Mark Provance | Through the Shattered Lens

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, 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?

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.

This week, Homicide explores the theory that, when it comes to twins, there’s always an evil one.

Episode 4.7 “Thrill of the Kill”

(Dir by Tim Hunter, originally aired on November 10th, 1995)

Pembleton and Bayliss are working with the FBI to try tack down Newton Dell (Jeffrey Donovan), a Florida man who the FBI believes has committed a series of murders up and down the interstate. He’s in Maryland now, driving a stolen truck. Pembleton and Bayliss are able to catch him, though not before three murders have been committed in their jurisdiction. However, in the Box, Newton insists that he was not the murderer. He says that the murderer was someone who was traveling with him but he refuses to give out the name. He says he can’t betray the murderer. Even when it’s pointed out that his fingerprints were found at the crime scenes, Newton insists that that the murderer wasn’t him.

Bayliss thinks that Newton is trying to set up a insanity defense. Pembleton doesn’t care. His job is to catch people who commit murder and, as far as he’s concerned, he’s done just that. Besides, Newton Dell’s story doesn’t make any sense. Why would his fingerprints be all over the crime scene if he wasn’t the killer? Why has every witness provided a description that roughly fits Newton Dell?

Strangely, neither man seems to remember that Munch earlier mentioned that Newton Dell has a twin brother.

Yes, you read that correctly. This week, Homicide — a show that started off as a very realistic and gritty crime drama — present us with a murderous twin!

Miles Dell calls the department and lets them know that he can’t let his brother go to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Soon, all of the cops are pulling up outside of a convenience store. Miles (also played by Jeffrey Donovan) is waiting for them. In the store, a dead clerk is sprawled out on the floor. So, that’s another murder that occurred because Pembleton and Bayliss somehow overlooked the evil twin theory!

The entire tone of this episode feels different from every episode that preceded it. With this episode, we hear the tortured inner thoughts of Miles Dell, we get some random slow motion, and we finally get an ending that is so over the top that it feels like a dry run for CSI or Criminal Minds. Yes, Bayliss and Pembleton do have their usual philosophical debates about the nature of evil. This is definitely a Homicide episode. However, it’s also a Homicide episode that shamelessly embraces the melodrama. There’s not a subtle moment to be found in this episode. It’s a weirdly entertaining episode but it’s still somewhat jarring to watch. This is one of those episodes that was obviously made to keep NBC happy. One need only compare it to something like Doll’s Eyes to see how different this episode was from what came before it.

Again, it’s an entertainingly trashy episode. Bayliss and Pembleton are enjoyable to listen to. Jeffrey Donovan was entertainingly over-the-top as both Newton and Miles. That said, I hope this episode was just a one-off and not a sign of what’s waiting for me over the rest of the season 4.