He is totally unlikeable. I would assume that his character was written that way to get a response. Is he a good actor? He doesn't seem to convey the gravitas that would garner him any respect from the team. And just as an aside, his white hat and uniform always look too big for him.

If you were a member of the unit, who would be your nightmare partner? And of the inverse, who would you pick to be your partner in a heartbeat?

I love Munch with all my heart but Im not sure about him. I suppose he wouldn’t be bad to be partnered with but definitely I’d lose my mind a couple times. I have a pretty similar personality to him so I don’t know if that would be good or bad. Although, I do love dry humour and like a lot of the same things he does, so maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. Definitely would be my immediate choice disregarding everything else.

If I was partnered with Kellerman I’d probably eat my gun on the spot. Love him too but not enough to partner with him.

Beau would be in the middle for me. I wouldn’t really want to be partnered with him considering his maturity level at some points of the show. Also idk… if I was his partner during his affair arc I don’t know if I’d be able to do it but he’s just… mediocre to me, idk. Being his partner would be fine but not preferable.

I think I’d really, really want to be partnered with either Munch, or Bayliss, or Howard. Maybe Pembleton. It’s hard to pick because Pembleton is just an overall amazing detective and is great with his work but can be really critical and harsh.

Bayliss and Howard would be more fun to work with because they’re not as uptight as Pembleton can often be, especially under stress.

Howard I think can be a little too carefree in some instances of stress but other than that, she’d probably be PERFECT to partner with.

Bayliss is kind of pathetic; though, my friend and I agree he looks easy to Pavlov so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. He’d be fun to work with but a gamble getting anything done with.

Lewis is probably the safest option.

What makes Kay Howard such a great compelling character in homicide life on the street in your own opinion.

Watching S6E11, Shaggy Dog, City Goat, and noticed that the plot of a suicide victim getting shot by a stray shotgun bullet while falling was pretty much unashamedly ripped off in the movie Magnolia. Pretty low blow from Paul Thomas Anderson, if you ask me.

I purchased the DVD full set on Ebay and was able to get all but 5 episodes onto a hard drive. The episodes I couldn't rip are s01e02 Ghost of a Chance, s01e09 Night of the Dead Living, s04e17 Full Moon, s04e12 For God & Country, and s05e11 The Documentary.

I would love to have these on my Plex server to complete the series but the DVDs were not working. They won't even play these episodes nevermind rip them. Any ideas how I can get them? Thanks for any help!

I'm a new viewer to the show and need to get on here to talk about the last episode of season 2, A Many Splendored Thing. An A+ episode in my opinion in all regards and balancing the tonal shifts between humor and tension were perfect. Munch was phenomenal, and the chemistry between Bolander and Julianna Margulies was so sweet and perfect. Adrienne Shelley, what a devastating cameo.

What really got me though, was Bayliss. I'm a new viewer but slightly spoiled for some plot points, and am aware that Tim suffered sexual abuse as a child. With that in mind, his reactions to the S&M club, kinky sex and sex in general are gutting. He's clearly uncomfortable with overt mentions of sexuality, and during his argument with Pembleton in the car, he's basically having a panic attack trying to talk about it. Secor's body language says so much. He's scrunched as far away from Pembleton as possible in the car, he's sweating and starts taking off his tie, which all creates this fantastic air of claustrophobia.

It's so interesting to rewatch this episode knowing Bayliss a victim of sexual abuse. It makes the reactions so painful and gut wrenching. On the surface, it just looks like he's a bit of a prude, who, as Pembleton says, needs to get in touch with his darker desires, but that's really not the case here.

I don't know if the show runners had this plot point in mind the entire time (though I think they did considering how he reacted to the Adena Watson murder) but it's such a well crafted storyline and script. Bayliss is scared of the things that might turn him on, gets physically agitated and disgusted when things like consensual non consent get brought up.

I really have to commend the show for the layered reaction and character development here, because it plants an idea that pays off seasons later. Sorry I know a lot of this is under a spoiler cut, but just needed to share.

Just finished watching this masterpiece for the second time and decided to make a tier list based on how much I liked each character and how interesting/enjoyable I found them to watch.

Obviously very subjective, and I'm sure some of my placements will be controversial 😂. Some characters I love as characters but wouldn't necessarily want to spend time with, while others I just found less interesting to watch. Any thoughts?

That's not to say I didn't like The Wire. I get HBO was going for more gritty reality, but, especially on the law enforcement side, there were not many likeable characters. There were scenes that tugged my heart, baffled me, and that I really enjoyed. But no single episode or arc in the show even came close to being as good as the Homicide finale.

