Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.7 “Happy To Be Here”

Posted on April 6, 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, Bayliss loses it!

Episode 3.7 “Happy To Be Here”

(Dir by Lee Bonner, originally aired on November 18th, 1994)

This week’s episode was depressing even by Homicide standards.

Felton’s wife is still missing. Felton confronts both Kay and Megan, convinced that they know something about it. Does it ever occur to Felton that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t have so much trouble in his marriage if he wasn’t always stumbling around like hulking dunk, sweating through his shirt and smoking up a storm? Be the change, Felton. Be the change.

Sam Thorne, the journalist played by Joe Morton, is assassinated by a Colombian cartel. It turns out that his assassin was a teenager who agreed to do it in return for a new bike. Giardello is shaken by the death of his friend and there’s a wonderfully acted scene in which Giardello visits Sam’s daughter (Maggie Rush). This storyline served to remind the viewer that Yaphet Kotto, even if he spends most of the show in his office, really is the glue that holds this show together. He’s the heart and the moral soul of Homicide.

Meanwhile, Bayliss has gone from being the clean-cut rookie to being someone who appears to be on the verge of having a complete and total breakdown. He’s still seeing Emma Zoole and Lewis is still angry with him about it. Emma likes to make love in a coffin. Bayliss can accept that. Emma wants Bayliss to hit her and that pushes Bayliss over the edge. When he stops by a convenience store to pick up a six-pack of beer, he discovers that he’s a few pennies short. The clerk says it doesn’t matter. He can’t sell Bayliss the beer. Bayliss responds by drawing his gun and robbing the place! When the police arrive, Bayliss is sitting in his car and drinking a beer.

So, I guess Bayliss is going to prison now, right? No, not in Baltimore. Instead, Bayliss shows off his badge. When that doesn’t work, he calls Pembleton. Pembleton comes down to the store and gets the clerk to drop the charges in exchange for Bayliss serving as an unpaid security guard. At the end of the episode, Bayliss is sitting in front of that store and hopefully thinking about how close he came to being sent to prison.

This was a good episode, one that looked at the pressure that goes along with being exposed to the worst that humanity has to offer. Bayliss holding that store was a scene that probably should not have worked but it did, due to the performance of Kyle Secor. In a manner of minutes, Secor took Bayliss from being tired but friendly to being so angry that I was worried he was actually going to shoot the clerk. Not only did we see Bayliss’s dark side but we also saw Pembleton’s good side as he went out of his way to keep his partner from going to prison.

How much darker can things get in Baltimore? We’ll find out next week!

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.6 “A Model Citizen”

Posted on March 16, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

No one’s happy this week.

Episode 3.6 “A Model Citizen”

(Dir by John McNaughton, originally aired on November 11th, 1994)

Welcome to Baltimore, where everyone is depressed. Consider this week’s episode of Homicide: Life On The Street.

The episode opens with Munch, Bolander, Howard, and Felton in a morgue, waiting for the results of an autopsy. They start talking about the shows that they watched as children and how many of them had their origins right in Baltimore. Of course, none of those shows are on the air anymore. Munch mentions his favorite childhood shows and is ridiculed for liking things when he was a kid.
Emma Zoole (Lauren Tom), an artist who makes models of crime scenes for use in criminal court, stops by the department. She’s looking for Steve Crosetti, to get his input on a recreation. Meldrick Lewis tells her that Crosetti’s dead but he offers to help. Lewis has a crush. However, Emma likes Bayliss and Bayliss likes Emma. Bayliss is even turned on by the fact that Emma sleeps in a coffin. However, when Bayliss sees how upset Lewis is over his relationship with Emma, Bayliss tries to break up with her. They end up having sex in the coffin instead.
That’s it!, Lewis declares. He cannot go into the bar business with Tim Bayliss. Then again, there might not be a bar business anyway because Munch got kicked out of the state-required alcohol awareness class. Munch, for whatever reason, decided to argue about whether or not a bartender could really be held responsible for getting someone drunk.
Pembleton, Russert, and the city of Baltimore are all being sued by serial killer Pamela Wilgis. Wilgis claims that Pembleton violated her civil rights when he interrogated her. Pembleton’s entire interrogation style is put on trial. He feels like he’s being attacked on all sides. Finally, Pembleton gets depressed enough to reenter a church, even though he earlier claimed to no longer have any use for religion.
Munch and Howard investigate the accidental shooting of a child by his older brother. Much gets extremely upset while searching for the gun, taking Howard totally be surprise. Howard comes to realize that Much actually cares about protecting children from violence and Munch realizes that the world is a terrible place.
Beau Felton returns to his house and discovers that both his wife and his son have left and they’ve taken all the furniture with them. Goodbye is scrawled, in lipstick, on the bathroom mirror.
Much ends up sitting outside, staring at the ground while Lewis and then Howard both talk to him about how much life sucks.
No one wants to end up like Steve Crosetti, Howard says at one point. Good luck! This job is depressing!

This was a good episode, one that really captured the emotional turmoil of seeing the worse that humanity has to offer while, at the same time, acknowledging that depressed people often use humor to deal with their feelings. A few of Munch’s and Lewis’s line made me laugh out loud but seriously, I felt so bad for both of them!

