Homicide: Life on the Street

The Pontiac

Anyone watched this? It ran for seven seasons from 1993 to 1999. I don't see it getting mentioned here at all, despite its high rating on IMDB. It was based on David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Simon was a producer and consultant on the series and his own show The Wire is considered to be a spin-off to Homicide. I haven't seen it myself but the box set can be bought relatively cheap in places and I might consider making the purchase. Wikipedia

sweetie

seen a few eps, it's been shown late night on network 2, thursday I think, very good too.

ronnie3585

I'm about half way through the first season and I'm enjoying it. You can really see the beginnings of The Wire.

flutegirl

This is an excellent series, was shown on RTE a few years ago. Good to see it being repeated, although in the middle of the night where most of the good stuff seems to be scheduled. :rolleyes:

Wertz

Used to watch this when it aired on RTÉ1 back in the mid 90's...it aired fairly late on a sunday night IIRC.
There were some great storylines and arcs, btu some good one off eps too....particularly liked the black guy and his cool logical methods of detective work:

the episodes/series where he had a stroke and it visualised him trapped inside his won body were very well done and stuck with me for some reason

.
Additionally I loved Munch's cynical take on life and his attitude to marijuana legalisation...refreshing to hear a cop with those views back then, even if he was fictional.

Also liked the way this show was referrenced in both

an episode of The X-Files and the last ep of The Wire

...not so much crossovers, as they were salutes to a great series.
Must watch it again sometime...

The Pontiac

sweetie wrote: »

seen a few eps, it's been shown late night on network 2, thursday I think, very good too.

Just checked this out and it's Law and Order that is shown late on thursday nights. Law and Order and Homicide: Life on the Street did a few crossovers with each other. L&O is considered to be a sister show to Homicide. Cheers, must check a few episodes of this out.

Law & Order has produced three crossover two-parters with Homicide: Life on the Street. A case would begin with Law & Order (the higher-rated show) in New York City for Part One, before moving the action to Baltimore for Part Two.

sweetie

<Ollie> wrote: »

Just checked this out and it's Law and Order that is shown late on thursday nights.

from digiguide

Homicide: Life on the Street
(Drama)

Time - 01:40 to 02:40 (1 hour long).
When - Friday 20th November on RTÉ 1


A Model Citizen. Series 3, episode 4.
A young man comes into the squad room and after getting their attention, tells the detectives that his brother has been shot. Pembleton is sued by the multiple personality serial killer, who states he violated her civil rights during interrogation; he is discouraged when the city agrees to settle out of court.
Starring: Melissa Leo, Richard Belzer

The Pontiac

sweetie wrote: »

from digiguide

Homicide: Life on the Street
(Drama)

Time - 01:40 to 02:40 (1 hour long).
When - Friday 20th November on RTÉ 1


A Model Citizen. Series 3, episode 4.
A young man comes into the squad room and after getting their attention, tells the detectives that his brother has been shot. Pembleton is sued by the multiple personality serial killer, who states he violated her civil rights during interrogation; he is discouraged when the city agrees to settle out of court.
Starring: Melissa Leo, Richard Belzer

Excellent stuff! I only checked the listings for RTE2 and assumed you were getting mixed up with Law and Order,as it's fairly similar to Homicide. Must get my hands on series 1&2 now and SKY+ the remainder. Thanks again Sweetie.

wandatowell

Bought the book for 13 quid not so long ago in HMV, very interesting indeed.

flutegirl

Wertz wrote: »

Used to watch this when it aired on RTÉ1 back in the mid 90's...it aired fairly late on a sunday night IIRC.
There were some great storylines and arcs, btu some good one off eps too....particularly liked the black guy and his cool logical methods of detective work:

the episodes/series where he had a stroke and it visualised him trapped inside his won body were very well done and stuck with me for some reason

.
Additionally I loved Munch's cynical take on life and his attitude to marijuana legalisation...refreshing to hear a cop with those views back then, even if he was fictional.

Also liked the way this show was referrenced in both

an episode of The X-Files and the last ep of The Wire

...not so much crossovers, as they were salutes to a great series.
Must watch it again sometime...

There was one ep where

this guy gets trapped between the train and the platform, sounds grusome but it was very good episode,

was a standout ep for me.

ixoy

Just watched another episode of this tonight (I've seen the whole 7 seasons before) - it's a great cop show. I'd go so far as to say it's the best police procedural there's been (as I don't consider 'The Shield' or 'The Wire' to be police procedurals).

