Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 5.22 “Strangers And Other Partners”

Posted on August 23, 2026 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, season 5 comes to a close.

Episode 5.22 “Strangers And Other Partners”

(Dir by Kenneth Fink, originally aired on May 16th, 1997)

It’s all hands on deck as the Homicide squad investigates the murder of Beau Felton. This episode opens with Giardello announcing that Pembleton will be the primary and that they will all be working with Detective Falsone (Jon Seda) of the auto squad and Detective Gharty (Peter Gerety) of Internal Affairs.

“I ain’t working with anyone from IID!” Falsone snaps.

Hey, Falsone — you’re a guest star. Shut up and do what you’re told, you prick.

The fifth season finale is a mess. Some of that is because Beau Felton was never a strong enough a character for his death to have the emotional kick that it’s obviously meant to have. Felton was not Crosetti. Felton wasn’t some sort of beloved icon. Felton was a jerk whose storylines were usually the least interesting of the show’s first three seasons.

An even bigger problem is that the emphasis is not on the detectives who we all know and love but instead on Falsone and Gharty. Falsone and Gharty go from being at each other’s throats to teaming up to use a shared informant to get the evidence they need to go after Felton’s murderer. Peter Gerety does a good job as Gharty. It helps that Gharty has a compelling storyline. He’s a cop that many people have dismissed as being a coward. He’s trying to prove himelf.

Falsone, on the other hand …. seriously, what is the deal with this douchebag? He spends this episodes strutting around in his stupid leather jacket, threatening to beat up people. I get that he’s supposed to be a tough cop but he just comes across like a jackass with anger management issues. It doesn’t help that actor Jon Seda gives a one-note performance in the role.

This whole episode is basically an introduction for Gharty and Falsone. The other Homicide cops are pushed to the side so that these two can grab some legitimacy before becoming regular characters during season 6. Gharty seems like he’ll be an okay addition to the ensemble. Falsone, on the other hand, should be allowed nowhere near a show like Homicide.

While all of that is going on, Kellerman and Cox are both struggling with their drinking. I’m a little bit tired of Kellerman and Cox, to be honest. Kellerman, at least, has a compelling storyline with the Luther Mahoney shooting. Dr. Cox, on the other hand, is starting feel superfluous. No one from the Homicide squad can step into a bar without running into Dr. Cox.

Finally, Pembleton and Mary meet and agree to give their marriage another try. Good.

This episode (and the season) ends with Felton’s murderer still on the run. Giardello announces that the Baltimore police department is instituting a new policy in which detectives will rotate from unit to unit. “In three months,” he tells the detectives, “none of us may be here.”

Season 5 was pretty good so it’s unfortunate that the finale was a mess. The strength of Homicide has always been its ensemble of quirky, flawed, and heart-breakingly human cops. Using the final episode of the season to focus on a one-note character like Paul Falsone almost feels insulting to the rest of the cast.

Next week, we start season 6!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 5.21 “Partners And Other Strangers”

Posted on August 16, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we discover that Daniel Baldwin will not be returning to Homicide.

Episode 5.21 “Partners and Other Strangers”

(Dir by Leslie Libman and Larry Williams, originally aired on May 9th, 1997)

A call to investigate what appears to be a suicide leads Pembleton and Brodie to an isolated house in Baltimore. The dead man has been found with a shotgun in his hands and his face blown apart. It’s not until Pembleton looks at the dead man’s ID that he discovers that the man is former Detective Beau Felton.

Played by Daniel Baldwin, Felton was originally a major character on Homicide. He was the cynical, sweaty detective who had an affair with Megan Russert, a partnership with Kay Howard, and a marriage with a crazy woman who wouldn’t let him see his kids. Felton is the one who Robin Williams yelled at for being an insensitive ass in the Bop Gun episode. As the series progressed and the focus shifted from characters like Felton and Bolander to Pembleton and Bayliss, Felton was given less and less too. Daniel Baldwin was fired from the series at the end of season 3. Felton was said to have been suspended for his rowdy behavior at a convention.

