Homicide: Life on the Street, Season 6

The Review

My parents were impatient people, so when I asked "Why?" as a child, I often got "Because we said so!" for an answer. As a result, I have grown up hungering for thoughtful explanations, and in the case of television series, careful development. I feel that little-kid powerlessness when I am dismissed with rushed or missing background. Season 6 of Homicide: Life on the Street still manages to tell good stories but has a number of "Because we said so!" moments that long-time viewers will find annoying.

Certain to cause a double take is Luther Mahoney's sister. Muscled and manicured, a crown of cornrows heaped on her head and cascading down her back, the exquisite Georgia Rae [Hazelle Goodman] has arrived from the Cayman Islands to bury her brother, who died at the hands of Det. Mike Kellerman [Reed Diamond] in Season 5. The problem is that Georgia Rae resembles a villainess from a James Bond movie or a comic book superhero come to life, not the authentic characters we have come to expect on Homicide. Her actions cement this resemblance as her spring-loaded thighs deliver crotch kicks that leave detectives—yes, plural—collapsed at her feet. We almost expect her to rip open her blouse to reveal a spandex-clad bosom announcing that Nut Crusher or Nad Knocker has arrived in town to avenge unjustified death. Why would Georgia Rae—the family accountant—leave the Caribbean to break cop balls in Baltimore? The writers answer: Because we said so!

When Georgia Rae brings a wrongful death suit against everyone involved in her brother's shooting, Det. Meldrick Lewis [Clark Johnson] confronts her, only to be felled by a high-heeled blow to his boys. When he breaks her nose in retaliation, the higher-ups suspend him indefinitely. Why does shift commander Lt. Al Giardello [Yaphet Kotto] support this punishment after a criminal has assaulted one of his best detectives? Why isn't Giardello screaming for the new arrest of Georgia Rae? The writers answer: Because we said so!

Georgia Rae isn't the only new woman this season. The writers also introduce Det. Laura Ballard [Callie Thorne], a melding of Detectives Kay Howard [Melissa Leo] and Megan Russert [Isabella Hofmann], two characters written out of the series. In Ballard, the writers hope to soften some of Howard's masculine edges with a dose of Russert's wise-mother femininity. Howard's long red hair may have broadcast her gender, but her most important female assets were secured behind shirts buttoned all the way to the collar, often fastened with a man's tie, so that male colleagues could not determine the color of her bra, let alone get a glimpse of cleavage.

Newbie Ballard, however, is all twenty-something trendy, with bare arms, a cropped shirt flashing a bit of midriff, and breasts tenting shirts cut to flatter her figure. So that we don't think for a minute that Ballard is an unconventional, work-driven brainiac like Howard, we have to listen to her bemoan the ticking of her biological clock in an after-work conversation with Det. Terry Stivers [Toni Lewis]. Sexuality and professional competence are not mutually exclusive, but we are not given the opportunity to watch Ballard demonstrate her skills as a detective; we are instead told that she is good during a press conference. Whereas Howard managed to keep her column black, Ballard's presence in homicide has chased red off the entire board, so much to the delight of Giardello that he hardly notices the return of Detectives Frank Pembleton [Andre Braugher] and Tim Bayliss [Kyle Secor], who have spent their off-season rotation in robbery.

If Ballard managed to wow us with her superior insight into the minds of murderers, we might forgive the writers foisting a Howard/Russert replacement on us, but Ballard is no great detective. She is soft with an AIDS patient who killed the man who infected her. She and her partner let two drug-addled hillbillies outwit them, and when a priest is beaten, bound, and knifed to death, Ballard is convinced that the best suspects are two scared 16-year-old refugees from Guatemala. Although Pembleton notes during the investigation that the murderer must be "a man with ice water in his veins"—a characteristic neither boy has—they remain Ballard's best suspects for two very long episodes. So why should we accept that she is a great detective? The writers answer: Because we said so!

Dr. Julianna Cox [Michelle Forbes], Maryland's chief medical examiner, also behaves in a manner that suits the plot, not the character. Despite her youth, exhausting social life, and penchant for leaving the big-city lab she supervises to do grunt work better left to subordinates, we buy that Dr. Cox is in charge. We are not surprised when she wins a national award for her work, and when her older male colleagues are swapping stories to determine who has solved the most difficult case, we expect that she will one-up them all with her tale of a leaper who was shot during his plummet from the roof, her analysis determining whether suicide or murder had occurred.

So we are perplexed when the confident, composed Dr. Cox behaves like a new-hire novice during the autopsy of a road-rage victim. A State of Maryland employee has run a couple off the interstate, killing the husband and paralyzing the wife. In an effort to minimize the inevitable multi-million-dollar settlement, the Director of Health asks Dr. Cox to fudge a toxicology number, a number which even Dr. Cox admits that death might have altered. As anyone who has watched Lt. Giardello knows, those in charge must be willing to compromise and barter favors as they meet responsibilities and honor loyalties. But Dr. Cox maintains an idealism not suited for someone at her professional level and refuses to change the blood alcohol level. Her insubordination results in her firing, leaving the audience to ask, Why would the accomplished Dr. Cox behave like a newbie who has not yet lost her professional naiveté? The writers answer: Because we said so!

Now if Dr. Cox was trying to escape a life and job that no longer made her happy, we were not given clues to recognize the self-sabotage. We needed to see a little hurt when Kellerman gave her the cold shoulder or when she found Bayliss lacking as a boyfriend, a little fear when she admitted frequent HIV testing.

The men seldom fare better. We have to watch Bayliss, who has never even surreptitiously cruised a guy, explore whether he might be bi- or homosexual [for ratings, we assume, not real character development]. We have to tolerate Pembleton's misjudgment of too many suspects; the most egregious is his unjustified persecution of a hospice doctor who has convinced not only his partner but also the audience that she hasn't murdered anyone. The characters who do get logical development are Kellerman, whose demonization of the Mahoney clan helps him justify his execution of Luther, and Det. Paul Falsone [Jon Seda], whose experiences as a homicide investigator inspire him to strengthen his own family ties by fighting for shared custody of his son.

The threat of cancellation from low ratings or the pull of new projects as the demise of Homicide loomed might have caused the writers to develop with less care. But during the many "Because we said so!" moments in Season 6, I couldn't help thinking—my arms crossed, my lip pushed out in a pout—"It's not fair!"

Video Teasers

At YouTube, you can view the informative PBS documentary Anatomy of a "Homicide: Life on the Street," which chronicles the work and love that goes into a single episode. Part 1 starts here.

For a montage of Dr. Julianna Cox, try this video.

To Own the Season

Homicide: Life on the Street, Season 6, is an easy purchase at Amazon US or UK.

Cross Post

This review exists at Amazon US.