Hopefully, everyone will have cheered up by next week.

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.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.3 “Extreme Unction”

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the White Glove Killer is discovered.

Episode 3.3 “Extreme Unction”

(Dir by Keith Gordon, originally aired on October 28th, 1994)

For all the hours that Pembleton and the other detectives put in and for all the motives that were considered and the suspects were interviewed, the murderer of Katherine Goodrich and two other women is captured not through deductive brilliance but because she herself enters the police station.

When Pamela Wilgis (Lucinda Jenney) first enters the station, she claims to have just witnessed two men dumping the third victim. Pembleton is dismissive of her until she mentions the white gloves, a detail that has not been released to the public. While Pembleton talks to her, the other detectives check out Pamela’s apartment and discover 12 sets of white cotton gloves hanging in her bathroom. Pamela is the murderer.

When Pembleton asks Pamela about the gloves, Pamela suddenly starts speaking in an Irish accent. Later, she starts speaking like an angry and rebellious child. Later still, she reverts to being a wide-eyed innocent who says she had no idea how she ended up in the interrogation room. Pembleton is convinced that she’s faking her alternate personalities but, despite his best efforts, he can never get her to actually confess that she committed the murders.

From the start, Homicide has emphasizes the role of luck in solving murders. The majority of the show’s murders are solved precisely because someone thought they could outsmart the police or because they made a very obvious error. For all of Pembleton’s strengths in the Box, his interrogation technique works best when he’s dealing with someone who doesn’t understand how the system works. Pamela, on the other hand, obviously understands what he’s trying to do. She knows the system and she knows how to game it. Pamela does eventually confess but not Pembleton. Instead, she does an interview with the obnoxious reported played by Tony Todd, blaming her crimes on the abuse she suffered as a child and her dissociative disorder. Pembleton’s pride is hurt but he also finds himself struggling with his faith. How can Pamela, after killing three saintly women, now avoid paying for her crimes? Even with the thrilling interrogation scene between Pembleton and Pamela and the excellent performances of Andre Braugher and Lucinda Jenney, it’s all feels a bit anticlimactic. But it also feels appropriate for the world in which Homicide takes place.

This episode also wrapped up a few other plotlines. Munch, Bayliss, and Lewis finally own their bar. Good for them. I’m not really a bar person or a drinker but I probably would have enjoyed visiting the Waterfront whenever Munch was working the bar. Even more importantly, Felton returned to his mentally unstable wife. And again, that’s a good thing if just because I was getting sick of listening to Felton whine about his marriage. So was Kay.

This episode was effective enough. The scenes between Andre Braugher and Lucinda Jenney alone made the episode memorable. At the same time, as I watched, it occurred to me that, if this episode had aired during the first season, the White Glove Murders probably never would have been solved. If Adena Watson had died during the third season, one can be sure Bayliss would have gotten a confession out Risley Tucker.

Next week, we find out why Detective Crosetti has yet to return from Atlantic City.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life on the Street 3.2 “Fits Like A Glove”

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the investigation into the Catherine Goodrich murder continues.

Episode 3.2 “Fits Like A Glove”

(Dir by Ted Demme, originally aired on October 21st, 1994)

Last week’s episode ended with Bayliss and Pembleton discovering that a supply shed had been broken into near the Goodrich scene. This episode opens with Bayliss and Pembleton talking to the groundskeeper, who explains that he came across the shed earlier. He reported that the shed had been broken into to the primary on the case, Detective Gaffney. Gaffney never bothered to follow-up and the shed has since been cleaned up.

That’s it for Gaffney! Lt. Russert calls him into the office and tells him he’s no longer heading up the investigation. She tells him to take a few days off and then to transfer to another department. She promises him a “fair recommendation.” Gaffney replies that Russert only get her job because of her sex. He goes as far as to compare her to a statue of a woman on a boat, except she’s not a mermaid. “You’ve got legs,” he says. It’s an odd bit of dialogue and I kind of wish that Gaffney had delivered it Al Pacino style. “You’ve …. GOT …. LEGGGGGS!”

Pembleton is now the primary and not a moment too soon because another murdered woman has been found, again left in a dumpster outside a Catholic church and only wearing long white gloves. Pembleton theorizes that the killer hates Catholics. (So …. Matin Luther, maybe?) Pembleton continues the investigation but clues are hard to come by and smarmy reporter Matt Rhoades (Tony Todd) keeps threatening to reveal that the killer puts gloves on the victims. At one point, a murder memorabilia collector (Hugh Hodgin) shows up and claims that the murders are connected to a nationwide crime spree. The collector turns out to be a flake, exactly the type of person who Russert believes would be driven to give false evidence if the news about the gloves got out.

Meanwhile, Kay finds herself being used as a messenger service by both Beau and his estranged wife. Beau’s wife, Beth (Mary B. Ward), wants to surprise Beau with a romantic dinner so she asks Kay to tell Beau that Beth wants him to come by and see the kids. Beau tells Kay to tell Beth that their son needs to tighten the laces on his baseball glove. (Poor Kay!) Beau goes to the house to see the kids, just to discover that Beth lied and sent them away so she could make Beau dinner. Beau gets mad and leaves. Mary feeds Beau’s dinner to the dog.

