Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life on The Street 4.2 “Fire Part Two”

Posted on August 17, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

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

Guest reviewer alert! I’m filling in for Lisa on the Homicide beat this week. Let’s take a look at the second episode of the fourth season.

Episode 4.2 “Fire Part Two”

(Dir by Nick Gomez, originally aired on October 27th, 1995)

Continuing from where the previous episode ended, Pembleton, Bayliss, and Kellerman investigate the second warehouse fire. Another victims has been found burned to a crisp in the fire. Her dental records identify here are Bonnie Nash, a teenage girl. The positioning of her body indicates that, unlike the first victim, she was already dead when the fire was set.

Pembleton continues to dislike Kellerman and gets especially annoyed when Kellerman announces that he’s decided to quit smoking. Bayliss is suffering from a degenerative disc and spends more time complaining about the pain than actually investigating the case. It’s Kellerman who solves the case and tricks chemistry teacher Gavin Robb (Adam Trese) into confessing. While in the box with him, Kellerman plays good cop and even tells Robb that he’s free to leave after Robb denies being the arsonist. As Robb stands, Kellerman whispers, “Why did you kill the dog?”

Without thinking, Robb replies, “I didn’t know it was there.”

(Of course, there was no dog there.)

Realizing his mistake, Robb confesses. Bonnie was one of his students. Having decided to kill her, Robb set the first fire to fool everyone into thinking that there was a serial arsonist on the loose so that the arsonist would be blamed when Bonnie’s body was found in the second fire. The first death was an accident. The death of Bonnie was premeditated. When asked why he killed Bonnie, Robb replies, “That’s my personal business.”

Giardello invites Kellerman to join Homicide. At first, Kellerman refuses because he doesn’t think he’s smart enough to be a member of the murder police. But after visiting his father at his dead-end job in a distillery, Kellerman changes his mind.

Meanwhile, Kay and Munch both study for the sergeant’s exam. Kay makes it to the exam and probably aces it. Munch can’t find his lucky socks and misses it. I would have missed it too. You can’t do anything without the lucky socks.

This episode was an improvement over the previous episode. Last episode, Kellerman came across as being a cliche, the hot-headed cop who has a problem with authority. This episode, Kellerman was more likable and also a lot less cocky. That he’s insecure about whether or not he can keep up with the other homicide detectives makes him a very relatable character. It would have to be intimidating to find yourself suddenly working with someone like Frank Pembleton, who is always portrayed as being the best of the best.

As I mentioned last week, Reed Diamond was originally a controversial addition to the cast. At the time, many critics said the show was selling out by casting an actor who didn’t look like Ned Beatty or Jon Polito. Reed Diamond and Mike Kellerman would both prove themselves, leaving little doubt that they belonged. Later, Homicide would make some bad casting decisions. (Five word: Jon Seda as Paul Falsone.) But Reed Diamond, with this episode, steps up and shows that he can keep up with the rest of the squad.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.19 “Colors”

Posted on July 27, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 …. is the Homicide Unit cursed?

Episode 3.19 “Colors”

(Dir by Peter Medak, originally aired on April 28h, 1995)

A Turkish teenager who is dressed and made up like a member of KISS is lying dead on a front porch. Jim Bayliss (David Morse) claims that the teenager was banging on his door and acting aggressive. He says that he grabbed his gun to protect his family and that he ordered the teenager to get off his porch before he shot him. The teen’s friend, who was standing a few feet away, says that the victim raised his hands before he was shot and that he was only at the house because he was trying to go to a party and got the wrong address.

Pembleton thinks that Jim shot the teenager even though he knew the teen was no longer a threat and because he was angered by the teen’s broken English. It’s true that Jim did once get into a fight in a bar with someone who was visibly Middle Eastern. Jim’s wife mentions that Jim gets annoyed with people who can’t speak English. Pembleton says that Jim is so prejudiced that he doesn’t even think twice about assuming the worse about anyone who isn’t white.