The episode fills us in on what happened to Felton after his suspension. He apparently retired from the force and then stopped returning phone calls. He disappeared and everyone else moved on. At first, the squad room wonders if they could have done anything to prevent Felton’s suicide. Howard and Lewis (who lost his previous partner to suicide and who nearly lost Kellerman to the same thing) are especially hit hard. We get several flashbacks to the episodes that featured Felton and we’re reminded of just how much Daniel Baldwin used to sweat when he was on the show.

Dr. Cox takes a look at the skull fragments and the blood splatter and she realizes that Felton didn’t kill himself. He was shot in the back of the head and then someone tried to make it look like he committed suicide. Pembleton, Howard, and Bayliss are now investigating the murder of Beau Felton and they’re getting some help.

Megan Russert flies in from France to offer up her skills as an investigator. If I remember correctly, Russert was never that good of a detective but it’s nice that she showed up.

Detective Paul Falsone (Jon Seda), from the auto theft squad, says that Felton was working with a notorious group of car thieves. Falsone wants to help the investigation for …. reasons, I guess.

Finally, Detective Stuart Gharty (Peter Gerety) shows up. When we last saw Gharty, he was a decorated cop who was too scared to enter an apartment building to help out one of his fellow officers. Now, Gharty is working for Internal Affairs. He reveals to Giardello that Felton was working undercover and he was helping to uncover a crooked cop in the department. Colonel Barnfather announces that Gharty is going to work with Homicide on the Felton case.

Even if I didn’t already know that Falsone and Gharty are going to become regular characters during season six, it would be obvious from the introductions they’re given in this episode. Peter Gerety, who later played a sympathetic judge on The Wire, is fine in the role of Gharty. But I can already tell that Falsone is going to annoy me. Some of it is because his character is the type of cliche that Homicide has, to this point, avoided. He’s a young rebel who gets results …. HIS WAY! From the minute he shows up, he’s telling Howard and Pembleton how they should conduct their investigation and it’s kind of annoying. I mean, who the Hell is this jerk? As played by Jon Seda, Falsone mumbles the majority of his dialogue and he just doesn’t seem like he belongs on Homicide.

This is a two-parter so we’ll see how the investigation wraps up (or doesn’t) next week. Oddly, I have to admit that Felton’s death didn’t really have the type of emotional impact that the show seemed to think that it would. Unlike the lovably eccentric Crosetti, Felton was never really that interesting of a character. Far more impactful than the squadroom thinking about all of the times Felton acted like a jerk was the scene where Pembleton followed Bayliss to his uncle’s home. Later, Pembleton told Bayliss that he now understood why Bayliss has been missing work. In the past, this would have led to a fight between the two of them but both Bayliss and Pembleton have grown over the season. Pembleton apologizes for following Bayliss. (“I’m a detective. It’s what I do.”) Bayliss opens up about how he’s struggling with the concept of forgiveness. As always, the show’s heart is with Bayliss and Pembleton.

Next week, season 5 comes to an end!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 5.11 “The Documentary”

Posted on May 24, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life on the Street 5.9 “Control”

Posted on May 10, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Pembleton’s back!

Episode 5.9 “Control”

(Dir by Jean de Segonzac, originally aired on December 6th, 1996)

A drug dealer named Reggie Copeland has been murdered and word on the street is that the killing was set up by Junior Bunk (Mekhi Phifer), who just happens to be the nephew of drug lord Luther Mahoney (Erik Todd Dellums). When Lewis and Detective Stivers (Toni Lewis) arrest Junior, he immediately starts crying.

That certainly makes Lewis happy. He’s obsessed with taking down Mahoney. Junior gives the detectives the name of the man who he hired, on Luther’s behalf, to assassinate Copeland. Munch and Lewis take a trip to the worst city on Earth (Philadelphia, if you had to ask) and arrest the gunman. Even Ed Danvers thinks that they’re finally on the verge of nailing Luther….

