Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

This week, Brodie reveals his film!

Episode 5.11 “The Documentary”

(Dir by Barbara Kopple, originally aired on January 3rd, 1997)

On December 31st, the detectives are gathered in the squad room and waiting for the big ball to drop in New York.  The phones have not rung all night but, as Munch keeps reminding everyone, that is soon going to change.  Brodie comes in with a VHS tape and shows the detectives the documentary that he’s filmed about them.  Finally, we learn why Brodie has been filming random corners of the station for the past few episodes.

I have to admit that I was expecting this to be a clip show and there is one lengthy montage that is made up of scenes taken from previous episodes.  But, for the most part, the documentary is all new footage.  We watch as Bayliss and Pembleton investigate a murder committed by a mortician who didn’t want people to learn that he was dressing up the dead and posing with them.  (Yikes!)  All of the detectives take a turn explaining how the Miranda rights work, with their dialogue lifted pretty much intact from the David Simon book that inspired the show.  In a parody of Homicide’s signature visual style, the same clip of Lewis and Kellerman walking into a bar is shown three times in a row.  At one point, Lewis, Kellerman, and Brodie chase a suspect and run into a Barry Levinson-led film crew that is filming a show called Homicide.  “Real cops don’t yell ‘freeze,'” Brodie tells Levinson.

It’s a clever episode, made all the more so by the reactions of the detectives watching themselves on screen.  Pembleton confesses to Bayliss that it’s hard for him to watch footage of himself before his stroke because Pembleton doesn’t recognize the young and angry detective that he used to be.  All of the detectives object to footage of them joking about their job.  As the documentary ends, Giardello asks for the original copy for “safe keeping.”  Brodie reveals that he already sold the documentary to PBS.  “You can’t show us joking about dead people!” Munch says.  “It’s an invasion of privacy!” Bayliss says.  Brodie starts to defend himself but then the ball drops, the new year begins, and the phones start ringing.

This was a good ensemble episode.  If, for some reason, you only wanted to watch the later episodes of Homicide, this would be a good one to start with because the documentary re-introduces us to everyone.  Funny, dramatic, and eventually quite emotional, this episode was Homicide at its best.