Homicide: Life on the Street - Good TV Never Dies

I am one of those people who stand by my claim that Homicide: Life on the Street is one of the greatest shows ever to grace our television screens. Even in watching the episodes after the series has been off the air for so many years, they still manage to stand the test of time.

The entire ensemble cast is one that will never be surpassed because those actors were so good at what they did. The high-caliber performance that they brought to the screen weekly is something that I hadn't seen before and as of today, I have not seen since. Melissa Leo, Kyle Secor, Ned Beatty, Andre Braugher, Yaphet Kotto, Clark Johnson, Richard Belzer... They played real cops, not the over-glossed, pretty-in-heels and make-up, and Brooks Brothers-wearing cops that shuffle around on the screen nowadays. They came across as more reality, less glamour. You know, like actual cops.

But that is not the only thing that makes that show so great. The ensemble cast of Homicide:LotS was so wonderful because of the incredible relationships that the characters had with one another. In recent years, there has been a shift in the interaction of ensemble casts on television shows. There currently aren't many shows out there that feature ensemble casts that gel as well as Homicide's characters did. They either appear to be more one-sided, focusing on a specific pairing (e.g., Elliot and Olivia in L&O:SVU) while blurring the actors into the background, or there is no chemistry between the characters, making their interactions appear to be forced and uncomfortable. Color me biased, but that is how I feel.

And if I'm going to speak about the cast of Homicide:LotS and the relationships on the show, I have to discuss the phenomenon that was Frank and Tim. There are those who state that the show became 'The Frank and Tim Show' after a few years, and in some respects I can agree with them. There did seem to be a bit more of an emphasis on the relationship and partnership between Tim and Frank. But even when there were episodes that had a story that focused on them, there were also scenes that featured Beau Felton and his troubles, Lt. Giardello and the issues with his daughter, Kellerman's past coming back to bite him... Basically, the storylines were about more than just Frank and Tim, so that is why I am not in complete agreement with people who feel that way. Even when featuring Frank and Tim, the writers were diligent to not neglect the other characters on the show. They were what you could call, fair and balanced.

For six years the show was on top of its game, ebbing and flowing as most television shows do, but it managed to stay true to the characters for the most part. Many shows that have been on for that long usually begin to change the characters earlier than that, so they managed to stay ahead of the game. (I have to admit that I can not and will not count season 7, aka The Season That Never Happened. That was the season for shark-jumping and pod-people.)

Today, with the ever increasing reality television boom that shows no signs of slowing up, I find myself longing for the days of well-written and well-acted television shows. And even though there has been a recent resurgence of police dramas, I have yet to find one that has reached the bar that Homicide: Life on the Street has set. Sure, I may have set that bar a bit too high myself. I just know that there will never be another show that will touch me in the way that Homicide:LotS did. But truth be told, I don't want there to be another one.

Homicide: Life on the Street will always be unique in that respect.