Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Filming in ‘the Box,’ the claustrophobic interrogation room where some of most intense scenes in the series took place.
Mark Peterson/Corbis via Getty Images
‘Homicide: Life on the Streets’ laid the groundwork for Peak TV
– and it’s finally available to stream for new and old fans of
the series
Published: August 30, 2024 8:38am EDT
Summit Osur
Assistant Professor of Media Studies, Quinnipiac University
When “Homicide: Life on the Streets” premiered on NBC in 1993, most network television
police dramas were formulaic, cleanly shot and had clear delineations between good and evil.
“Homicide” was different. It featured cops, but you couldn’t always tell whether they were the
good guys or the bad guys; its writers played with traditional episode formats; and its scenes
were shot on location with handheld cameras in order to give the show a realistic feel.
While TV buffs have long championed the series as a classic, few viewers during the show’s
original run seemed to notice or care. “Homicide” suffered from low ratings, interference
from the network executives at NBC, and a continual threat of cancellation.
Now, “Homicide” has finally been made available for streaming on Peacock. Its
groundbreaking visuals and courageous scripting set the template for the television shows of
the 21st century, a golden era of programming sometimes called Platinum TV or Peak TV.
Up close and personal
Paul Attanasio created “Homicide” and based the series on David Simon’s 1991 book,
“Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.” Simon, then a beat reporter for The Baltimore Sun,
had written the book about his experiences being embedded in the Baltimore Police
Department Homicide Unit.
But it was executive producer Barry Levinson who masterminded the show’s visceral style.
The Baltimore-born Levinson wanted to capture the city in all of its gritty glory, with shots
suffused with trails of cigarette smoke, crumbling row houses and the minutiae of cops’ day-
to-day lives.
He did this by shooting on 16 mm film, which is a favorite of documentary filmmakers. When
developed, the film’s natural grains and imperfections are preserved. Editors then
incorporated jump cuts to give the show, in the words of showrunner Tom Fontana, “an
energy and a surprise.”
Meanwhile, writers eschewed flashy car chases and instead explored the thankless and
morally ambiguous aspects of police work, the kind that can breed cynicism among the cops
themselves and toward the profession as a whole.
Scenes were often filmed several times, from different angles and with different emphases.
Many of them featured extreme close-ups in order to compel viewers to contemplate the
psyche of either the cops or the criminals, an approach that gave the series a cinéma verité, or
documentary, feel.
Homicide Life on the Street: The Box
Viewers get a feel for what it’s like to be inside the ‘Box.’
Take, for example, the “Box.” The windowless room where the cops dress down and grill
suspects appears in a number of episodes, and the filmmakers were keen to evoke the
claustrophobic feel and look of an actual interrogation room.
In fact, one of the show’s most famous episodes, “Three Men and Adena,” which is centered on
the investigation into the rape and murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson, takes place almost
entirely in the Box.
A new kind of police procedural
In conjunction with its unique visual style, “Homicide” structured its episodes to better reflect
the rhythm of actual police work.
Most police procedurals follow a similar formula: During the cold open, a murder is
discovered. By the end of the episode, the murderer has been caught.
Crimes don’t work like that, though – and neither did “Homicide.”
In the series, crimes might appear at the beginning of an episode, in the middle of one, at the
end, or not at all. Murder investigations might last a single episode or, in a precursor to
serialization, span several episodes.
One episode from Season Six, “The Subway,” begins with a man being shoved off a station
platform. He’s pinned between a Baltimore Metro train and the platform, and his spine is
severed. He has about an hour to live, and the homicide detectives have the length of an
episode to figure out who pushed him and why.
On the other hand, a number of Season One episodes investigated the rape and murder of
Adena Watson. As the season progressed, the cops circled ever closer to her assailant without
finding the necessary evidence to convict him.
Like the Box, “the board” was a recurring cue. A white board in the background of the
precinct, it kept a running tally of cases, with those written in black considered “closed,” while
those written in red were “open.” Since murder investigations might cross multiple episodes,
the board was a way for both the cops and the viewers to keep track of open and closed cases.
Not every case was changed from black to red by the end of the episode; in fact, murders were
often never solved.
This had the effect of pushing back against the finality of the 60-minute network television
episode, while also hammering home the futility of police work. Two decades later, “Battlestar
Galactica” would use a similar tally system, with the number on that white board representing
the number of humans still alive as robots attempted to wipe out humanity.
Death and resurrection
“Homicide” was canceled in 1999 due to low ratings. Nonetheless, it served as a launching pad
for its cast and crew, and the prestige shows that grace television screens today.
Its breakout star, Andre Braugher, who would go on to play the beloved role of Raymond Holt
in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” played a brilliant detective wrestling with his faith and his sense of
purpose. The show also starred Richard Belzer, who would go on to have a long run in “Law &
Order: SVU.” Even Robin Williams and a young Jake Gyllenhaal appeared together in the same
episode.
Mark Ortega
@MarkEOrtega · Follow
Homicide: Life on the Street S2E4 “Bop Gun”
Written by @AoDespair and David Mills
Jake Gyllenhaal and Robin Williams as father & son whose wife/mom was killed by
a mugger. Highly recommend this Robin Williams performance. His despair and
humanity explodes through the screen.
7:07 AM · Aug 22, 2024
“Homicide” was the spiritual predecessor to prestige TV shows such as “The Sopranos,” “The
Shield” and “Breaking Bad.” Members of the show’s cast and production team would also go
on to create “The Wire,” which many critics view as the greatest television series of all time.
Due to conflicts over music rights and the high cost of adapting the show to HD and 4K
resolution, “Homicide” entered purgatory in the streaming era, even as hit series from the
1990s found new homes on various platforms. Memories of the series faded, overshadowed by
its successor, “The Wire.”
As all 122 episodes and the made-for-TV movie make their way to Peacock, the show can now
finally be introduced to a new generation of viewers.