Bayliss, Munch, and Lewis put in for a liquor license for the bar. Lewis interrogates Munch as to whether or not he was ever arrested in the 60s but — surprise! — Bayliss is the one with the criminal record, an arrest and conviction for misdemeanor gambling while Bayliss was in college. Bayliss, you never cease to surprise me!

This episode was a bit frustrating because Pembleton doesn’t seem to be any closer to solving the murders. As well, Felton’s domestic drama would be a bit more compelling if Felton himself was a more likable character. But, I still liked this episode. The season 3 ensemble is amazing and just the pleasure of watching actors like Andre Braugher, Melissa Leo, Yaphet Kotto, Ned Beatty, Clark Johnson, Kyle Secor, and yes, even Daniel Baldwin all on the same show is more than enough of a reason to watch. Everyone was at the top of their game in this episode.

Will Pembleton catch the killer next week? I have faith and, judging by the way Pembleton crossed himself when looking at the second victim, so does he.

Lisa Reviews An Oscar Nominee: Shane (dir by George Stevens)

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Hey, Shane! Come back, Shane!”

There’s a few ways in which you can view the 1953 film, Shane.

The more popular view is that it’s a Western about a man named Shane (Alan Ladd) who rides into town and gets a job working for the Starretts, Joe (Van Heflin) and Marian (Jean Arthur). Joe is a farmer who is determined to hold onto his land, despite the efforts of cattle baron Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer) to force him off of it. While we don’t learn much about Shane’s background, it becomes apparent that he’s a man who can fight. That comes in handy when Ryker brings in a sinister gunfighter named Wilson (Jack Palance).

Another view is that Shane is the story of a man who just wants to settle down but, instead, finds himself continually hounded by an annoying little kid, to the extent that he finally gets involved in a gun battle just so he’ll have an excuse to leave town and get away from the little brat. Little Joey Starrett (Brandon deWilde) idolizes Shane from the minute that he comes riding up. When he hears that Shane refused to get into a fight at the local saloon, Joey demands to know whether it was true. He tells his mom that he loves Shane almost as much as he loves his father. When Shane does get into a brawl with all of Ryker’s men, Joey stands in the corner and eats candy. And then, when Shane tries to leave town, Joey runs behind him shouting, “Come back, Shane! Come back!”

Myself, I think of it as being the story of Frank Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr.). Frank is the farmer that’s been nicknamed “Stonewall,” due to his status as a former Confederate and his quick temper. Stonewall may be smaller than the other farmers but he’s usually the quickest to take offense. Still, it’s impossible not to like him, largely because he’s played by Elisha Cook, Jr. When Wilson feels the need to put the farmers in their place, he does so by picking a fight with Torrey. Standing on a porch in the rain, looking down on the smaller man, Wilson starts to insult both him and the South. When Torrey finally starts to reach for his gun, Wilson shoots him dead. While Torrey lies in the mud, Wilson smirks. It’s a shocking scene, all the more so for being shown in a long shot. (By forcing those of us in the audience to keep our distance from the shooting, the film makes us feel as powerless as the farmers.) If you didn’t already hate Wilson and Ryker, you certainly will after this scene.

Shane is a deceptively simple film, one in which many of the details are left open for interpretation. We never learn anything about Shane’s background. He’s a man who shows up, tries to make a life for himself, and then leaves. He’s a marksman and an obviously experienced brawler but, unlike Ryker’s men, he never specifically looks for violence. In fact, he often seems to avoid it. Why? The film doesn’t tell us but there are hints that Shane is haunted by his past. Shane seems to want a chance to have a life like the Starretts but, once he’s forced to again draw his gun, he knows that possibility no longer exists.

Is Shane in love with Marian Starrett? It certainly seems so but, again, the film never specifically tells us. Instead, it all depends on how one interprets the often terse dialogue and the occasional glances that Marian and Shane exchance. When Shane and Joe get into a fist fight to determine who will face Ryker and Wilson, is Shane really trying to protect Joe or is it that he knows Marian will be heart-broken if her husband is killed?

One thing’s for sure. Little Joey sure does love Shane. “Come back, Shane!” Little Joey follows Shane everywhere, with a wide-eyed look on his face. To be honest, it didn’t take too long for me to get sick of Little Joey. Whenever director George Stevens needed a reaction shot, he would cut to Joey looking dumb-founded. Brandon deWilde was 11 years when he appeared in Shane and he was nominated for an Oscar but he’s actually pretty annoying in the role. Elisha Cook, Jr. was far more impressive and deserving of a nomination.

I know that many people consider Shane to be a classic. I thought it was good, as long as the action was focused on the adults. Alan Ladd plays Shane like a man who is afraid to get too comfortable in any situation and the film works best when it compares his reticence to Wilson’s cocky confidence. Whenever Joey took center stage, I found myself wanting to cover my ears.

Shane was nominated for Best Picture but lost to From Here To Eternity.