Luther, it turns out, has got friends everywhere. Even while sitting in a holding cell, he is able to find out the name of the hotel where the police are hiding Junior. When the cops order room service, Junior makes sure that a baggie with two gold stars is included in Junior’s sandwich. (All of Luther’s heroin comes in baggies with two stars.) Junior realizes that Luther knows exactly where he is. Junior refuses to testify and recants his previous confession. And Luther … Luther goes free again!

Kellerman would be upset, except for the fact that he’s still under suspension. (They’re really dragging this story out, aren’t they?) Kellerman is in such a bad mood that he even kicks Brodie off of his house boat for being too happy. However, at the end of the episode, Dr. Cox shows up at Kellerman’s houseboat. I’m going to guess that she’ll be allowed to stay on the boat.

However, the main event of this episode is that Pembleton is working his first case since his stroke. A woman has been found dead in her home, stabbed twenty times. Meanwhile, her two young sons were both shot execution style. Bayliss may be the primary but Pembleton is determined to take charge. Pembleton thinks that the murderer was the woman’s boyfriend, a sleazy musician named Jimmy Sutter (Andrew DeAngelo). Bayliss thinks that the murderer was the woman’s rigid ex-husbad, Lt. Commander Alex Clifton (Michael Gaston).

From the start, it’s pretty obvious that Clifton’s the murderer. He’s too cold and unemotional when he is told about the murderers. He’s very tightly wound. The fact that the woman was killed in a fury but her children were killed “cleanly and efficiently,” (as Pembleton put it) indicated to me that the murderer was driven by rage against the mother but, in his twisted way, he felt he was sparing the children an even worse fate. Clifton is obviously the killer and Pembleton, to his credit, eventually comes to realize it.

Unfortunately, the case nearly falls apart in the Box. Pembleton and Bayliss have lost their rhythm as partners. Bayliss gets frustrated when Pembleton suddenly starts asking Clifton about the blood pressure medicine he takes. “Do you get any side effects?” Pembleton asks. Outside of the interrogation room, Bayliss admits that he’s scared Pembleton is going to “stroke out” and die. “Everyone dies!” Pembleton says.

Finally, Bayliss and Pembleton make it work. They turn up the heart in the Box and when Clifton takes off his jacket and very carefully folds it, Bayliss presumes to sit down on the jacket. Clifton keeps taking the jacket back and refolding it. Bayliss spills water on the jacket. Clifton finally loses it, yelling and admitting that he killed his ex-wife and his two sons.

Wow, this was a good episode. Michael Gaston give a chillingly believable performance as Clifton. Erik Todd Dellums was, as usual, magnetically evil as Luther. Best of all, it was good to see Kyle Secor and Andre Braugher working a case together. Pembleton is back and it’s about time!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life on the Street 4.22 “Work Related”

Posted on February 15, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh my God, this episode….

Episode 4.22 “Work Related”

(Dir by Jean de Segonzac, originally aired on May 17th, 1996)

At first, the fourth season finale of Homicide: Life On The Street feels like a typical episode of Homicide.

Lewis, having just returned from his honeymoon, obsesses on a case in which a man was killed by a bowling ball dropped from an overpass. Kellerman doesn’t feel that the case can be solved. The murder was just too random. Lewis, however, refuses to let it go. As Kellerman soon deduces, Lewis doesn’t want to go home because he and his new wife are already fighting.

Meanwhile, Bayliss is frustrated by Pembleton’s refusal to act like a sentimental new father. While Bayliss talks about the wonder of life, Pembleton coldly talks about how expensive it’s going to be to raise a child. It’s the typical Bayliss/Pembleton dynamic. Bayliss wants his partner to open up. Pembleton wants to keep things strictly business. Bayliss wants to find the deeper meaning of every event. Pembleton wants to remain rational and focused on doing his job. They’re both spiritual men, in their way. It’s just that Bayliss is a seeker whereas Pembleton is a man on a mission.

Bayliss and Pembleton investigate a shooting at a fast food restaurant. It doesn’t take much of an investigation to realize that the shooter was a recently fired employee and that his accomplice was a friend who still worked there. When Pembleton and Bayliss get the friend into the box, it seems like it’s going to be an easy investigation.

