The Gritty Homicide Rewatch: Season 1, Part 1
Well, I've been writing these about nearly everything else, so I figured why not.
Okay, so Homicide is based on an excellent book by David Simon, who spent one year (in the late 1980s) with Baltimore's Homicide Unit, following them on calls and documenting various cases until their resolution. It's fascinating to read the book and then watch the first season of the show because you see things like "oh, those two guys were squished together to make Lt. Giardello" or "that murderess with the surname Parrish is now being called Calpurnia Church," etc.
The first few episodes deal with introducing the experienced detectives as well as Lt. Bayliss, who is a newbie on the squad and kind of our entry point into this world. His first case is the murder of an eleven-year-old girl named Adena Watson, and, unlike other (far inferior) cop shows, he doesn't neatly solve it by the end of the episode, but actually spends multiple episodes trying to figure things out, looking for new angles, running down leads that go nowhere, etc. It's amazing. The other characters have their own issues, too, but pretty much the focus is on Bayliss and Detective Bolander (Ned Beatty) who is middle-aged, divorce, and very awkwardly starting a relationship with the Medical Examiner (Dr. Blythe).
On Friday, palmetto and I watched this one:
1.05 "A Shot in the Dark"
A beat cop, Chris Thorman, was shot in the line of duty in the previous episode, and the investigations of police shootings are always assigned to the Homicide Unit, even if no one dies. Detective Crosetti is hot to find the culprit because Thorman's his friend, but it's actually his partner, Lewis, who is able to keep a cooler head and ensure that the right person gets brought in. It's pretty nifty how this happens. There's also some more post-date angst with Bolander and Blythe.
The best parts of the episode for me, though, are between Bayliss and his high-strung partner, Frank Pembleton. Frank generally thinks Bayliss is moving too slow, but doggedly runs down a lead, going from car lot to car lot in the middle of the night looking for a car he doesn't want to find because finding it will prove that someone's telling the truth. He's been pretty dismissive of Bayliss' pet theory, so when, at the end of the episode, he visits a sick and exhausted Bayliss at home to let him know that forensic analysis shows that Bayliss' theory has some merit after all, it's a pretty wonderful moment. Throughout the series, the partnership between Bayliss and Pembleton will always be my most favorite aspect of the show.
I cannot wait for palmetto to see the genius performance Andre Braugher gives as Frank in the next episode on our agenda, "Three Men and Adena." No other police procedural I've ever seen can compare to Homicide.
Okay, so Homicide is based on an excellent book by David Simon, who spent one year (in the late 1980s) with Baltimore's Homicide Unit, following them on calls and documenting various cases until their resolution. It's fascinating to read the book and then watch the first season of the show because you see things like "oh, those two guys were squished together to make Lt. Giardello" or "that murderess with the surname Parrish is now being called Calpurnia Church," etc.
The first few episodes deal with introducing the experienced detectives as well as Lt. Bayliss, who is a newbie on the squad and kind of our entry point into this world. His first case is the murder of an eleven-year-old girl named Adena Watson, and, unlike other (far inferior) cop shows, he doesn't neatly solve it by the end of the episode, but actually spends multiple episodes trying to figure things out, looking for new angles, running down leads that go nowhere, etc. It's amazing. The other characters have their own issues, too, but pretty much the focus is on Bayliss and Detective Bolander (Ned Beatty) who is middle-aged, divorce, and very awkwardly starting a relationship with the Medical Examiner (Dr. Blythe).
On Friday, palmetto and I watched this one:
1.05 "A Shot in the Dark"
A beat cop, Chris Thorman, was shot in the line of duty in the previous episode, and the investigations of police shootings are always assigned to the Homicide Unit, even if no one dies. Detective Crosetti is hot to find the culprit because Thorman's his friend, but it's actually his partner, Lewis, who is able to keep a cooler head and ensure that the right person gets brought in. It's pretty nifty how this happens. There's also some more post-date angst with Bolander and Blythe.
The best parts of the episode for me, though, are between Bayliss and his high-strung partner, Frank Pembleton. Frank generally thinks Bayliss is moving too slow, but doggedly runs down a lead, going from car lot to car lot in the middle of the night looking for a car he doesn't want to find because finding it will prove that someone's telling the truth. He's been pretty dismissive of Bayliss' pet theory, so when, at the end of the episode, he visits a sick and exhausted Bayliss at home to let him know that forensic analysis shows that Bayliss' theory has some merit after all, it's a pretty wonderful moment. Throughout the series, the partnership between Bayliss and Pembleton will always be my most favorite aspect of the show.
I cannot wait for palmetto to see the genius performance Andre Braugher gives as Frank in the next episode on our agenda, "Three Men and Adena." No other police procedural I've ever seen can compare to Homicide.