An assassination attempt on former Lt. Giardello [now a mayoral candidate] reunites the best of the Baltimore PD.
Rating: 3 of 5 stars ★★★★★
Do you remember the final season of Homicide: Life on the Street? It was so young. Perhaps this adjective comes to mind because of the set redesign. Fresh paint and new furniture replaced the shabby and worn—and in the Season 6 finale, blood stained and bullet ridden—squad room that we knew. Perhaps the departure of Det. Frank Pembleton [Andre Braugher], the one stable married man, and the introduction of the stunning and single Det. Rene Sheppard [Michael Michele], a pageant winner turned cop, contributed to this youthful atmosphere.
Or perhaps antics more appropriate to hormone-crazed teenagers than seasoned homicide detectives infused that last season with its immaturity. We did have Detectives John Munch [Richard Belzer] and Stuart Gharty [Peter Gerety] competing for the affections of Billie Lou [Ellie McElduff], the Waterfront barmaid. And then we watched Det. Laura Ballard [Callie Thorne] confess her crush on colleague Paul Falsone [Jon Seda], who, at first, had eyes only for the former pageant queen. When Det. Tim Bayliss [Kyle Secor] explored his bisexuality, bullying and ostracism, typical school ground behaviors, ensued. Lt. Giardello [Yaphet Kotto], empathetic to the youthful energy that filled the squad room, managed his detectives as would an affectionate teacher, and when situations required a more strict disciplinarian, Capt. Gaffney [Walt MacPherson] swaggered in, principal-style, to crush the fun.
If Season 7 [1998-99] resembled high school homeroom, then Homicide: The Movie [2000] is graduation. We recognize the significance of the occasion—that this is it—and so enjoy the opportunity to see all of our favorites one last time. But like the freedom and possibilities that await matriculating seniors, we are itching to abandon this cohort of characters and discover what’s next on the television horizon.
Kudos to writers Tom Fontana, Eric Overmyer, and James Yoshimura for concocting a story where dozens of Homicide characters can make reasonably logical appearances. The movie opens with our beloved Lt. Gee—now a mayoral candidate—gunned down during a campaign appearance. As news of the shooting spreads, we get to see our favorites interrupted in lives we don’t know—Stanley Bollander [Ned Beatty] having his first beer with breakfast, a bearded Bayliss fly fishing in a lonely stream, Pembleton lecturing college students on morality—all to Beck’s haunting and weird “Beautiful Way.”
A Homicide initiate would understand that Gee had amassed such loyalty and good will during his tenure with the Baltimore PD that detectives current, retired, fired—together with medical examiners and prosecutors—would rush to investigate the crime and punish his would-be assassin. But to a viewer unfamiliar with this world, the support Gee gets is illogical. A black politician who campaigns to make hard drugs—heroin and the like—legal gets law enforcement officers and prosecutors—many of whom are white—racing to his aid? In what universe? Try explaining those conditions to folks watching this investigation as their first introduction to the story and cast. Better to have named this “movie” Homicide: The Last, Long Episode, as it certainly doesn’t work as a stand-alone film.
But, really, this movie is for fans. And the writing and acting are often so good that a character’s full personality blooms after a few seconds of screen time. We see, for example, that Gharty, the cowardly patrolman inexplicably promoted to homicide detective, has now made the even more illogical leap to lieutenant, where he struggles to remain afloat on his own incompetence. So that we remember the racism that plagues Baltimore (or perhaps to see the new lieutenant's bad decision making), Gharty sends two black detectives, Sheppard and Lewis [Clark Johnson], to interview the white supremacists and the white Bolander and Munch to interview black suspects on the religious fringe. The hungry press allow Mike Giardello [Giancarlo Esposito] to go Italian hothead on unfortunate reporters wanting news of his father's condition, while former Capt. Megan Russert [Isabella Hofmann], the wise mother figure, drapes her arm around anyone needing comfort.
Sometimes, though, the conversation is a bit forced, like when medical examiners Drs. Cox [Michelle Forbes] and Griscom [Austin Pendleton] use their hospital visit to examine Gee’s wound and debate the caliber of weapon used. The Dr. Cox we know would have delivered a spot-on insight about life and death, or at least touched Gee’s hand, as their working relationship had demonstrated mutual respect and affection. But such are the little disappointments viewers can expect when the characters must pass the story like a baton as they sprint through the relay race to showcase seven years of cast.
Of course, the most important interaction—Bayliss’s rooftop confession to Pembleton—is the most disappointing. You can’t fault Braugher and Secor’s acting. They shout, gesture, cringe, and foam with real passion. But the words themselves are flat. The characters haven’t grown. Bayliss is still a little boy needing Pembleton to be the rigid disciplinarian. And with this scene—as we try to imagine how Bayliss and Pembleton will suffer once they climb down the stairs—we know it’s time to move on. The Homicide characters remain in a behavior loop that has grown tiresome and old.
And look at what was on the horizon! In two short years, David Simon would bring to life a Baltimore of more grit and id in The Wire, inarguably the best series in television history.
1 Scene
To Own the Movie
Homicide: The Movie is an easy [though expensive] purchase at Amazon US. One option is to buy a single disc. If you have collector issues, be careful that the seller is offering the movie release—if that's important to you—not a broken up Complete Series. Or you can purchase Homicide: Life on the Street—The Complete Series, which includes the movie together with all seven seasons.