That’s until Pembleton suddenly yells out, grabs his head, and has a violent seizure. He collapses into the lap of a venal defense attorney who quickly shoves Pembleton away. Pembleton is rushed to the hospital. He’s had a stroke. The rest of the Homicide squad sees a comatose Pembleton lying in bed. But the viewer has seen the inside of Pembleton’s mind, where Pembleton is currently lying in a coffin and screaming to be released.

Agck!

I knew this episode was coming. Ever since I started reviewing Homicide, people have told me about the stroke episode. That said, it still took me by surprise when Pembleton collapsed. Pembleton has always been the strongest character on the show, the one who never lost control and whose mind could unravel any alibi and solve any mystery. Pembleton crashing to the ground, helpless and unable to speak, was not easy to witness. Andre Braugher was a great actor and he proved it in this episode.

That was how the fourth season ended, with Pembleton lying in a hospital bed and Giardello trying to keep the squad focused on doing their job while Bayliss — poor Bayliss! — found himself once again trying to understand the cruelty of fate. It was powerful, it was disturbing, it was sad, and I think it was the type of thing that only a show as good as Homicide could have pulled off.

Next week, we begin season 5. I’m almost scared to see what happens.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 4.21 “Scene of the Crime”

Posted on February 8, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, it’s another night in Baltimore.

Episode 4.21 “Scene of the Crime”

(Dir by Kathy Bates, originally aired on April 12th, 1996)

This week, three murders are committed in the projects of Baltimore.

The first murder occurs when a drug dealer is tossed off the roof of an apartment complex, “the towers.” Making the Lewis and Kellerman’s investigation difficult is the fact that the city has given a security contract to the Black Muslims. The Muslims have been patrolling the Towers for a year and, in that time, they’ve chased out most of the drug dealers that once terrorized the building’s residents. Kellerman feels that the Muslims are racists. Giardello says that the Muslims just caused the dealers to go to another block. Lewis, however, is a bit more conflicted. As he explains it to Kellerman, why should white neighborhoods by the only ones allowed to have their own private security force?

The second and third murders occur at another set of towers. This time, two teenage drug dealers ended up shooting each other. When Munch and Russert arrive at the scene, they are met by patrolman Stu Gharty (Peter Gerety). Gharty walks them through the scene, shows how the two dealers ended up killing each other, and then excuses himself to wait for the medical examiner. Munch is impressed with Gharty but Russert can’t help but note the thirty-minute time gap between when Gharty got the call about the shooting and when he called for homicide. Gharty confesses that, when he first arrived, he didn’t immediately enter the building, despite hearing the gunshots. Gharty was concerned for his safety. Munch understands and, even more importantly, he doesn’t believe in getting other cops in trouble. Russert, however, is angered, especially after it turns out that one of the teenagers bled to death while Gharty was waiting outside.

This was an excellent episode of Homicide, one that was smart enough to paint anyone as being all good or all bad. Ishmael Al-Hadj (Victor Williams), the head of the Muslim security force, is an anti-white fanatic but Lewis has a point when he says that Ishmael and his men have largely kept peace in the Towers in a way that the police have not been able to do so. In the end, Ishmael turns over the name of the murderer but only after he knows that the man is no longer in Baltimore.

As for Stu Gharty, Russert is absolutely correct when she says that he failed to do his duty but, largely due to Peter Gerety’s empathetic performance, it’s hard not to sympathize with Gharty. As Russert herself admits, Gharty has been a good cop for years but, that one night, he allowed his fear to get the better of him. Russert, who is still thinking like a captain despite being demoted, feels that one moment of weakness cannot be overlooked. Just about everyone else disagrees. Whereas Russert and Kay Howard sees someone who failed to do his job, a detective like Munch looks at Gharty and sees a 54 year-old cop who is just a few years away from getting reassigned a desk job on account of his age and who made one mistake because he didn’t want his family to get a call telling them that he was dead. At one point, Gharty says he’s thinking of just taking retirement. Of course, he didn’t. Instead, he returned a few seasons later as a regular.

