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, everyone gets something to do!

Episode 1.7 “A Dog and Pony Show”

(Dir by Alan Taylor, originally aired on March 10th, 1993)

Still struggling to accept their failure to get the arraber to confess to the murder of Adena Watson, Bayliss and Pembleton find themselves investigating another mysterious death.  Jake, a healthy and apparently beloved member of the Baltimore police, has been found dead in a park.  No one is sure about the cause of death but Pembleton suspects that Jake may have been poisoned.  When Pembleton asks Jake’s partner (played by Nick Olcott) if Jake had any enemies, he replies, “Maybe just the Pekingese next door.”

Pembleton is determined to solve the mystery of Jake’s death.  Bayliss is less concerned with the case, largely because Jake was a dog.  Of course, as a member of a K-9 unit, Jake was also a member of the force.  Because Jake was a member of law enforcement, the Homicide unit is required to investigate his death.  Bayliss thinks that Pembleton’s interest in the case is just trying to show Bayliss up in front of Giardello but Pembleton claims that his only concer is seeing that justice is done.  Add to that, Pembleton just happens to like dogs.

And Pembleton does solve the case.  It turns out that Jake got loose and was picked up by an overworked animal control officer (Joy Ehrlich) who, back at the pound, mixed Jake up with another dog who was scheduled to be put down.  She only realized her mistake after Jake died.  In a panic, she dumped Jake’s body in the park.  Having solved Jake’s death, Pembleton and Bayliss attend his funeral.  As Jake’s partner dumps Jake’s ashes into a lake, Bayliss suddenly gets emotional.  He explains that he’s thinking about Adena.  Pembleton, for once, shows some sympathy for Bayliss.  It looks like the two are finally starting to bond and become true partners.  All it took was the death of one dog.  (I’m getting teary-eyed just writing that sentence.)

Meanwhile, Bolander continues to stress out about his relationship with Carol, which is a subplot that I find less and less interesting with each episode in which it is featured.  This time, Bolander and Munch take Carol’s teenage son, Danny (Stivi Paskoski), on a ride-along.  Bolander is disturbed at just how excited Danny gets about seeing a dead body.  When Danny says that he’d love to commit a murder and get away with it, Bolander decides that the kid is mentally disturbed.  He also lets Carol know that he thinks Danny is a bit sick in the head.  I get the feeling this relationship is not going to last much longer and that’s fine with me because Bolander’s love life (or lack thereof) is honestly the least interesting part of this show so far.

While all of that is going on, Crosetti tries to comfort the now blind Chris Thormann, who does not react well to the news that his wife (played by Edie Falco) is pregnant.  I’m not really a huge fan of the Thormann storyline, largely because I find it to be almost unbearably depressing.  But I do have to say that Jon Polito, Lee Tergesen, and Edie Falco all really gave great performance in this episode.

Howard and Felton investigate the murder of a drug dealer’s girlfriend.  This storyline was pretty typical of what you’d expect to see on a cop show.  The most interesting thing about it was the presence of Lawrence Gilliard, Jr. as an associate of the suspect.  Years later, Gilliard would play the tragic D’Angelo Barksdale on the first two seasons of The Wire, a show that feels like a direct descendant of Homicide.  (And, indeed, Richard Belzer did have a cameo as John Munch during The Wire‘s final season so the two shows do take place in the same universe, though it should be made clear that Gilliard is not playing D’Angelo in this episode.)

Finally, a retiring shift commander (played by Michael Constantine) warned Giardello that the bosses want to force out all of the veteran commanders so that they can be replaced by younger men.  As usual, Kotto shined in the role of Giardello, playing him as being the ideal boss.  In a police force where almost everyone else seems to be looking out for themselves, Giardello genuinely cares about the people working under him.

After the emotional intensity of the previous episode, A Dog and Pony Show feels a bit more like a traditional crime show.  It’s definitely an ensemble piece, with everyone getting something to do.  (Even Lewis gets to help out Felton and Howard while his usual partner, Crosetti, tends to Thormann.)  Though this episode doesn’t grab the viewer in the same way as the previous few episodes, it still gives the cast a chance to show off their strengths and it still features enough unexpected moments of mordant wit to keep things from getting too bleak.  (It’s hard not to smile at Bayliss and Pembleton bickering over dogs or at Yaphet Kotto’s delivery of the line, “I’m starting to dislike both of you.”)  This episode shows that, even with a somewhat conventional episode, Homicide could still get the job done without sacrificing its own unique identity.