Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-1999) (1 Viewer)

I have never bought a single TV on DVD product......

But when I walked into my local HMV store I saw an entire rack full of such products.

Most of what I saw on the shelf seemed pretty standard to me. And most of those shows have been talked about here at least in a couple of threads.....but a particular series that I find very little on this site had several sets but seems to be "unpopular" on these boards. Meaning, very few threads, and, not a single thread that lasted more than 10 posts.

That show is Homicide: Life on the Street.

I wonder if any fans are on this board and would like to help this rookie out?

My first question is this: Is Homicide a show that builds upon itself or are many (or all) episodes self contained, like Law & Order?

Once that is out of the way....I'd like to know what drew (sp?) you to the show and why you kept with it. Hopefully in a few months time we could be talking specific episodes and your opinions on them, and if they changed your outlook on things in life.

If we are lucky maybe we'll even make new fans of this show.

Errrrr.......Besides me.

welcome to the forum.

For people who are interested they will watch.

It's a show that is semi continuous. The first seasons are mostly self contained, but they alway refer to things that happend in previous episodes. Season 4/5/6 I would say is mostly built around story arc in at least one ongoing story in the season or part of a season. Season 7 returns to a more self contained state. Basically almost all of the episodes with an arc has some sort of self contained B story. Heck they even continued some stories that happed in first seasons, four seasons later!

Changed my outlook in life?! It's just a TV show gosh darn it

This is one of the best TV shows to come out of American network television.

Everything in the show is top notch, from camera work, writing, muscial choices, direction and the acting.

While Law & Order is completely self contained with each episode, Homicide is like one long continuous story - characters are constantly referring to past events, cases, people, etc.

I would suggest you start out with the first season, and see how you like it. Seasons 3 and 4 become even better after that, but if you don't enjoy the first season that much chances are you should probably try another series.

The cast had somewhat of a revolving door throughout the seasons, as there are usually 7 or 8 regulars each season, but only 4 actors stayed throughout the seven season run. While this may be frustrating after you grow attached to certain characters and see them suddenly leave, its always refreshing to see new characters mix it up with the originals (unlike The X-Files).

This is easilly my favorite TV show. As far as self contained episodes, pretty near all of them are, with some multi parters (each show basically concentrates on one case, with each season having one series of events that carry through the season). The real joy of the show, in my opinion, is that none of the cases are ever forgotten,with many of them (usually the cases that didn't get solved) coming back to haunt the characters in future episodes, making those episodes richer, but well writen enough that you don't have to see a previous episode to understand what is happening. The other joy of the show, is there is very few "after hours" scenes, all you learn about the characters is through their interaction on the job and how they interact with each other. As the series went on, it did get more soapy with off the job scenes, as they were desperate to get new viewers, but it never got too out of hand.

As far as the DVD's, they all look pretty great, with the extras being somewhat thin on most of them (although Season 6 has a great making of documentary look at an episode called "The Subway.") The guest stars on this series where fantastic, Steve Busceimie, Lilly Tomlin, Bruno Kirby and Chris Rock to name a few. My main complaint is that the sets don't include the "Law And Order" episodes for 4 different cross over episodes
(one per season). They do have recaps of the Law And Orders though, and fortunately, the cross overs all got resolved on "Homicied" so you can still pretty much follow the story.

Seasons 6 and 7 probably suffer the most as they reflect the networks wish to pretty it up to attract more viewers. The gritty core (both in style and content) of Homicide obviously didn't apeal to the masses, nor did the constant changing timeslots. Don't discount them though, they still have some great episodes. Many people write of Season 7 because of the absence of Andre Brauer, and the addition of some clearly attractive detectives, going so far as to say it should of ended with him, Brauer leaving. I don't agree, this show to me was always about Kyle Secore and his charater "Det. Baylis", with Baylis being the viewers entry into the detectives world. To discount season 7 would be like not reading the last book in a series because ou favorite charter vanished.

On a side note, it's fun watching "Oz" after watching "Homicide", as alot of the actors who are criminals in Homicied, turn up on "Oz" (diferent characers, but still amusing!)

So yeah, if you like crime shows, I can't imagine you woul be disapointed with Homicied : Life On The Street! So Eric, if you haven't bought it, I would recommend the Season 1 & 2 set. Season 1 is the template for future seasons, with one main case going though the series, with subplots going around it, and season 2 being 4 self contained story episodes, basically the best of both worlds, that just keep geting better throughout seasons 3,4,5, and start to get compromised in 6 and 7.

