Homicide: Life on the Street • Entire Series Watch

Took us 9.5 weeks, but we watched the entire series on Peacock.

Some notes:

Seasons 1 and 2 are gold. They're the seasons that you probably remember when you think of Homicide. The mix of grizzled old pros and eager young detectives. Go-with-your-gut veterans and intellectual young and middle-aged cops. A perfect cast.

Then, as usual, the network steps in and they move out the sweaty old character actors and bring in the attractive youngsters. Jon Polito is the first to go. No more fat Italian with a pencil thin mustache, he's replaced by the younger and hot Isabella Hoffman. Then we lose Ned Beatty, who is replaced with young and handsome Reed Diamond as Kellerman. That leaves Munch as the lone "old guy" until Season 6, when they bring in the fat Irishman Stu Gharty (who was introduced earlier as a weak character and who remains sub-standard till the end of the series). By the last two seasons, they've added so many attractive female detectives that it becomes the subplot, as the male cops realize they have women backing them up on the street. The addition of model/actress Michael Michele in the final season was the last straw.

In the one great instance of the show going against the grain mentioned above, Austin Pendleton is added as the Chief Medical Examiner to replace hot Michelle "Ensign Ro" Forbes. Pendleton is a much needed comic relief in the final years.

Season 3 opens with a very meta intro, where the detectives are scoffing at how the TV networks force sex and nudity into programming, just to get ratings. Later in the episode we get the one big "nude" scene of the series, which was probably due to a note from NBC.

Pembleton is still one of the best television characters ever. Unfortunately, they handicap him for his final couple of seasons (no spoilers, but it looked like they wrote him towards Emmy nominations instead of towards a better show).

The most Levinson reminder throughout the series is inclusion of Dr. Scheiner. You witness actor Ralph Tabakin's health decline through the seven seasons, until you see him slumped over in the background in the final TV movie. He died the following year. Tabakin was Levinson's good luck charm. If you've seen a Levinson film from the 80's/90's, you've seen Tabakin.

The Law & Order episodes that cross over with Homicide are not available on Peacock (or anywhere else). Limited seasons available, none of the crossover seasons.

The final movie is a great watch, as it brings back every single main character from the series (even the dead ones). It's a bit ham-fisted in how it forces everyone back in, and some of the scenes are cartoonish, but the ending is sweet, if dark. It should probably be mentioned when we discuss the best season finales.

Season One Cast:



Season Seven Cast:



Ralph Tabakin - Dr. Scheiner:



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