A Televisual Feast

With the second episode, “Homicide” gets a lot closer to working… it doesn’t spill over (besides Bayliss leading Frank, Meldrick and Crosetti, Kay and Beau have a case and Munch and Bolander talk dating). In other words, it’s found a balance totally missing in the pilot.

There are still problems–Gee is an intentional enigma, a soft-ass, hard-ass who wears tennis shoes (there’s more character revelation in this episode than the pilot, which seems odd, since it’s not development but exposition). Frank’s the jerk of the squad still (even though it opens with him getting some sensitivity). The humanity isn’t there yet, so having seen later seasons when Braugher was doing such amazing work, it’s a bit of a shock. He’s practically a bad guy in these episodes.

There’s a third case–Munch and Bolander’s–but it’s handled quickly since this episode keeps the excellent pace of the pilot. Lots going on in these forty-five minutes (which makes you wonder how other shows have so little going on, when a “procedural” can obviously handle two and a half to three cases and these other shows barely can handle one… though I suppose “Hill Street” did lots in its episodes too–but “Hill Street” comparisons should be made sparingly).

So besides awkward, somewhat shifty characterization on Bayliss and Frank… a damn fine forty-five.

3.5