Homicide: Life on the Street
When I knew that Denny was going to be laid up for a while last November, I ordered the DVD sets of Season Three and Four of "Homicide: Life on the Street." I think it only took about a week after Denny's surgery for me to realize that I had better order Season Five (and pre-order Season Six) because we were going through episodes at an impressive clip.
So we have been enjoying the opportunity to go back and undo a great failing of ours--the fact that we didn't watch "Homicide: Life on the Street" with any kind of regularity while it was being aired. Now, thanks to the DVD releases, we are caught up through Season Six and are eagerly waiting for Season Seven's release later this year.
It is such a great series. I don't know *why* I wasn't in the habit of watching it when it was being aired (except that after mid-1995 I was working enough that I wasn't in the habit of watching any television programs with regularity.) The plus side of this is that the episodes are all new to me--with the exception of the "Subway" episode that I have on VHS tape as part of my D'Onofrio collection. Thanks to the DVD release, we can watch them in the proper narrative order which helps us to follow the long story-arcs.
And NBC cancelled this series. I have to wonder what the hell is wrong with them. They already carry the dubious distinction of being the network that cancelled "Star Trek" after three seasons. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they pulled the plug on "Homicide" as well. Television networks are ratings-driven, and quality rarely factors into the ratings game. So once more, the fans are left to keep the memory alive.
Anyway, my re-introduction to "Homicide" has made me reconsider the approach that Dick Wolfe has taken with the "Law & Order" series, especially his reluctance to provide much in the way of personal glimpses of the main characters' lives. This has been quoted as the "no soap-opera" approach and since Vincent endorsed it, most of the fans look upon it as a good thing. But having watched "Homicide" these last few months, I have to wonder if he is right. Frankly, "Law & Order" seems a weak after-image of "Homicide", lacking its freshness and verve. And it seems to me that it is the personal that makes "Homicide" so gripping. Without being sensational about it the writers and producers let the personal side of their characters leak into their professional lives as naturally as it does in real life. These personal asides are skillfully played. We aren't hit over the head with with Munch's abysmal martial history or Bayliss's background of abuse, but the past is there and in the appropriate places add just the right touch of humor or depth needed to make one care about the characters. That is one facet that made "Homicide" not a good television series, but a great one. Far from being "soapy" or trite or overblown, the mix of personal and professional made the characters three-dimensional and convincing.
By comparison, the "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" characters work in a vacuum, with just the odd snippet of dialogue tossed out to fuel fannish speculations. Most of the time, I'm not sure if what Goren is tossing out for us is true or if he is just "playing" the suspect. I'll admit, the mystery was intriguing for the first season. But once the series won some respectable ratings and developed an active fan base, it seemed that every twitch and nuance of Goren's was being dissected and worried over and twisted and re-interpreted ad nauseum. After a few years, it gets tiring. Would it kill Dick Wolfe to let the viewer have some simple facts (does Bobby have a brother? A sister? Does Eames have a steady beau?) and to see Bobby relaxing at home in his sweats or Eames jogging in the park? The lack of the personal doesn't add enough to the characters' mystique to counteract the bland, two-dimensionalness it also engenders. And poor Deakins and Carver--they are ghosts behind the scenes--their parts shrinking with every season until they will doubtless be gone by next year.
Of course, with Vincent taking his out after Season Five, the show pretty will die or transform into something else by 2007. If the powers-that-be would have invested in some *good* writing, they might have built something that could survive after D'onofrio's exit. As it stands now, the series is a one-man show with a definite shelf-life.
I don't think it would hurt all concerned to study what made "Homicide" such a classic series.
So we have been enjoying the opportunity to go back and undo a great failing of ours--the fact that we didn't watch "Homicide: Life on the Street" with any kind of regularity while it was being aired. Now, thanks to the DVD releases, we are caught up through Season Six and are eagerly waiting for Season Seven's release later this year.
It is such a great series. I don't know *why* I wasn't in the habit of watching it when it was being aired (except that after mid-1995 I was working enough that I wasn't in the habit of watching any television programs with regularity.) The plus side of this is that the episodes are all new to me--with the exception of the "Subway" episode that I have on VHS tape as part of my D'Onofrio collection. Thanks to the DVD release, we can watch them in the proper narrative order which helps us to follow the long story-arcs.
And NBC cancelled this series. I have to wonder what the hell is wrong with them. They already carry the dubious distinction of being the network that cancelled "Star Trek" after three seasons. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they pulled the plug on "Homicide" as well. Television networks are ratings-driven, and quality rarely factors into the ratings game. So once more, the fans are left to keep the memory alive.
Anyway, my re-introduction to "Homicide" has made me reconsider the approach that Dick Wolfe has taken with the "Law & Order" series, especially his reluctance to provide much in the way of personal glimpses of the main characters' lives. This has been quoted as the "no soap-opera" approach and since Vincent endorsed it, most of the fans look upon it as a good thing. But having watched "Homicide" these last few months, I have to wonder if he is right. Frankly, "Law & Order" seems a weak after-image of "Homicide", lacking its freshness and verve. And it seems to me that it is the personal that makes "Homicide" so gripping. Without being sensational about it the writers and producers let the personal side of their characters leak into their professional lives as naturally as it does in real life. These personal asides are skillfully played. We aren't hit over the head with with Munch's abysmal martial history or Bayliss's background of abuse, but the past is there and in the appropriate places add just the right touch of humor or depth needed to make one care about the characters. That is one facet that made "Homicide" not a good television series, but a great one. Far from being "soapy" or trite or overblown, the mix of personal and professional made the characters three-dimensional and convincing.
By comparison, the "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" characters work in a vacuum, with just the odd snippet of dialogue tossed out to fuel fannish speculations. Most of the time, I'm not sure if what Goren is tossing out for us is true or if he is just "playing" the suspect. I'll admit, the mystery was intriguing for the first season. But once the series won some respectable ratings and developed an active fan base, it seemed that every twitch and nuance of Goren's was being dissected and worried over and twisted and re-interpreted ad nauseum. After a few years, it gets tiring. Would it kill Dick Wolfe to let the viewer have some simple facts (does Bobby have a brother? A sister? Does Eames have a steady beau?) and to see Bobby relaxing at home in his sweats or Eames jogging in the park? The lack of the personal doesn't add enough to the characters' mystique to counteract the bland, two-dimensionalness it also engenders. And poor Deakins and Carver--they are ghosts behind the scenes--their parts shrinking with every season until they will doubtless be gone by next year.
Of course, with Vincent taking his out after Season Five, the show pretty will die or transform into something else by 2007. If the powers-that-be would have invested in some *good* writing, they might have built something that could survive after D'onofrio's exit. As it stands now, the series is a one-man show with a definite shelf-life.
I don't think it would hurt all concerned to study what made "Homicide" such a classic series.
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