Homicide – Life On The
Street (TV Box Five, Season Six)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C Episodes: B
The credits may have been “cleaned up” and squared-off,
but Homicide – Life on the Street continued to be a top-quality police
drama, never selling out to spin-offs like Law & Order and C.S.I.
did. No matter the quality of those
spin-offs, there is something truly pleasing about having the world restricted
to one show. At least in the old days,
the spin-offs had different names. This
box has a crossover episode with the original Law & Order,
ironically, with Jerry Orbach, Sam Waterson, Carey Lowell, Benjamin Bratt and
Dan Hedeya.
The Complete Sixth Season is not
as overly domesticated as one might have feared the show may have gone after changes
in the previous one (all previous boxes are reviewed elsewhere on this site)
and the three-part Blood Ties season opener is one of the most ambitious
in any such series. The three different
directors for each keep it consistent.
I had to wonder though if the show at any point could have been rendered
as dull as most police shows since the 1980s have been, but that could have
only happened if the creative people mutinied.
This DVD boxed set takes six more DVDs, 23 shows in all,
to contain the sixth season. That the
show continued to be as smart as it was at this point easily makes it one of
the best shows of its kind in both my argument against many such U.S. this time
and British shows in the previous review.
The counterargument is that shows like the original Kojak and
other show of the time became archetypes, but they underestimate how well many
of those shows were written. This
series might be more realistic in dealing with people and characters
individually, but those shows often had more guts and realism than previously
considered, thus their success on DVD.
After the myth is erased, interesting things remain.
Most of the original cast are still here, including Yaphet
Kotto as the head of the detective unit, Richard Belzer, Clark Johnson, Melissa
Leo, Kyle Secor, Callie Thorne, Isabella Hofmann (occurrently), Zeljko Ivanek
(occurrently), Michelle Forbes, Reed Diamond, Max Perlich and Andre
Braugher. The cast was more than used
to the show by now and guest stars like Charles S. Dutton, whose Prison Riot
episode is a highlight of the entire series and a big precursor to Oz. Dean Winters became the star of that show,
and he is really good here. James Earl
Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, Peter Mass, the late Carol Kane, Moses Gunn, Peter
Gallagher, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, John Glover, Paul Giamatti, Alfre
Woodard, Robert John Burke, Charles Durning and a returning Mekhi Phifer.
The 1.33 X 1 full screen image has the same slightly hazy
picture quality all these shows share.
Since it has such a good style, some of this is forgivable. I especially had issues with the first box,
but some careful work in subsequent releases has cut that down overall and in
the long term. For the sound this time,
the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has palpable Pro Logic surrounds not really
present before, making it ever still better than watching it on TV, VHS, or
Cable. With Miami Vice out on
DVD, comparing the two shows in their use of music in interesting, with this
series finishing what the Michael Mann-produced 1980s hit started, if not as
music-driven.
At least this is a series with consistent extras, which
include head writers James Yoshimura and director Gary Fleder on DVD 1’s
terrific episode “The Subway” which deals with a sick man dying. DVD #6 that has the few remaining extras,
including cast/crew biographies and Anatomy Of A Homicide, which
examines the shows amazing work under the umbrella of a major commercial
network. Creator David Simon and writer
James Yoshimura top the creative forces interviewed that show were the series
stood as this season launched. This is
even less than the previous set, which is disappointing, but it is an
impressive behind-the-scenes with analysis of the show and its genre rare on
DVD today. It is the kind of thing
Criterion usually delivers, but then, this is television that is that good.
- Nicholas Sheffo