Complicating things is that Jim Bayliss is the cousin of Tim Bayliss.

Tim spends almost the entire episode trying to defend his cousin. He asks Giardello for permission to be in the Box during the interrogation, (Giardello refuses, rightly pointing out that Tim has a conflict of interest.) Later, while watching the interrogation, Tim gets so angry that he breaks a two-way mirror. Oddly, the one thing that Tim doesn’t do is tell his cousin to ask for a lawyer, which would have ended the interrogation before it could even get started. Eventually, Ed Danvers, who we haven’t seen much of this season, takes Jim before a Grand Jury and the Grand Jury declines to indict. Everyone in the courtroom applauds but Tim is left to wonder if Pembleton was correct about his cousin.

At one point, Bolander says that he fears that the Homicide Squad may be cursed and then he lists all of the things that have happened over the course of the third season — Crosetti committed suicide, three detectives were nearly killed in a shooting, Munch opened a bar, and now Bayliss and Pembleton are fighting. Bolander has a point. It’s a bit much, particularly when you compare it to the first two seasons. Homicide took a melodramatic turn during the third season. That doesn’t mean that the show hasn’t been good. The acting continues to be amazing. But it’s still quite a contrast to how the show started.

As for this episode, David Morse kept you guessing as Jim Bayliss. At first, Jim just seems like a harried home owner who wanted to protect his family. As the episode progresses, his anger becomes more and more pronounced until the viewer is left feeling that Jim was destined to eventually shoot someone. That said, this episode was occasionally a bit too much on the nose in its storytelling. It also left unaddressed something that should have been a bigger issue. Should Pembleton have been allowed to investigate the case or lead the interrogation, considering that Tim is his partner? Giardello was rightly concerned about Tim’s conflict of interest but he never addressed the fact that Pembleton potentially had one as well.

Next week, season 3 comes to an end.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.18 “In Search of Crimes Past”

Posted on July 20, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Giardello sets a dangerous precedent.

Episode 3.18 “In Search of Crimes Past”

(Dir by Kenneth Fink, originally aired on April 14th, 1995)

A woman (Felicia Shakman) takes Colonel Barnfather hostage, pointing a gun at his head and demanding that Bolander reopen the investigation into a murder that occurred sixteen years ago. Bolander was the primary on the murder and the man that he arrested is scheduled to be executed in just a matter of hours. The woman with the gun is the man’s daughter. Russert wants to bring in the hostage negotiators but Giardello instead orders Bolander to take a look at the files and the evidence and to try to see if he arrested the wrong man.

I’m not really sure I buy Giardello’s response. Giardello claims he has no choice but actually, it seems to me that Giardello is setting a dangerous precedent. In Baltimore, if you think a relative has been wrongly convicted, you can apparently just take someone hostage and demand the case be reopened. I’m not sure those are the rules that anyone wants to set.

Now, of course, it turns out that Bolander did arrest the wrong guy. It perhaps would have been more interesting if Bolander had look at the files and said, “Yeah, I got the right guy,” but then this episode wouldn’t be able to make a statement against the death penalty. Bolander realizes that he made a mistake and also that the actual murderer is a man who committed suicide that very evening.

While that’s going on, Pembleton and Bayliss investigate the death of an elderly woman who appears to have slipped and drowned in her bathtub. Her husband (Barnard Hughes) seems to be heartbroken. Of course, the husband actually killed her. He has fallen in love with another woman and he killed his wife so that he could be with her. I preferred this storyline to the Bolander one, just because it featured a lot of Pembleton/Bayliss scenes and a good performance from Barnard Hughes.

Finally, Munch hired a new bartender. He didn’t bother to tell his partners beforehand but how could Lewis and Bayliss possibly complain about Munch hiring Jerry Stiller to tend bar? (Technically, Stiller was playing an Irishman named McGonical.) This was a minor but likeable storyline, mostly because of Jerry Stiller’s likably bizarre performance.

