Homicide: Life on the Street - Good TV Never Dies

Homicide: Life on the Street - Not Like Today's TV Cops

I am one of those people who stand by my claim that Homicide: Life on the Street is one of the greatest shows ever to grace our television screens. Even in watching the episodes after the series has been off the air for so many years, they still manage to stand the test of time.

The entire ensemble cast is one that will never be surpassed because those actors were so good at what they did. The high-caliber performance that they brought to the screen weekly is something that I hadn't seen before and as of today, I have not seen since.  Melissa Leo, Kyle Secor, Ned Beatty, Andre Braugher, Yaphet Kotto, Clark Johnson, Richard Belzer... They played real cops, not the over-glossed, pretty-in-heels and make-up, and Brooks Brothers-wearing cops that shuffle around on the screen nowadays. They came across as more reality, less glamour. You know, like actual cops.

But that is not the only thing that makes that show so great. The ensemble cast of Homicide:LotS was so wonderful because of the incredible relationships that the characters had with one another.  In recent years, there has been a shift in the interaction of ensemble casts on television shows. There currently aren't many shows out there that feature ensemble casts that gel as well as Homicide's characters did. They either appear to be more one-sided, focusing on a specific pairing (e.g., Elliot and Olivia in L&O:SVU) while blurring the actors into the background, or there is no chemistry between the characters, making their interactions appear to be forced and uncomfortable. Color me biased, but that is how I feel.