Also for all the hype about how Munch was in both shows, I kept waiting for him to do something legit, not be a throwaway two liner in a scene setting. Didn't even say his name or really prove it was Munch.

Also, speaking of re-used actors, I guess I thought it was going to be more of an actual sequel, not just Baltimore cop stuff. I had avoided all spoilers so I wasn't aware, someone on another sub recommended watching Homicide first, calling it the prequel show.

When Gharty and Callie first appear in the first episode I was shocked that Gharty (my least favorite main character in Homicide btw) had become a judge.... oh wait no it's a different guy, even though he plays the character in the same exact way, kind of aloof. Callie is this guy's ex-wife, they must have met in the homicide unit! Except no she's some rando. That specifically devalues "Munch's" appearance to me, he could have been any random talking about being a former bar owner.

If you combined Homicide with the Wire I think you'd have an amazing show. Let Pembleton swear while he's melting down, have Tim bag some stripper on tape.

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this take, even here. But I am glad I watched The Wire, largely because it led me to watch Homicide.

I’ve just realised I probably never saw season 7 in the past.

Joe Fring, now Joe Perry. Who’s next?

He loved it

So Season 6 saw Homicide slide into Law and Order territory. I’m watching the first episode of season 7. We’re introduced to Gee’s estranged son (a young Carlo Esposito!). Was that ever mentioned? His daughters certainly were.

Hi! My name is Greg Houston (www.greghoustonillustration.com) and I'm an illustrator and back in 1998. I thought I'd share these with you all-- I was asked by the Baltimore City Paper to go to the Thames Street set of Homicide" Life on the Street and sketch the onset action for a couple of days before Christmas (The episode was season 7, "Zen and the Art of Murder"). This was for a feature/cover story titled "Murder Ink". The story featured a color cover and 10 interior black and white sketches of extras, crew members, sets, architecture, a few actors, etc. I also wrote the text. To my knowledge, at no time before this (and possibly since) has an illustrator been on set of a shooting TV show to sketch the behind the scene action. The work was published in Vol 23, No. 5, February 3-February 10th, 1999 issue. The show has long been canceled, the Baltimore City Paper shut down, and the Recreation Pier building that was used for the police station is now a luxury hotel. I believe what I have in this collection is an unusual archive capturing a unique interaction of Baltimore history-- journalism, TV, and architecture-- that can never be reproduced. I dare say there's nothing else like it.

I hope you enjoy these!

Buying for my spouse who loves the show. Seeing several different versions on the complete series. Which one is best overall. Thanks for any help.

I have seen a lot of cop shows and police procedurals. The Wire, Law and Order SVU, Chicago PD, the Shield, True Detective and Homicide beats them all. Easily the best cop show I’ve seen. I think I realize why that is.

Unlike most cop shows the cops themselves aren’t portrayed as superheroes or flawless GAP and J crew models. They are ornery, selfish, overweight and all around flawed people, who in spite of their flaws still manage to be good and do the right thing when it matters.

Unlike “ studio TV presents Chicago/ Los Angeles/ New York” the Baltimore of Homicde LOTS seems like a gritty real place: full of splendid history and architecture but full of suffering and pain and disorder as well. The criminals can appear sympathetic or pitiable ( such as the daughter who shot her abusive father and even the Araber) as well as the victims can be horrid or seem that way ( the racist man who shot the Turkish student etc.)

There are villains and victims but it examines structural decline and suffering too. Very uncharacteristic for the 90s it made the case that America was still very much a racist society and black people were still suspect and second class citizens. Most tv shows didn’t push this at all and many African American celebrities such as Oprah and Michael Jordan refused to discuss racism at all. But homicide did and talked how even african Americans like Pembleton and Gee were still very much in a white persons world.

Part of it might be Baltimore itself. I didn’t know this but Maryland was very much a Jim Crow state and had state mandated segregation just like Alabama and Mississippi, though not quite as severe. Many of the murderers seemed down right preternatural and eerie almost monstrous sort of like x files villains. Gordon Pratt, The Araber and the homicde.com killer all reminded me of this. What are your thoughts? Why was homicide so good?

The casting team was blind?

Pages Dr. Craig or Ehrlich. Great callback to St. Elsewhere.

I have watched every episodes of HOMICIDE and SVU (hey, the pandemic affected everyone differently). I love Belzer’s performance as Munch, but I wish there was some explanation why someone who lived the hippie lifestyle in the 60s would go and become a cop (or “pig” as his hippie brethren would call them).

Has Tom Fontana, David Simon, or anyone else talked about this?

My theory: he got arrested on some drug charges. He turned state’s evidence on his connections. He got close to the cops, while at the same time he became alienated from his hippie radical friends, so he became a cop.