A Televisual Feast

There’s apparently no rhyme or reason to the success of a “Homicide” episode, as this one has all the trappings of the usual mediocre (for “Homicide”) episode. It’s got a very Barry Levinson-esque scene at the Fell’s Point diner (you know, from Diner), it’s not really about any cases (Munch and Stanley’s) and it’s all […]

[Read more →]

Another lackluster, plot-heavy episode… except not really. It just feels plot-centric, because so little’s going on and it’s not being handled particularly well. Beau and Kay are at court all day, whether Beau teases Kay about having a crush on ASA Danvers, which she (apparently) does. It gives Daniel Baldwin a chance to be funny […]

[Read more →]

There’s something wrong with this episode. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s definitely something off. Everything’s great and it’s all here. Frank and Bayliss are jabbering in the car, for goodness sake… the familiar “Homicide” has arrived (even though Meldrick is still a shell). So why don’t I feel better? Because […]

[Read more →]

It’s kind of a concept episode, but also sort of not. I mean, on the one hand, it is a full episode covering an interrogation, but it’s also the interrogation concluding the six episode-long story arc–Bayliss’s first case. So while it’s a little concept-y and a little cute, it’s also appropriate. Labeling it doesn’t matter […]

[Read more →]

What a lackluster episode. I just finished watching it and I can barely remember what happened… Beau and Frank on assignment together was the most interesting thread, just because the show’s still using Frank as the enigma. I think Stanley was worried about his date, which was nowhere near as fun as seeing him and […]

[Read more →]

After the unbelievably wonderful third episode, the fourth–either thanks to the character development done in the third or just through dumb luck–continues the (short) greatness streak. The episode works so well for a few reasons, mostly because it finally gets Frank and Bayliss in to the car and talking, which (obviously) goes on to define […]

[Read more →]

It’s probably unfair to judge “Homicide” based on this episode, probably unwise to make a broad statement about the series improving with the third episode… whatever. This episode is one of the finer hours (forty-fives) of television. It’s a slow (dead) night in the squad and the detectives sit around, upset about the heat, upset […]

[Read more →]

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, […]

[Read more →]

The most interesting thing–how many posts have I started with “the most interesting thing”? Ten, twenty. It’s such a fake lead in. Paul Attanasio does everything he can to make “Homicide” an anti-procedural off the bat (is that better?). The pilot episode features three to five murders, eight detectives, and no actually mysteries. More time […]

[Read more →]