It worked for a number of reasons - the cops felt real (not surprising as they were based on real cops) and had identifiable flaws. The show wasn't afraid to mess with them but not in an overly dramatic fashion. There was some great characters (and great acting) - Pembleton is probably the most memorable, but that's not to detract from other excellent cops such as Bayliss, Howard, and Bolander. Munch of course also stands out and his character moved on to the more mainstream "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" after the show ended.

The show did have the somewhat standard formula of about three cases being investigated simultaneously but did play around with it at times, particularly in the first season which is quite raw in many ways. Its use of hand-held cameras gave it quite an edgy feel (long before such camera work became more standard).

It also showed some interesting elements of the detectives struggling in a law and order system that should have aided them but that could instead be obsessed with statistics and making PR decisions rather than merit-based ones. This is something David Simon would later investigate in great depth in 'The Wire'.

It's a great show and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who is tired of the half-baked cop shows served up to us today.

amacachi

ixoy wrote: »

Just watched another episode of this tonight (I've seen the whole 7 seasons before) - it's a great cop show. I'd go so far as to say it's the best police procedural there's been (as I don't consider 'The Shield' or 'The Wire' to be police procedurals).

It worked for a number of reasons - the cops felt real (not surprising as they were based on real cops) and had identifiable flaws. The show wasn't afraid to mess with them but not in an overly dramatic fashion. There was some great characters (and great acting) - Pembleton is probably the most memorable, but that's not to detract from other excellent cops such as Bayliss, Howard, and Bolander. Munch of course also stands out and his character moved on to the more mainstream "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" after the show ended.

The show did have the somewhat standard formula of about three cases being investigated simultaneously but did play around with it at times, particularly in the first season which is quite raw in many ways. Its use of hand-held cameras gave it quite an edgy feel (long before such camera work became more standard).

It also showed some interesting elements of the detectives struggling in a law and order system that should have aided them but that could instead be obsessed with statistics and making PR decisions rather than merit-based ones. This is something David Simon would later investigate in great depth in 'The Wire'.

It's a great show and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who is tired of the half-baked cop shows served up to us today.

That's all well and good, but are there any zoom-whoosh effects and zooming in on a single base in a strand of DNA? If not, I don't think it could keep my attention long enough. :pac:

Actually been looking to acquire this lately but no luck.

deadhead13

Munch makes a cameo appearance in the final episode of The Wire.

AnonoBoy

deadhead13 wrote: »

Munch makes a cameo appearance in the final episode of The Wire.

Sesame Street also did a muppet of him once.

The Pontiac

amacachi wrote: »

Actually been looking to acquire this lately but no luck.

There's a few used box sets about..I just bought Season 1 on ebay for £2.50. There's a total of 121 episodes over the seven seasons, so that should keep me busy for a while.

mikemac

Huuuuge bump

Anyone else watched this?
There are seven series

I didn't realy get into it for the first or second series but it gets better as it goes on.
Realy enjoying the third series now

It's pretty gritty and low budget looking but it works very well.
All the detectives have flaws and are real, this isn't a Law and Order, bad guy gets caught and case solved inside fifty minutes style show

Detective Pembleton is my favourite and by far the best detective

The Black Oil

Pembleton is one of the greatest characters ever to grace our TV screens.

A great show, though it never felt like a procedural to me. It definitely takes takes a dip in later years...pressures from the network to make the cast more attractive, cut back on the number of threads in stories, add some relationship stuff, etc. Also, some rather dull characters, Stivers, Russert, to name a few. Still, had its moments as the show went on, subway episode and another featuring a storyline on AIDS spring to mind.

krudler

watched the first season when I picked it up cheap, great show, never got round to watching the rest, saw random episodes when it was on years ago, its definitely the precursor to The Wire, set in Baltimore, overworked murder police dealing with beuracracy and a broken justice system. its not CSI, put it that way.

mikemac

I wonder if it's like that in reality
I suppose it is since the producer/writer spent time with Baltimore PD

An obsession with stats, clearance numbers and and yet more stats.

And the "red ball" cases, a tourists wife is shoot by the football stadium and the top brass go crazy :eek:
Entire departments work double shifts and around the clock to get it done.

Low level local gets killed and meh, it's all routine