.
ACCOLADES
The series created by Paul Attanasio ran from January 31, 1993, to May 21, 1999, with Homicide: The Movie on 2000 serving as the series finale.
I won't list all the nominations and awards, but Homicide: Life on the Street won TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama in 1996, 1997, and 1998.
It was the first drama ever to win 3 Peabody Awards for Drama and received recognition from the Directors Guild of America Awards, Humanitas Prize, Q Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards, and and Primetime Emmy Awards.
The 1997, Season 5 episode, "Prison Riot" was ranked No. 32 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" listed the show as #46 on their list.
It was listed on TIME magazine's Best TV Shows of All-TIME. and in 2013, TV Guide ranked it #55 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time.
TAKEAWAY TRUTH
If all of the above doesn't persuade you to watch this stunning series, then let me tell you that the acting is superb and the stories told are the kind that you'll think about days after watching the events unfold. This series is simply riveting.
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