So, this was yet another good but not great episode. The Bolander storyline was a bit too melodramatic for its own good. It’s not the sort of thing that would have happened during the show’s first two seasons, back when the whole point was to be realistic. But that Bayliss/Pembleton storyline featured the show’s two most compelling characters doing what they did did best. This episode was not perfect but it held my attention nonetheless.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.16 “Law & Disorder”

Posted on July 6, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Munch gets away with murder.

Episode 3.16 “Law & Disorder”

(Dir by John McNaughton, originally aired on February 24th, 1995)

This week’s episode of Homicide gets off to a strange start, with a cameo from Chris Noth as Law & Order‘s Detective Mike Logan. (Logan appeared early in the history of Law & Order, before North became known as the ill-fated Mr. Big on Sex And The City.) Logan is transporting a prisoner to Baltimore and that prisoner is played by none other than John Waters! Meeting Pembleton at the Amtrak station, Logan proceeds to bitch about Baltimore. Pembleton bitches about New York. Waters comments that Edgar Allan Poe hated New York. When Pembleton says that Waters will be heading to prison but at least it will be a Baltimore prison, Waters says that’s why he didn’t fight extradition. It’s a cute scene, though, as I watched it, I was struck by just how better of an actor Andre Braugher was than Chris Noth. Noth delivered all of his line like a TV actor. Braughter delivered his dialogue like a poet.

As for the rest of the show, we get several plotlines. Bayliss is investigating the death of Gordon Pratt but, because Pratt shot Bolander, Felton, and Howard, none of his fellow detectives are that concerned about solving his murder. Bayliss comes to suspect that it was a homicide detective who shot Pratt. He asks Pembleton, Lewis, and Munch for their alibis and none of them really have a good one. Myself, I think it’s pretty obvious that Much shot Pratt. Munch’s hero-worship of Bolander, his anger after Pratt walked out of the station, all of it pretty much makes him the main suspect. Lewis, who is still struggling to come to terms with Crosetti’s suicide, seems like he would be more likely to deal with his anger by drinking. Even if he doesn’t want to admit it, Pembleton is too much of a wannabe Jesuit to do the eye for an eye thing. Munch, though …. yeah, there’s no way Munch didn’t kill Gordon Pratt. John Munch is a murderer. (Okay, to be clear, the show leaves it ambiguous and never outright states that Munch was the killer but it’s still kind of obvious.)

And he gets away with it. Bayliss tells Giardello that he’s followed-up every lead and that the Pratt case is just going to have remain open and go cold. “Won’t help your clearance level,” Giardello shrugs. It’s a decision that’s going to haunt Bayliss but the show suggests that Bayliss sees it as a sort of cosmic justice. Before announcing that the case is going to go cold, Bayliss has a conversation with Pembleton and, of course, Bayliss brings up the Adena Watson case. The Arabist got away with killing Adena Watson so Bayliss is going to let someone — Munch, let’s be honest — get away with killing Gordon Pratt.

Munch isn’t just a murder suspect in this episode. He’s also a laughing-stock as a nude photo of him from his hippie days is the centerpiece of a photography exhibition that’s being put on by an ex-girlfriend (Valerie Perrine). It was kind of strange, watching the episode go from Much being a suspected murderer to Munch being the comedic relief. Still, I always enjoy it when the show remembers that Munch is basically a drug-addled survivor of the 60s.

Felton returns to the squad room, cleared for light duty. He insists on going out to a crime scene with Giardello, leading to Felton stumbling around, making a fool of himself, and then throwing up afterwards. Giardello informs Felton that he’s not a good detective in his current state but then again, Giardello adds, Felton has never been a good detective. Ouch! That’s harsh. Of course, it’s also true. As I’ve said before, I would not want sweaty, racist, borderline illiterate Beau Felton investigating the murder of anyone close to me.

