When it was originally on: 1993-1999

Original network: NBC

Where you can stream it now: Peacock

Had I seen it before: Nope, never heard of it.

What IMDb says: An American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Unit.

Why I picked it: I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I hadn’t even heard of Homicide: Life on the Street until I started compiling a list of shows for another round of pilot reviews. One name caught my attention. This show was based on a book by David Simon. As in “guy who created The Wire” David Simon. Given the reverence with which anyone in TV discourse gives to The Wire, I was shocked to learn that there was a 7-season long show about Baltimore homicide detectives based on David Simon’s work that by comparison, hasn’t stood the test of time. Why didn’t the success of The Wire prompt people to seek it out? Was it just not on the right streaming platforms and the right time? I was hella curious, so here we are.

What I liked: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a police show less interested in whether the homicides get solved or not. That doesn’t sound like it would be a “pro” but somehow it is? This show is interested in exploring what it’s like to be a homicide detective. If it gets too caught up in solving a Case of the Week, it can’t do that. In some ways it reminded me of my review of The Pitt pilot from a few days ago, just interested in capturing the relentlessness of working this job. We see them unwinding over crabs and we see the dark sense of humor that develops in these people. Those people are the point, not the murderers they’re trying to track down, and I love how clear that was in the pilot. Maybe some of the murder cases introduced are continued in future episodes, but I honestly don’t care if they’re not. If anything, it’s refreshing to have a show acknowledge that sometimes murders don’t get solved and is willing to explore how detectives live with that.

I also love the interrogation at the end. Despite this thing rebelling against the Case-of-the-Week formula, we still get an ending that feels like a climax. The whole time we’ve just been told Pembleton is a great detective, but in the end we learn that he may cross some Constitutional lines to make that happen. The rookie whose name I forget calls him out, and Pembleton explodes. It’s first class acting by Andre Braugher and I hope the show continues to wade into the moral gray area that so many cop shows are scared to.

What I didn’t like: There’s still a lot of characters here and I’m not entirely what separates each one from the others. Someone like Pembleton feels distinctive and memorable, but there’s about four or five others that I don’t feel like I know anything about beyond “is a homicide detective.”

Do I want to watch Ep. 2?: Yes! I’m intrigued by what the show’s trying to do, and any flaws in the pilot are the kind of thing that a good writer could iron out by Episode 4.