This is a show that I've wanted to see for a while. The connections to Law & Order (both original and SVU) probably attracts me the most, but I believe that it is a good show based on the fact that I've never heard a negative complaint about the show. My main problem is that A&E releases the show, and they put higher SRPs on most of their products. Within the next few years, though, I might have at least the first two or three seasons on DVD.

The best deal I can find you can get season 1-5 for $150.

I personally did not like the first 2 seasons all that much. After watching the entire series and the movie, I enjoyed the early season better.

Amazon.com? Other retailer?.........or used?

Does anyone know why A&E site lists the set at $100?

Are they using the same formula most book publishers use?* For those that don't know a publisher receives between 40-60% of the retail price and that is why stores CAN have massive price cuts on books.

For example WAL-MART's infamous 15% off any book.....doesn't it just make you feel like you got a "real deal"?

*Simply meaning that the SRP is just double what they sold to retailers for. Just to clear up what I said.

Yeah, is that the used price?

I don't go for used products when it comes to DVD, just because I like to know that, should a problem arise with a disc, I can return it much more easily. While that seems like a good price, The West Wing is up first on my queue for a foray into a show I don't own sets of yet.

Homicide does have some carry over from show to show. The Most consistantly good Seasons are Season 1-2. Season 3 was actually pretty good also and there are good shows in 4-6. Season 7 overall was not as good, but even not as good Homicide is better than most shows. Best place to buy has always been Deep Discount I pretty much goot all the season's for $55 or so

I decided to pick up the 1st set after reading the book. So much of the 1st season is taken right out of the book so it had sort of a been there, done that feel for me. But it really is a top notch program. I picked up the 3rd season from deep discount when they were having one of their promotions. I guess I'm waiting on a price drop before getting the rest, not sure if that'll happen anytime soon.

This show gets the highest recommendation from me, can't wait to see the other seasons.

Pretty much the best cop show of the 90's. Since the characters are all based on actual Baltimore homicide cops, the shows just seem more real than the ir fictional counterparts. The series shows how tedious police work is and how the cops spend their time being the "murder police".

It was a fortunate chain of events that the producers used the entry of a rookie detective as their focal point to introduce the audience to the grim world of Homicide. Tim Bayliss wants so much to be an "elite" officer and overcompensates on his first case that he has trouble adjusting to his job. This case actually haunts Bayliss throughout the series.

Just to point out, Jasper from the QRT (Baltimore SWAT)was played by Gary D'Addarrio who was the real-life inspiration for shift Lieutenant Giardello.

I am wrapping up the seventh season and some aspects are not correct, the episodes are better than I remember them to be. To much Ballard and Falsone for me, most everything else is good.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys police shows.

I know this is a DVD forum, and the show is terrific and you should definitely watch it all immediately. But I didn't want to pass up the chance to recommend the book on which the series is based, David Simon's HOMICIDE: A YEAR ON THE KILLING STREETS. I read a LOT of true crime books, and this is easily my favorite; in fact, it's probably one of my top ten books ever. Just a fantastic, gripping read.

Count me as a late convert. I'd always missed it when broadcast here, being shown in strange time-slots on the "arts" channel (where less popular shows are usually "dumped"), bit the bullet and bought the S1+2 boxset, and got hooked. I'm only slightly into S3 (distracted by stuff like DS9, WW...) but have every intention of acquiring the entire run and getting through it all... some day...

I finally just got around to getting season 7 and now have a complete Homicide collection including the movie. I would probably rate it in my top 3 shows of all time.

I got Season 7 when it came out, I'm holding off on watching it until I can find the movie. Shame it wasn't included.

Amazon U.S. has the movie for about $12.00.

Alright,

I see there are people that are interested in the series, or have just recently started watching the series.

So I wonder if people would like to start from the beginning and talk about the episodes with one another.

We could set up a sort of schedule so everybody is not in different places and, therefore, we can have discussions while watching the series and those that watched the series can join in and watch the series again.

If we watch 1-3 episodes (or more) a week we could go through this series in a reasonable amount of time. We could also share our opinions and we could discuss the show itself.

I don't know if that sort of thing has been tried here* but we could start it in a couple of weeks.

I say give it a couple of weeks so that people can get a hold of, at least, the first and possibly the second set before we start.

*This type of discussion would probably be better on a different board here at HTF, but since the entire series is on DVD, and is not being shown on any station (that I know of), we could try this.

How about it?

Homicide is a brilliant show that was overshadowed by NYPD Blue (also excellent) for most of its run. Even the last season wasn't too bad, with at least one excellent episode (the Ron Eldard episode).

I'd be up for a discussion Eric. I'm currently ready to start season 6 soon (as soon as I can clear my plate of other things). But I would have no problem squeezing in some older episodes as well.