Finally, Pembleton and Lewis investigated an apparently random shooting. Pembleton thought the gunshot came from the projects. Lewis insisted that the gunshot came from the white side of the neighborhood. It turned out Lewis was right but Pembleton was unapologetic, saying he would investigate the case the exact same way if he had to do it all over again. Watching this storyline, I found myself thinking about how black characters on television often feel interchangeable and they rarely have much of a personality beyond being a white person’s idea of what their black best friend might be like. Homicide featured three prominent black characters — Lewis, Pembleton, and Giardello — and all three of them are portrayed as being unique individuals with their own different ways of viewing the world, the job, and each other. Even today, when every television show is desperate to make sure everyone knows how “committed to diversity” they are, it’s rare to see a network show like Homicide, where black characters are portrayed as being individuals as opposed to just stereotypes. This is something for which Homicide definitely deserves a bit more credit.

This was a good episode. It appears the murder of Gordon Pratt will never be solved. Of course, we all know Much did it.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.12 “Partners”

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the bar finally opens!

Episode 3.12 “Partners”

(Dir by John McNaughton, Originally aired January 20th, 1995)

As you can tell by the title, this episode was all about partners.

For instance, Megan Russert realized that her former partner from narcotics, Douglas Jones (Robert Clohessy, with his Bronx accent), has been beating up his wife, Natalie (Lily Knight). He regularly puts her in the hospital, though Natalie always insists that she either fell down the stairs or walked into a door. Jones, who is now working homicide during the night shift and under Russert’s command, insists that he would never hurt his wife. When Russert asks Jones’s former boss if Jones had been having any trouble while working narcotics, he refuses to give her specifics. It’s a boys club and the boys protect each other. Eventually, Natalie ends up shooting Jones with his own gun, probably killing him. (We’re told that he’s barely holding on.) This storyline was well-acted and well-written but watching it, I was reminded of just how awkwardly this show tends to use Russert. Because she commands a different shift, she doesn’t really get much interaction with the other main characters. Her affair with Beau Felton has never really made sense. From what I understand, Russert was created by NBC demanded more personal drama and some glamour. Isabella Hofman does about as good a job as anyone could with her often underwritten character but there’s really just not much for her to do.

Meanwhile, with Pembleton under suspension and threatening to quit, Bayliss doesn’t have a regular partner. His attempt to partner up with Lewis ends in disaster when Lewis’s bad (albeit hilarious) driving leads to Bayliss getting a minor concussion. Fortunately, Pembleton does return to the Homicide Department, though not before nearly burning down his kitchen while trying to make dinner. Unfortunately, before Pembleton can return to his job, he has to take the fall for offering to drop the investigation into Congressman Wade’s false kidnapping report. Andre Braugher perfectly plays the scene in which Pambleton testifies in court. It’s easy to see the emotional and mental pain that Pembleton feels as he essentially commits perjury, taking the blame and letting Commissioner Harris of the hook. Pembleton is forced to compromise and it eats away at his soul. At the same time, he also gets to return to doing what he does best. Early on in the episode, Giardello acknowledges that he and Pembleton are not friends. “I’ve never been to your house, I’ve never met you’re wife …. I am not your friend ….” but Giardello explains that Pembleton is a good detective. He turns “red names black” and that’s why he wants and needs Pembleton to return.

Bayliss, Lewis, and Munch finally open their bar and, at the end of the episode, it looks like the entire city of Baltimore has turned out. Bolander even looks like he’s having a good time! Munch raises a glass in a toast to the best partners that anyone could hope for and I got tears in mismatched eyes. Seriously, I was so happy to finally see that bar open! It was also nice to see everyone else happy for once. That doesn’t often happen on Homicide.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.10 “Every Mother’s Son”

Posted on May 4, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, life and death both continue in Baltimore.