This episode also featured Munch preparing for the return of Bolander. After calling Bolander multiple times, Munch finally got him to agree to drop by the Waterfront Bar. Of course, Bolander never showed up. And it makes sense, really. After getting shot and nearly dying during the previous season, Bolander was obviously done with being a cop. (And, of course, Ned Beatty was no longer on the show.) Still, there was something rather poignant about Munch’s growing realization that his partner and his hero was no longer going to be around.

Next week, the season comes to an end!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 4.20 “The Wedding”

Posted on February 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week …. someone’s getting married!

Episode 4.20 “The Wedding”

(Dir by Alan Taylor, originally aired on May 10th, 1996)

Kevin Lungo, a Baltimore radio host, is found dead. The previous day, he announced on his program that he was not only in favor of abortion but he was in favor of requiring any pregnant woman with an IQ of less than 100 to have one. Did that comment lead to him being gunned down in a parking lot?

(When this episode aired, 100 was considered to be an “average” IQ. Now, the average IQ is considered to be 90. That’s not a good thing.)

We never really find out. The case is handled by Giardello and Kay and, while Kay has never heard of Lungo, it turns out that Giardello used to enjoy listening to him. (Hopefully, Giardello disagreed with Lungo’s pro-eugenics stance.) When the radio station offers a $5,000 reward for any tips, someone calls in and give the name of the “killer.” When Giardello and Kay follow-up on the tip, the suspect pulls a gun and is shot dead by Giardello.

Giardello feels guilty about the shooting. He tells that Kay that, when he was younger, he was able to shoot well-enough that he could simply wound a suspect, instead of killing him. Making it even worse is that the dead man has an alibi. The call was just a practical joke between friends. “Why did you have to kill him!?” the dead man’s friend wails.

Back at the squad room, Lewis shocks everyone by announcing that he’s getting married to a woman that they’ve never heard of. While he doesn’t invite any of his co-workers to the wedding, he does ask them to attend a reception at the Belvedere Hotel. He tells Pembleton to order and pay for the flowers. He asks Russert to arrange for the band and an open bar and asks if she would be willing to cover the cost. (“Until my next paycheck,” Lewis assures her.) Munch assumes that Lewis is lying. Most of the squad room suspects that Lewis is lying. But they give him the benefit of the doubt and show up for the reception.

Also going to the reception is Carrie, the very glamorous sister of Kay Howard. Carrie is visiting from Florence and soon, both Kellerman and Bayliss are shamelessly flirting with her. An actress named “Margaret May” is credited as playing Carrie. Of course, Margaret May is actually Melissa Leo.

With the exception of Giardello and Kay (who are still working the Lungo murder), all of Lewis’s colleagues show up at the ballroom. Even the crusty forensics examiner, Scheiner (Ralph Tabakin), shows up. “Do you want to dance?” he asks Russert’s daughter. “NO!” she replies.

But where’s Lewis? Lewis is missing. Was Munch right? Pembleton, who is there with his very pregnant wife, is not amused. As Brodie films him, Pembleton announces that he is going to kill Lewis and he will never get caught because of his experience as a homicide detective….

Fortunately, Lewis shows up before Pembleton gets his gun. And accompanying Lewis is his new wife, Barbara Shivers (Karen Williams)! The reception is a huge success. The band plays. Kellerman and Bayliss both try to hold onto Carrie’s attention. Scheiner watches as Russert’s daughter proceeds to dance with everyone but him. Finally, Giardello and Kay show up. Kay warns Bayliss that Carrie is dangerous. Bayliss asks why. Kay says that Carrie likes to play game and she just does whatever feels good. Bayliss looks intrigued….

Mary Pembleton’s water breaks on the dance floor as she goes into labor! (In a nice twist, Mary Pembleton was played by Andre Braugher’s real-life wife, Ami Brabson.) As the episode ends, even Giardello smiles. For all the ugliness in the world, there is still hope.