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.
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.
By cellphone, a gunman demands a six-pack of beer and a pig—a Vietnamese potbellied pet pig, to be exact. Baltimore police respect the request as the lives of 15 middle school students and their history teacher are at stake. Four bodies already litter the grounds. A school shooting as a season opener should grab our attention and excite us about a new year of Homicide: Life on the Street. And it does, but not nearly as much as the return of Det. Frank Pembleton [Andre Braugher], whose mouth and body still stumble from the stroke he suffered in the Season 4 finale.
For a viewer who has followed Homicide from the beginning, Season 5 is different. Detectives still work interesting cases, relying more on their brains than on their guns. And the variety of deaths still make a viewer conclude, as Det. Stanley Bolander [Ned Beatty] points out in Season 1, that any human is capable of murder, whether it is a child firing her father's revolver out the window [the stray bullet hitting a woman loading groceries blocks away] to planned executions by drug lord Luther Mahoney [Erik Dellums]. Circumstances, though, have crippled a number of the characters, and Season 5 inserts us into their shoes so well that we understand how badly shaken are their lives.
Sometimes the damage to a character is physical, as is the case with Pembleton, who returns to half-day desk duty until he can pass his firearms test. We immediately notice the lack of precision—in speech, memory, and small physical tasks like punching the correct numbers to return a call to his wife. The contrast is stark, for we remember the competent Pembleton of past seasons whose movement was as meticulous as his dress, whose voice had more agility than the hands of an archeologist as it excavated the truth. We get to see the indignity of his weakness: His wife Mary [Ami Brabson] doesn't trust him with the baby, Lieutenant Giardello [Yaphet Kotto] doesn't want him at investigation scenes, and the office staff sends him on lunch runs. Even after he returns to the streets, his tape recorder—a crutch for his still shaky memory—makes colleagues wonder if he is competent enough to do the job. These trials play out over nearly three months of episodes, which adds to the reality of the injury. And Braugher depicts a stroke victim with such authenticity that we want to believe, as his character does, that "bagel" is that dark brew people enjoy for a jolt of energy.
Having seen Pembleton at his most vulnerable, his partner Tim Bayliss [Kyle Secor] finally admits wounds of his own—emotional damage this time. We learn that an uncle sexually abused the young Tim, and more devastating than the inappropriate contact was that Bayliss's father accused his son of lying. The admission of the abuse, which brings the damage back to the surface, inspires Bayliss to track down his uncle whom he plans to confront as an equal adult. What he discovers, however, is a frail old man unable to fend for himself. Bayliss, ever the sensitive champion of the weak, ends up buying groceries and cooking eggs. His behavior confounds the audience: Is Bayliss such an exemplary man that he can come to the aid of any fellow human, even his own sexual abuser? Or is Bayliss such a pushover that he is now willing to offer up his homemaking skills, too powerless still to demand that his uncle pay for the sexual deviation?
Season 5 also takes a long look at police corruption and the spiritual damage a cop suffers when wrongly accused. During a grand jury investigation, Det. Mike Kellerman [Reed Diamond] finds himself betrayed on all sides. Kellerman is a man who finds comfort in following rules. So when he worked in the arson unit, he never took a bribe in exchange for calling an intentional fire accidental. Moreover, he agreed to the unwritten code that governs police behavior and did not rat out fellow investigators he knew were dirty. Despite his good behavior, he discovers that he too is under suspicion, for his former colleagues have lied to prosecutors to get lighter sentences for their own misdeeds. Spinning with disillusionment, Kellerman eventually realizes his black and white notions of morality have bled into gray. We are not surprised when he contemplates suicide or when he takes the law into his own hands during the arrest of Mahoney, a man who could have been punished through the courts. We understand Kellerman's predicament: If no one else is playing by the rules, why should he?
Season 5 also introduces the new chief medical examiner Dr. Julianna Cox [Michelle Forbes], a character who initially seems the least damaged of the regular cast. In her first episode, Dr. Cox conveys such authority that we never ask how this young snot acquired the medical expertise and political savvy to run a big-city lab, and so we don't question what inadequacies her ambition must be filling. Her authority appears grounded in an appreciation for the big issues in life, not the small stuff too many people sweat. For example, she champions a dead prostitute, firing an established older peer for helping a lazy detective ignore a murder he could pass off as an overdose. She insists on professionalism, disciplining Det. Meldrick Lewis [Clark Johnson] when he moves a body before her arrival at the crime scene, but admits her own fault to another officer as she politely accepts a [deserved] speeding ticket. When she remarks at an exhumation that she likes cemeteries, it's not a goth fascination with death but an evolved recognition that our inevitable demise should inspire better behavior the short time we're alive. Her idealism and edgy beauty attract Kellerman, but when Cox learns the toll of the false accusations against him—his flirtation with suicide and spiral into self-pity—she withdraws, choosing drink and a long-haired poseur over earnest Mike. As many women would rush to fix a broken man, we can only wonder what damage Cox has suffered that makes her retreat in the season finale.
Despite all the crises in the characters' lives, the work still gets done, and done well. The focus of Season 5 might be different, but the stories are still first rate.
Video Teasers
You can view a very moving scene featuring Det. Bayliss and Dr. Cox at YouTube.
To Own the Season
Homicide: Life on the Street, Season 5, is an easy purchase at Amazon US or UK.