Episode 3.10 “Every Mother’s Son”

(Dir by Kenneth Fink, originally aired on January 6th, 1995)

Let’s get the least important part of this week’s episode out of the way first. Felton is still looking for his wife and kids. He abandons Kay while she’s in the middle of a homicide investigation. When Kay calls him out on it, Felton brings up the fact that she went on vacation for a weekend. The difference is that Felton isn’t taking vacation days. Instead, he’s just leaving in the middle of work and expecting Kay to handle all of his cases.

BEAU FELTON — WORST HOMICIDE DETECTIVE EVER!

Meanwhile, Lewis and Munch discover that their bar is a historical landmark because George Washington once stopped there to use the restroom. The bar stuff, while not really related to the episode’s main drama, didn’t feel as unnecessary as the stuff with Felton’s family. A lot of that is because Lewis, Munch, and Bayliss are a lot more sympathetic than Felton. This week’s scenes with Howie Mandel as an interior decorator felt a bit off for an episode of Homicide but they still amused me. That said, at some point, these three really are going to have to get it together and open the place.

As for the main storyline, it featured Pembleton and Bayliss investigating the shooting of a 13 year-old in a bowling alley. It’s a familiar story, one that this show has used before. The fact that we’ve seen it before is not a reflection on the show. It’s reflection of the reality of life on the streets. The murderer was another kid, one who was now facing life in prison if he ended up getting charged as an adult. The murderer showed little remorse, telling Pembleton that he would rather be in jail than the on the streets. What made this episode stand out was a scene between two mothers — one the mother of the victim and the other the mother of the shooter — meeting by chance in a police station and striking up a conversation despite not knowing who the other was. Gay Thomas Wilson and Rhonda Stubbins White both gave excellent and poignant performances of two women who, by the end of the show, would have both ended up losing their oldest son.

This was a simple but effective episode, a moody look at the ironies of death and violence in Baltimore. George Washington once stopped by the Waterfront Bar but that doesn’t mean anything to the people who are dying and suffering in the city. In the end, Pembleton could only look on in silene as the shooter announced that he was happy to be in jail. “You’re probably going to die in a cell just like this,” Pembleton says.

“Better here than on the streets,” is the reply.

And nothing more is left to be said.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.8 “All Through The House”

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s time to celebrate the holidays!

Episode 3.8 “All Through The House”

(Dir by Peter Medak, originally aired on December 16th, 1994)

It’s Christmas in Baltimore! Decorations are up. A heavy snow is falling. The Homicide Detectives are starting the night shift on Christmas Eve …. there’s no way this is going to be depressing, right?

Russert and Lewis (who no longer has a permanent partner because Crosetti committed suicide) investigate the murder of a woman who was set on fire. The victim’s mother (Nancy Marchand) is in the midst of throwing a Christmas party and refuses to acknowledge the fact that her daughter is dead. Instead, she obsesses on the amount of red decorations. It’s a human moment. How would you react if you found out a member of your family had been murdered on Christmas Eve?
Still, this storyline kind of reinforced the fact that it really doesn’t make much sense for Russert to be a regular on the show. She’s a shift commander but it’s a totally different shift from the one that the rest of the characters work. She was originally introduced having an affair with Beau but that appears to be over. Russert really has nothing to do and her choosing to work Christmas Eve didn’t really make much sense.
Scheiner, the crusty old medical examiner, shows up wearing a Santa hat. Assistant State’s Attorney Ed Danvers also makes an appearance. He mentions that he’s got someone coming to his apartment to celebrate Christmas Eve with him but Kay is working! Did they break up!?
Meanwhile, Bolander and Much investigate the mystery of a dead man dressed as Santa Claus….
SERIOUSLY, HOMICIDE!?
Much suggests that Santa was killed by angry elves.
Okay, Homicide, that made me laugh.
Munch thinks that the man is someone who has been ringing the bell for the Salvation Army for decades. Bolander says that they need to inform the man’s child….
STOP IT, HOMICIDE!
While Bolander goes to the morgue to try to get a positive ID on the guy, Munch sits in an apartment with a kid who want stop talking about how his father promised to spend Christmas Eve with him….
WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, HOMICIDE!?
Munch takes the kid out. They go bowling. They hit some baseballs. The kid’s antagonistic and Munch is miserable.
Oh wait! The kid’s father is alive! Yay! It turns out that someone stole his Santa Claus outfit and that person — that thief of holiday joy — is the one who was brutally murdered while dressed as jolly old St. Nick.
Uhmm …. that’s still pretty depressing but at least the kid’s not an orphan.
Back at headquarters, a disheveled Bayliss tries to get someone to play Hearts with him because he needs to make some quick money.
Seriously, what’s happening with Bayliss? He went from being clean-cut and idealistic to being a somewhat seedy, convenience store-robbing burnout in record time!

