Homicide

We all agree this was probably the best crime series ever made, despite NBC's reluctance to support and promote it. This was TV acting, scripting, and directing at it's best.

What the public could not accept, was that the stories did not have neat endings. Life, and crime stories are messy. The show reflected that. And I'm grateful for it's honesty.

On the other hand, I'm grateful they allowed the show to have a movie that ended several major story lines. At the end of it all, we needed closure, even it some of the endings weren't "happy endings". That in itself showed the quality - the truth of this show.

Fiction can be truthful, and "real". This was the best example . And NBC should hang it's head in shame for the way it treated it. I'm glad that "Munch" still lives on Law & Order SVU, but it's a shadow of a great character in a great show.

On TV you take what you get.

Simply, the most rewarding dramatic broadcast television show I have ever seen. HLOTS was consistently character driven, well written and beautifully shot and edited. The acting stands alone as a singular achievement in broadcast TV. An across the board gifted ensemble speaking emotionally provocative, unflinchingly honest and challenging words.

Two things kept this show from legendary status: First, for most of it's run, it suffered from a terrible schedule spot, Friday. Second, it was a challenging show. In no way is that a denigration, in fact, the opposite. The levels of meaning presented in the writing and reinforced by the camera style and acting required a level of attention that people normally bring with them to watch the theatre.

Regarding it's lack of very many Emmy's, it was produced outside of Hollywood, yet was made with substantive quality and artistic integrity. My guess is that it therefore lacked clout and engendered jealousy at the same time.

It's cliché, but HLOTS was ahead of it's time. Many shows on today echo much of the style and substance HLOTS pioneered. Look no farther than THE SHIELD, NIP TUCK or THE SOPRANOS for dramatic quality similar to what HLOTS was doing 10+ years ago.

There are other good dramas on TV today, but HLOTS connected so consistently on an emotional and aesthetically fulfilling level that I felt like I had lost a friend when it finished it's run. I can't say that about anything I've seen before or since.

Like everybody before me told, this is THE best police story ever made.

The photography, the personages, the direction and last but not least the music. It's the first series where I noticed that a song was completely played, while all the actors kept moving, doing what they have to do, but without dialogues. If you are a scriptwriter it's a dream when you can accomplish this. The action counts. But then, as a cherry on a pie, the dialogues are perfect too.

Too bad we get this only once a week and then at a past midnight hour.

I was very surprised to learn this series originated from a book. Got that information from this web-site. I'm still full of praise but on the go for the Amazon book store. :-)

Homicide was the best show of any genre to be made for television. It honestly gave the most detailed and truthful accounts about how criminal investigations really happen. It also touched on the personal lives of how many police officers live and how they deal with the daily grind of the job. I say this because I've been in law enforcement for 7 years and I know how things really happen. Homicide puts the truth in crime TV....all crimes don't get solved overnight or at all sometimes. Homicide touched on that very point in different episodes. It was a show that TV executives should have just let it run it's natural course. It was taken off the air well before it's time!!!

This show is an excellent drama of which you will rarely find on network TV(perhaps NYPD Blue in its first five or six years,St.Elsewhere,L.A.Law,Hill Street Blues might compare). This show,set in the Homicide division(of course) of the Baltimore Police Department and centered around the elite detectives of the precinct was an edgy,intense show which took some big-time chances(For example:One episode was set exclusively around two of the detectives grilling a suspect)and it's time slot,Friday nights at 10 eastern/9 central,made this a constant candidate for the cancellation blocks,but the loyal viewer-ship and the loud protestations of TV critics helped keep this show afloat for the six and a half years it ran. The acting and writing were by far some of the best on network t.v.,the characters fleshed out by Andre Braugher,Yaphett Kotto(As the chief),Ned Beatty,Melissa Leo,Isabella Hoffman,Clark Johnson,Daniel Baldwin,Kyle Secor,Reed Diamond and long-time stand-up comedian Richard Belzer,who has found his niche as a dramatic actor(and as the SAME character,Detective John Munch,in no fewer than five TV shows,now on Law and Order:Special Victims UNit)stand out maybe the most! I believe they could even revive this show someday in the future with some different characters in the roles and,with roughly the same writing and exactly the same kind of no-hold-barred risk-taking,could be at least half as good,if not equal.