Customer Reviews

Homicide: Life On The Street: The Complete Seasons 1 and 2

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This was a great series, and it was at top form in its first two years, so this is the box set to get. While not the first cop shows to get under the skin of its protagonists (remember Hill Street Blues?) it had a style all its own, with a literary flair that made this one of the most heady shows on television. Like Hill Street Blues, Homicide had characters that played extremely well off each other -- Pembleton and Bayliss for example. One got an intimate sense of the street, and each episode was fraught with tension without devolving into standard pot-boilers which was all too often the case with TV cop shows. The characters evolved, coming and going over the life of the series. The most important thing that can be said for Homicide is that it was never static.

Homicide: Life on the Street is hands down the best television drama of all time. Whereas The West Wing shows the struggles at the highest level of American political life, Homicide got to the heart of the lowest reaches of life, using investigations of death as a touchstone. Andre Braugher is quite simply the best dramatic actor of our time, and this was his peak.

You know it when you see it: This is the real thing. Even NBC execs recognized this fact, keeping it on the air far longer than its low ratings ever seemed to justify.

If you like the idea of art and intelligence in television, you will absolutely love this series.

Fans of NYPD Blue and Law & Order should check out Homicide Life on the Street. Despite the rave critical reviews this series received when on NBC, it had a hard time capturing an audience and the ratings were unimpressive. I have always maintained and still maintain that Homicide was a better series than NYPD Blue or Law & Order. The cast is amazing, the episodes are incredibly well done, and the stories and plot lines are intense and intriguing. Crime drama fans owe it to themselves to check this one out!

Content-wise the show deserves 5 stars.

In terms of picture and sound quality, this set deserves no less than 4 stars.

However, the biggest disappointment as it turns out is that there is not even closed captioning, much less subtitles.

I discussed this issue at length with a few fans who happened to be hearing-impaired, and indeed they voiced their frustration. Those fans were deeply disappointed and felt like they were ignored/abandoned.

While my own hearing is fine, I would hope A&E would be more sensitive towards the needs of hearing-impaired fans and proceed to add closed captioning to future releases.

Seasons one and two have the reputation of being amongst the strongest TV series about law inforcement available from USA television. In my opinion, this is justified. It is an excellent series, well acted, well directed and always interesting. Well worth the money and the time. It seems typical to me, however, that all the funding network wants is financial return. Critical success, not interested. Incisive observation, who wants that. A stable of well known actors interested in playing just to be there, nah. Just give them ratings. Well, get it and assess for yourselves.

If you love cop shows as I do, you already know how great this series was. It really had it all. The first thing that must be said is that it was probably the best ensemble cast ever assembled for a cop show, and the strength of the casting was that ever actor was perfect for the role. There really was not a weak link in the bunch, and everyone carried his or her weight.

My favorites were Jon Polito as Det. Steve Crosetti. Polito has done a lot of screen work for the Coen Brothers (Miller's Crossing, The Man Who Wasn't There), and he brought his unique combination of humor and intensity to the role. Andre Braugher is terrific as the terminally eager Det. Frank Pembleton, and to watch him question a suspect is to feel the heat of the interrogation room come right off the TV screen. Whoever thought to cast ex comedian, almost-has-been Richard Belzer as Det. John munch deserves an Emmy for that decision alone. Belzer is simply great as John Munch, creating one of the most unique and surprising characters in the history of television, and one of the most important cop characters of them all - right up there with Det. Joe Friday or Det. Lonnie Briscoe. Lastly, Yaphet Kotto brings his dominant presence as the steady powerhouse, Lt. Gee Giardello.

The show was also a colossal trailblazer - often imitated, never duplicated. The writing was top-notch throughout, the directing was always tight, but the thing to note was the style of the production. Gritty close ups, shifting camera angles, little or now background music, and the depiction of cops as at times willing to break the law to get the guilty - all set a tone and style that was very influential. If you are a fan of The Shield (as I am), watch this series to see where it comes from.

No kidding, this stuff is the shot.

Homicide: Life on the Street is still one of the absolute best programs of all time. Highly critically acclaimed, but it never got the public praise it deserved. No glitz, glamor, or explosive special effects here, just some of the best dramatic acting and script writing to ever make it onto a television program. Although the show has not been on the air for a while, the age does not show here. This is a true classic and a must-own set for anyone interested in crime dramas. In a world of action-saturated police shows that are short on character development and story, Homicide, (like the Law and Orders) is a gem. This show will shock you with its clever storylines, and give you something to think about when it flirts with life philosophy. It's gritty, realistic, and thought-provoking. Do not miss out on this treasure!

This series is sorely missed. Largely ignored by everyone, with the possible exception of the critics, every episode was clever and well scripted. It is simply one of the best written programs on televesion. It is also superbly acted - how in the world did Andre Braugher go so long without due recognition (he won the emmy in his last season and while the rest of the excellent cast was largely ignored!)?

Now don't get me wrong I love Law & Order but Homicide is the one for me. These are working class people who claw for every inch of ground they get.

I know everyone laments on the lack of Closed Captioning but still since this series is not on the air anywhere this is the best we will get (except for third generation VCR tapes that are on their last legs).

The technical complaints about the "Homicide: Seasons 1 & 2" DVD box set are 100% accurate. The typos on the package, and the lack of English captioning (for one of the most dialogue-intensive shows on TV), betray a lack of planning behind this long-awaited (and relatively expensive) release.

However, watching the first 13 episodes of the series removes all other qualms about the set. It's important just to get these shows on DVD and put them back into the public eye. Here's a cop show with no gunfights and no car chases. Although "Law & Order" mostly followed the same rules, here the cops themselves are the attraction, played by a terrific ensemble cast of character actors. Obviously there's Richard Belzer, whose Detective Munch has been used everywhere else from two "Law & Order" series, "The X-Files", and the film epic "A Very Brady Sequel" (!). And Munch is just a minor character in this box set. More prominent cast members (who sadly didn't make it to the show's later, full-season runs) include Ned Beatty as the worn-out Stan Bolander, Daniel Baldwin as good-old-boy Beau Felton, and Jon Polito's Lincoln assassination conspiracy theorist Frank Crosetti. You may remember Polito from his current role as California lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante.

A good way to judge the quality of a TV show is to scan the cast and production credits and see what became of the team a decade later. Apart from big-name directors Barry Levinson and Bruce Paltrow, two Season 1 episodes were directed by Martin Campbell, who revived the James Bond franchise with "GoldenEye" a few years later. Familiar names in the guest cast include Edie Falco (recurring as the wife of an injured patrolman), Julianna Margulies (as Bolander's second-season love interest), the always welcome Luis Guzman as a doomed coffin maker, and Jake Gyllenhaal, playing Robin Williams' kid in the second-season opener.

The glue that holds the show together is the Season 1 story arc revolving around the murder of schoolgirl Adena Watson. We trace the investigation through the eyes of nervous rookie detective Tim Bayliss (the underrated Kyle Secor) and his partner Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher, given to mesmerizing fits of Shakespearean fury). Yaphet Kotto ("Koto", as per the box) takes the cliched role of the minority squad leader and turns in a joyful, fiery performance that equals Braugher's at every turn. Also standing out is the episode with Williams, which deftly turns from an examination of victim's rage to a (somewhat sympathetic) look at the killer's mind. By definition, most other cop shows don't go within a thousand miles of that approach.

The commentary by Levinson and Tom Fontana on the pilot episode is above average; however, that's all we get. There's a useless episode from some A&E true crime series; however, the song list, episode trailers, and casting featurette are decent additions. Season 3 is on its way, and none too soon. In the meantime, watch these episodes again.