Merry Christmas, everyone! This was a good episode, actually. Any episode that involves Munch getting frustrated is usually enjoyable and Russert and Lewis made for a good team. And, in the end, Santa was not dead. It’s a Christmas miracle!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.5 “The Last Of The Watermen”

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

If you’re checking with the imdb and saying, “You’re reviewing these out of order!,” I’m reviewing them in the order that they were meant to air as opposed to the order by which NBC showed them.

Episode 3.5 “The Last of the Watermen”

(Dir by Richard Pearce, originally aired on December 9th, 1994)

We learn a bit more about the personal lives of Baltimore’s Homicide detectives with this episode.

For instance, we discover that Munch and Gee living in the same neighborhood. When Gee, whose washing machine has broken down, visits the local laundromat, he’s not necessarily overjoyed to see Munch sitting there. Munch talks and talks. Gee lights a cigar and tries to read his newspaper in peace. Munch keeps talking. Gee points out that it’s the weekend and he doesn’t like to talk to anyone on the weekend. Sunday is his day. Munch nods and then keeps talking. Gee stands up and moves to another part of the laundromat.

We also get to meet Kay Howard’s family. Disgusted by the latest murder scene that she and Beau have come across and the fact that an elderly woman was murdered and her tongue was subsequently cut out and then stuffed down her throat (yikes!), Kay decides that she’s due some vacation time. She leaves Baltimore and drives out to the local fishing village where she grew up. She spends time with her father and her brother and a guy who she once had a romantic relationship with. She visits her mother’s grave. It’s interesting to see Kay outside of Baltimore and to see how she interacts with family. It was so interesting that I was kind of annoyed that she still ended up working a murder. A local environmental activist is murdered. Kay worries that the murderer might have been her brother but it turns out to have been another fisherman. I mean, I get it. The show is called Homicide and Kay is a detective but still, I would have been just as happy if the show had just focused on her family and their rituals. This episode is 30 years old but the scenes of the blue collar fishermen talking about how they were being “regulated” out of their life’s work still rang true.

While Kay was visiting family, Felton got a temporary new partner and you’ve probably already guessed that it was Pembleton. This is not the first time that Pembleton has been assigned to work with Felton. The pilot featured that classic scene of Pembleton checking car-after-car while Felton complained about Pembleton always having to be right. Felton and Pembleton do make for an interesting team, if just because they do seem to sincerely dislike each other. (I also enjoyed Gee’s half-smile as Pembleton reacted to the news that he would be working with Felton.) In this case, Pembleton and Felton working together didn’t lead to any great fireworks, other than Felton reacting with shock at the idea of Pembleton preferring hockey to basketball. The killer of the elderly woman turned out to be her grandson who said he did it because she wouldn’t stop talking. That was sad, to be honest. Grandmothers are supposed to talk. Felton and Pembleton dragged the kid off to jail.

This was an okay episode. After the emotional powerhouse of Crosetti, it was good to get something that was a bit more lowkey. It was nice to be reminded that everyone has a family.