Homicide Life on the Street

[rocafellarec]

next to The Shield, this is the best cop show ever created
I just started getting into it few months ago
but it has some of the best writing, acting , directing I've ever come across.

[Kurtz7834]

Agreed. It's a shame most people don't know about it.

Actually the Shield stole an awful lot from Homicide, which is why Homicide fans tend to like the Shield.

It's too bad the show is not aired right now (perhaps on CourtTV?) and the DVD sets are very pricey.

[othy]

Homicide was excellent, although the last season wasn't quite up to snuff.. I suppose Andre Braugher leaving had something to do with that. I was a big Tim Bayliss fan, and Meldrick. It was quite the dysfunctional crew!

[rocafellarec]

Agreed. It's a shame most people don't know about it.

Actually the Shield stole an awful lot from Homicide, which is why Homicide fans tend to like the Shield.

It's too bad the show is not aired right now (perhaps on CourtTV?) and the DVD sets are very pricey.

yeah I know The Shield probably would not exist if it weren't for Homicide and the Shield creator Shawn Ryan would be the first person to tell you that. But The Shield is like a modern day Homicide to me. I'm trying to get the DVD sets of Homicide but like you said, they're 40$ each on ebay, 80$ each in stores.

[Chookman]

It was my favourite show when it was on. A true hidden gem. The last season or two were getting weaker with the new cast added but it was still a solid show.

[Kurtz7834]

Homicide Seasons 1 to 4 was some of the best drama ever on TV. After that the show began to decline. Season 5 was 'fair-to-good', 6 'ok' and 7 was just plain 'bad.' Andre Braugher (widely considered the best actor on the show) left after Season 6 and almost none of Season 7 is worth watching.

Part of the reason the last couple of seasons of Homicide were bad was that the writers and producers started focussing all their attention on OZ. Another show that started out great and ended up pathetic due to running too long.

Newbies should check out the Homicide Pilot 'Gone for Goode,' from 1993. It is angry, disturbing, funny and utterly unique. It set the tone for the whole series. The series is generally not dated at all and remains by far the most realistic cop show I've seen. No roughing up suspects, just psychological terrorism in 'The Box' and true to life, many of the cases remain unsolved and don't result in charges or convictions. It's my favorite show.

I also like the Shield, but not as much as Homicide. The Shield took a lot of ideas from Homicide, and made them more extreme and violent (and thus less realistic.) Vic Mackey is a cool character but no way could any cop get away with half those things he does in real life. Homicide generally doesn't cheat and stays true to life. There are no car chases, no shootouts (until the later seasons), and it's very dialogue driven. For that reason it might be boring for some people. But real detectives are almost never involved in shootouts or car chases.

For the cash strapped, I have seen some of the seasons for rent at Blockbuster.

[othy]

Part of the reason the last couple of seasons of Homicide were bad was that the writers and producers started focussing all their attention on OZ. Another show that started out great and ended up pathetic due to running too long.

I think the true "jumped the shark" moment was the addition of Michael Michele (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Michele) to the cast in season 7. Sure, they did address her incredible hotness and how unlikely she was a detective, but daymn. It was just a weird casting stunt.

[Chookman]

I think the true "jumped the shark" moment was the addition of Michael Michele (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Michele) to the cast in season 7. Sure, they did address her incredible hotness and how unlikely she was a detective, but daymn. It was just a weird casting stunt.

I agree. She was bad. I wasn't a huge fan of Falsone either. I was OK with the addition of Stivers, Gharty and the whole young Giardello plot.

However, the show was really in it's prime when Bayliss and Pembleton were teaming and Lewis and Kellerman were teamed (and usually Kellerman was putting Lewis into true dillemmas). Munch and Howard were also great. It was a shame to lose her.

[dell]

I met one of the co-creators of Homocide a few years ago. Tom Fontana was in town with a few of his Oz actors at the Canadian Film Center to receive some award for Oz. He was a nice guy and it was cool meeting some of main characters from Oz.

[rocafellarec]

I should have added Oz in the topic title.
There's another FANTASTIC show.

Homicide Life on the Street Seasons 1-4 are FANTASTIC
5-7 are just alright.

Oz Seasons 1-4a are FANTASTIC
4b-6 are just alright.

[dell]

As a die hard Oz fan I'm really happy to see so many people from that show are doing well. Chris Meloni (Keller) heading Law & Order SVU, the lady that played Shirley Bellanger (death row lady) heading up Law & Order CI, Adebisi & Augustus Hill (wheelchair narrator) both on Lost, JK Simmons (Nazi Schillinger) on the Spiderman films/Law & Order, etc. I also recall seeing Dean Winters (Ryan O'Reily) on CSI Miami as Horatios brother i think. Oh and Edie "Mrs Soprano" Falco as one of the COs.

[Kurtz7834]

OZ was a good show, the 1st season was definitely unique and jaw dropping when the show debuted in 1997.

Over time though, it turned into a sort of strange soap opera though, and eventually you just watched it to see who would be killed in a given week.

It was around mid 4th season IIRC when Adebisi left the show (the best character IMHO) that the show really jumped the shark and started to suck.

The sixth and final season of OZ shouldn't have been made, it's unwatchably bad IMHO.

[rocafellarec]

OZ was a good show, the 1st season was definitely unique and jaw dropping when the show debuted in 1997.

Over time though, it turned into a sort of strange soap opera though, and eventually you just watched it to see who would be killed in a given week.

It was around mid 4th season IIRC when Adebisi left the show (the best character IMHO) that the show really jumped the shark and started to suck.

The sixth and final season of OZ shouldn't have been made, it's unwatchably bad IMHO.

Yeah like I said 1-4A were amazing up until when Adebisi died. 4B -6 were terrible in terms of OZ quality. They were still good compared to rest of TV though.

I'm just done watching Homicide Season 1-4 now I need to watch 5-7 but like you guys say, they arent as good eh?

[Kurtz7834]

Yeah like I said 1-4A were amazing up until when Adebisi died. 4B -6 were terrible in terms of OZ quality. They were still good compared to rest of TV though.

I'm just done watching Homicide Season 1-4 now I need to watch 5-7 but like you guys say, they arent as good eh?

Season 5 is a step down from the earlier seasons but still pretty good. Season 6 is a big step down from that, the only episode I can really recommend is the awesome episode 'The Subway' that won an Emmy. Season 7 slides further downhill still. Personally I don't think Season 7 is worth watching but some Homicide fans still like it.

There is actually a Homicide movie 'Life Everlasting' from 1997 that was intended to wrap up the series, but I can't really recommend it, it's not great.

[duckdown]

Oz was an excellent show, I own them on DVD box set.

Also, Ryan from Oz (The irish guy) is now Dennis Leary's brother on RESCUE ME