I loved this episode! Homicide’s greatest strength was its ensemble and here, everyone gets a chance to show off. Yaphet Kotto reminds us of what an imposing actor he truly was, though my favorite Giardello moments continue to be the times when he allows himself to get amused by the absurdity of it all. What really made this episode was for me was that, even with the wedding reception and Mary going into labor, the episode never allowed itself to be sentimental. For most of the episode, everyone is skeptical about Lewis getting married and, having watched Meldrick Lewis for four season, I was skeptical too! In the end, the episode earned its right to emotionally satisfying through smart storytelling and good acting.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 4.16 “Stakeout”

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the detectives take over someone else’s house.

Episode 4.16 “Stakeout”

(Dir by John McNaughton, originally aired on March 15th, 1996)

When a young man confesses to helping an older man carry out a series of murders, the Homicide Squad stakes out the older man’s house. Jim True-Frost and Kate Walsh play the owners of the home that the squad takes over. The husband is out of work. The wife has a habit of oversharing. While they try to adjust to having cops hanging out in their living room, the detectives adjust to the idea that Bayliss may be leaving them.

Once again, Bayliss is thinking about leaving Homicide. This has been a recurring theme with Bayliss, ever since he failed to close the Adena Watson case. (In this episode, he mentions that his number one suspect — Risley Tucker — has recently died.) Bayliss’s complaint is that he still feels like he barely knows the other detectives. He mentions that he’s never even been to Pembleton’s house. Pembleton asks if Bayliss is really that surprised that Pembleton might want time to himself when he’s not on the clock. Bayliss talks about how the Vice Squad regularly has barbecues. He talks about the comradery that he felt when he was on the Governor’s security detail. But Homicide tends to attract the misanthropes and the eccentrics.

Of course, Bayliss doesn’t leave Homicide. At the end of the episode, he takes one look at the board and sees that he still has one open case. “I can’t leave until the Lambert case is closed,” Bayliss says while Pembleton smiles.

Giardello, meanwhile, is struggling with the knowledge that his daughter is getting married to a man that he’s never even met. Giardello has been invited to the wedding in San Francisco but he keeps finding excuses not to go. Pembleton finally convinces Giardello that he needs to go to his daughter’s wedding. Unfortunately, when Giardello arrives at the airport, he’s told that all flights have been grounded due to the weather. So, Giardello misses the wedding regardless.

Eventually, the killer returns to his home. He’s a stout man who looks like he should be selling insurance. Bayliss and Pembleton arrest him and the stakeout ends. The husband, who has been out looking for a job, pulls up just as Bayliss and Pembleton are leaving. Life goes on for everyone but the dead.

This episode was okay. I appreciated that it was a return to the character-driven drama of the earlier seasons. The snowy imagery brought a lot of atmosphere to the episode and director John McNaughton (of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer fame) did a good job framing scenes that could have come across as being excessively talky in lesser hands. That said, the husband and the wife were not that interesting and I never really bought the idea that they would pour out all of their marital woes to a bunch of strangers in their living room.

This is my final Homicide review for 2025. Retro Television Reviews is taking a break for the holidays! Homicide will return on January 11th, 2026.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 4.13 “I’ve Got A Secret”

Posted on November 2, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Ring ring. “Homicide.”

Episode 4.13 “I’ve Got A Secret”

(Dir by Gwen Arner, originally aired on February 2nd, 1996)

This week, almost everyone has a secret.

For example, when Pembleton and Bayliss are called in about a man found dead in his car, they discover that, earlier in the day, he went to a local ER after being shot. The gunshot wound, which was accidental, didn’t kill him. Instead, it was the internal bleeding that the doctor either missed or intentionally ignored. Dr. Kate Wystan (Mimi Kennedy) may come across as being a selfless doctor who has dedicated her life to helping the residents of Baltimore’s most crime-ridden neighborhood but Pembleton and eventually Bayliss come to suspect that her secret is that, because the victim was black and a known criminal, she didn’t give him the same standard of care that she gives to her other patients. Pembleton considers this to be murder, though it sounds more like a case of malpractice than anything else.

