Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 6.9 “Closet Cases”

Posted on October 25, 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.

Finally, it’s time for another Bayliss/Pembleton episode!

Episode 6.9 “Closet Cases”

(Dir by Leslie Libman and Larry Williams, originally aired on January 2nd, 1998)

Finally, we’ve got another Pembleton/Bayliss episode!

Well, don’t get too excited. It’s not perfect. We still have to sit through some scenes of Falsone arguing with his wife and complaining about not having custody of his kids. And the Georgia Rae Mahoney storyline is continuing to drag on. This week, she sends Kellerman a videotaped message in which she explains that there is no tape of Kellerman murdering Luther. She just told Kellerman that to see how he would react. And since Kellerman reacted like a murderer, Georgia has decided that she is going to eventually kill Kellerman. “You won’t see it coming!” she says. Whatever.

As for Bayliss and Pembleton, they investigate the murder of a gay businessmen who was left in dumpster, clad in lingerie. Gay nightclub owner Chris Rawls (Peter Gallagher) helps out with the investigation, introducing Pembleton and Bayliss to the community. What’s interesting about this storyline is that, for once, the roles of Pembleton and Bayliss are reversed. Bayliss is fascinated by Baltimore’s gay community while Pembleton is the one who keeps saying things like, “I don’t need to see two men dancing.” Usually, Pembleton is the open-minded one while Bayliss is the one who is uptight.

In fact, it’s such a role-reversal that it doesn’t always ring true. In the past, Bayliss has been so uncomfortable around any type of non-straight, non-missionary position sex that it feels very out of character for him to suddenly marvel about how how everyone at a gay bar is having a good time. To the show’s credit, Pembleton does mention this. Bayliss replies that he hasn’t been happy for a long time and he’s wondering if maybe he needs to change his outlook. He points out that the murder victim was in a relationship for 12 years. That’s longer than any relationship that Bayliss has ever had.

(This episode opens with Bayliss and Dr. Cox breaking up which — eh. I never bought them as a couple to begin with.)

The murderer turns out to be sociopathic male sex worker, who taunts Bayliss in the Box, saying that he can tell that Bayliss is attracted to him. Bayliss smirks. The suspect offers to confess if Bayliss tells him that he likes his ass. Bayliss slowly repeats the suspect’s words back at him. The suspect confesses. It’s an odd scene. I’m kind of preferred it when the detectives would actually have to put some effort into tricking their suspects into saying the wrong. So far, in season 6, everyone is just confessing.

At the end of the episode, Rawls asks Bayliss to come to a wine testing with him and Bayliss says yes. Pembleton is shocked and tells Bayliss that Chris was asking him on a date. Bayliss says he understands that. He adds, “I’m not gay” before then saying that he finds Chris Rawls to be witty and intelligent.

And here’s the thing. As always, Andre Braugher and Kyle Secor totally sell it. Even though Bayliss’s words and actions seem totally out-of-character after everything we’ve seen over the past five seasons, Kyle Secor makes it work. Bayliss deserves some happiness.

And I deserve some more Bayliss/Pembleton episodes. Seriously, this season has been so Falsone-centric that I was starting to forget just what a great team Andre Baugher and Kyle Secor truly were.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 6.3 “Blood Ties, Part 3”

Posted on September 13, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the Wilson case is finally resolved.

Episode 6.3 “Blood Ties, Part 3”

(Dir by Mark Pellington, originally aired on October 31st, 1997)

“Yo, Frank!” Detective Ballard yells at Pembleton at the start of this episode and I have to admit that I immediately cringed at the sound of it. The man’s name is “Detective Pembleton.” Ballard has done nothing so far to give her the right to address Homicide’s best character as “Yo, Frank!”

Of course, the main theme of this episode seemed to be all the detective who have been with the show since the beginning suck and that the new arrivals can do no wrong.

Take Falsone, for instance! After a drug dealer is murdered, Falsone proves himself to be the only one who can talk to the dealer’s traumatized child. Lewis is a buffoon in this episode, gloating over the dead dealer and traumatizing the kid while trying to lead him through the police station. But Falsone? He knows exactly what to say and, with his gentle prodding, the kid identifies the murderer of his parent as being a narcotics detective who is on the Mahoney payroll. When Lewis asks Falsone why he’s so awesome, Falsone explains that he’s divorced and he misses his own kids….

