Fans of “Homicide: Life on the Street” can rejoice now that the television series is finally streaming for their viewing pleasure on Peacock.
The show, which ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, won multiple Emmy awards.
Viewers can relive the crackling repartee between Detective Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher) and Lt. Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto), and follow the harrowing storylines, some lasting merely an episode while others epically crossed over seasons. Let the incredible music choices that accompanied the brain- and emotion-twisting relationships and moral dilemmas keep you awake at night. Watch “Cradle to Grave” (Season 3, Episode 10) and let The Pretenders “I’ll Stand By You” hit even harder than it ever did before.
The show’s inspired soundtrack was so creatively curated that each song played an intricate role in the narrative, to the point that each tune deserved its own Emmy. Yet the carefully chosen music is what kept the series from streaming for so long.
The series was shot, and contracts were signed during that entertainment legal vacuum that existed after the waning popularity of CDs but before streaming platforms. Simply put, acquiring the rights from such a large, eclectic group of musicians and music groups was a huge headache for NBC’s legal team.
Rolling Stone summed it up: “The show featured an incredible, eclectic soundtrack of artists, from indie acts like Morphine, Cowboy Junkies, and Garbage, to classic blues and soul artists like Bo Diddley, Joan Armatrading, and Buddy Guy. Shows produced before the DVD era, much less the streaming era, had very specific licenses for use of preexisting music, and often lost the rights to certain songs once episodes were being repackaged for home video use. It can be an expensive and time-consuming process to expand those rights.”
David Simon, the author, screenwriter, journalist and former Baltimore Sun crime reporter whose book “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” inspired the TV series, credits Tom Fontana, Barry Levinson, and Gail Mutrux with getting the network to the finish line. According to NPR, Fontana defers, giving credit to Levinson and Mutrux. Regardless, it’s done, and the streaming world will be infinitely better for it.
Simon went on to create HBO’s show “The Wire,” hailed by many as one of the greatest television series of all time. Rolling Stone ranked it 4th in the top 100 TV shows ever made, Variety ranked it 7th in their own top 100 list.
Criminally (pun intended) “Homicide” didn’t crack the top 100 in either magazine’s list. Did Rolling Stone really need both the U.K. and U.S. versions of “The Office” taking up spots on their top 100?
This reporter loved “Homicide: Life on the Streets” so much that she bought the boxed DVD set for her husband on eBay as a 30th anniversary gift. This was the only way to watch it and the DVD sets had gone out of print, so eBay or some other used marketplace was the only place to purchase it.
Personally speaking, watching “Homicide” was inextricably linked to purchasing our first home, life before children and getting to watch whatever we wanted on TV. It paralleled another real-life Baltimore drama that we followed breathlessly, but was the polar opposite in nature: that magical time when Cal Ripken, Jr. was chasing Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games record. Talk about contrasting narratives, but we loved them both as quintessentially Baltimore.
Nothing, however, grabbed you by the collar more than Detective Pembleton in the box with a suspect; Detective Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson) dragging the unbelievably smooth, silky, freakily calm drug kingpin Luther Mahoney (Erik Dellums); or a distraught Detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) coming up 11 cents short at a convenience store for his beer and cookies.
Even episodes wherein viewers knew the outcome (“The Subway” episode, I’m looking at you) “Homicide” managed to make every second of that episode a ticking time-bomb during which you could not tear your eyes from the screen.
Believe it or not, every episode contained laugh-out-loud moments when viewers least expected them and most needed them to round out the emotional spectrum.
Whoever is officially responsible for getting this massive streaming knot untangled for generations of viewers, new and old, they are deserving of gratitude. Behold the Domino Sugar sign. Relish the episode shot at Orioles Park at Camden Yards. Enjoy the authentic Baltimore accents. Be proud of the Fells Point sightings. Despite the grisly topic, “Homicide: Life on the Street” is a love letter to Baltimore if one looks closely enough.