Munch spots Kay kissing a man outside of police headquarters and he becomes obsessed with trying to figure out who the man is. He’s always believed that Kay is happy being single and alone. (Uhm, hello? Munch? Remember when she dated Ed Danvers?) Kay’s secret is that apparently she has a life outside of Homicide.

Finally, Lewis and Kellerman spend the entre episode chasing a burly man who is wanted for killing both of his parents. At first, this entire storyline feels almost like a parody of NBC’s request that the series start featuring more action. Lewis and Kellerman spend the entire first half of the episode chasing this guy through allies and pool halls and every time, they fail to catch him. There’s none of the badass heroics that we’ve come to expect from cop shows. Eventually, Lewis reveals that his brother is in a mental institution. When Lewis tries to visit his brother, he’s just turned away. Lewis’s secret is that he actually cares about his brother.

This was an okay episode. By this point in the series, Homicide had reached the point where it could do an episode where the true enjoyment came less from the storyline and more from just listening to the characters talk to each other. I really didn’t care much about the crimes that they were investigating. Instead, I just enjoyed listening to Pembleton and Bayliss talk and bounce ideas off of each other. They’ve come along way since the day that Bayliss objected to Pembleton’s interrogation technique and Pembleton shouted that he would never have a partner. By the same token, Kellerman and Lewis have their own unique chemistry that is fun to experience. They’re like the sensitive frat cops. As for Munch and Kay, they should just hook up already. It’s obvious to everyone that they’re in love!

Maybe that’s their secret?

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 4.12 “The Hat”

Posted on October 26, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, incompetence reigns.

Episode 4.12 “The Hat”

(Dir by Peter Medak, originally aired on January 19th, 1996)

There’s a running theme in this week’s episode and that theme is incompetence.

With Russert having been demoted all the way back to detective, there is now a captain’s vacancy. The squad room is convinced that Giardello is going to get promoted. For that matter, Giardello is also convinced that he’s going to be promoted. Instead, the promotion goes to Roger Gaffney (Walt MacPherson), the racist martinet former homicide detective who nearly got into a fist fight with Pembleton during the white glove murder investigation.

(Giardello, for all of his strengths, has never played the political game as well as those around him.)

Munch thinks that a lawyer who he arrested for murder is going to be convicted. However, it turns out that the video that Brodie shot at the crime scene shows that a key piece of evidence was mishandled. Munch tells Brodie to erase the tape. Brodie refuses to tamper with evidence. (“It’s illegal,” he says.) As a result, the murderer walks free. And while it’s true that Brodie’s refusal to erase the tape did lead to an guilty man walking, it’s also true that it wouldn’t have been a problem if the cops on the scene hadn’t screwed up in the first place.

Finally, Lewis and Kellerman are sent to Pennsylvania to pick up Rose Halligan (Lily Tomlin), a woman suspected of murdering her husband in Baltimore. Lewis and Kellerman are supposed to go straight to Pennsylvania and then come right back to Maryland, without making any unnecessary stops. Instead, they screw up. Kellerman decides to stop off at a run-down amusement park that he remembers from his childhood. Later, Lewis and Kellerman stop off at a diner so they can get some dinner. When Rose excuses herself to go to the restroom, they not only remove her handcuffs but they also allow her to go unaccompanied. Needless to say, Rose escapes, makes her way back to Baltimore, and stabs her husband’s mistress to death before getting Lewis and Kellerman track her down.

Lily Tomlin was this episode’s big guest star, for better or worse. Sometimes, when a big name appears on a television show, it becomes obvious that there wasn’t anyone around who was willing to tell them that they were overacting just a bit and that would certainly seem to be the case here. Rose is a music teacher so this episode really tests one’s tolerance for Lily Tomlin singing opera. That said, Tomlin was quietly effective at the end of the episode, sitting out on a porch while her former friend lay dead in the house. Rose says she was returning her friend’s hate and, indeed, the dead woman in wearing the hat that Rose wore throughout almost the entire episode.

All said, I enjoyed this episode. Lewis and Kellerman may be incompetent but they’re still entertaining to watch. As for the hated Roger Gaffney getting the job that Giardello deserved …. well, isn’t that always the way?