OH MY GOD! He’s a young detective who gets results and he’s divorced! For a show that previously avoided stereotypes, Homicide is going out of his way to promote a big one in the form of Detective Falsone.

Meanwhile, the Wilson case is resolved. It turns out that Ballard was totally correct and Pembleton was totally wrong. Melia was killed by a member of the Wilson family and, to the surprise of absolutely no, the murderer turns out to be Hal Wilson (Jeffrey Wright, giving perhaps the worst performance of his distinguished career), the twitchy son of Felix. Hal was obsessed with Melia and flew into a rage when he found out she was sleeping with his father. Pembleton even gets Hal to admit it but –– Law & Order plot twist time! — Felix and Hal were only willing to talk to Pembleton on the condition that they weren’t Mirandized so the confession is inadmissible. (That doesn’t seem like something that the normally meticulous Pembleton would agree to but whatever.) Felix, Hal, and the entire family leave Baltimore for San Diego.

Afterwards, Ballard track Pembleton down and tells him that she’s going to be a Baltimore homicide detective whether he likes it or not. Pembleton admits that he was wrong. Watching the scene, one gets the feeling that the show is telling us, “Who needs Pembleton and Bayliss and all those boring cops when we’ve got new cop who are young and sexy and infallible?”

And here’s the thing. There’s nothing wrong with bringing in new characters. There’s nothing wrong casting attractive actors in those roles. There is something wrong with pushing the characters to whom we’ve grown attached aside and insisting that we instead embrace new characters that we barely know.

This was a disappointing ending for the first three-parter of the series. The season has just started and I’m already sick of Falsone trying to prove that the Luther Mahoney shooting wasn’t justified. I’m sick of everyone talking about George Rae Mahoney as if she’s some total badass as opposed to a plot device. And I’m tired of my favorites being pushed to the side.

We are not off to a good start.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 5.16 “Valentine’s Day”

Posted on July 12, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Brodie gets a storyline, Luther Mahoney continues to destroy lives, and Pembleton’s marriage collapses. It’s a busy few days in Baltimore.

Episode 5.16 “Valentine’s Day”

(Dir by Clark Johnson, originally aired on February 14th, 1997)

When a man is found dead in the apartment of Alan Schack (Neil Patrick Harris), Detective Munch assume that it was a case of suicide. However, Brodie went to school with Schack and is convinced that he’s the murderer. Munch refuses to take Brodie serious but, luckily, Sgt. Howard is more open-minded. After Alan beats up Brodie and leaves him on a snowy street, Brodie leaves Baltimore because he knows he’ll never get over the shame of being beaten up Neil Patrick Harris. Just kidding! Instead, Brodie doctors a tape to make it seem as if the police have evidence of Alan killing the victim. Alan falls for it because …. I guess he’s just really stupid. Like seriously, wouldn’t Alan have — at the very least — noticed that he was dressed totally different on videotape than he was on the day he committed the murder? Or does Alan just wear the same outfit day after day?

When two seemingly unrelated bombs go off, Kellerman and Bayliss find themselves investigating a — all together now! — “red ball!” Their investigation eventually leads them to the son of the grocer who was murdered by Luther Mahoney a few episodes ago. The bombs are being sent to the people who the son blames for Luther getting away with murder. One bomb is sent to the courthouse. “Lewis is at the courthouse!” Bayliss exclaims. “So is Julianna!” Kellerman says. Well, that’s convenient.

Frank and Mary Pembleton attend marriage counseling. It doesn’t go well. Frank finally agrees to allow their newborn daughter to be baptized despite the fact that he’s still struggling with his faith. Mary, however, still leaves Frank afterwards. She takes their daughter with her. Frank is left alone in their home, staring at an empty crib.

And finally, due to budget cutbacks, Giardello has to dust his own office!

On the plus side, I related to Giardello’s need to dust. As a sometimes struggling Catholic, I appreciated that the show took seriously Mary’s concerns about their daughter dying outside of a State of Grace.

Unfortunately, the rest of the episode just felt off. Neil Patrick Harris as a tough guy drug dealer? Nope. Sorry. I loved NPH as Dr. Horrible but I’m still not buying it. As for the bombing storyline, it felt almost like a parody of an episode of Homicide. Oh no! There’s a bomb at the courthouse and Lewis and Dr. Cox just happen to be standing right outside the doorway!

I regret to say it but this episode just didn’t work for me.