Retro Love
- Faber
[Ed. Note: Meant to post this much, much earlier in the day. Sorry! Stupid job... mutter... grumble...]
Retro Love
"Homicide Life on the Street"
Okay, I admit it, I am a little rusty at this writing thing, and I am sorry that my first offering was a little weak. I have decided to take a slightly different approach in this rant. Admittedly, the defining characteristic of my neurosis is that I love to hate bad things more than I love to enjoy good things. That said? there are actually several things that I love (contrary to popular belief). I love my wife, my Beagle, Drugs, Blasphemy, undead monkeys, pop icons who smoke, and the White Album. Finally, I have another addition? I now love "Homicide: Life on the Street".
In an era of reality TV shows like "Who wants to marry my proctologist?" and nonstop tabloid news rubbish like "The O? Pervert factor", great TV is almost nonexistent? to quote Homer Simpson, "God How I miss TV". To make matters worse, I am in between new episodes of "The OC" and "Six Feet Under". During this funk it has taken HLOTS, and my Netflix membership (it has been off the air for five years) to restore my faith in the hour-long drama.
Immediately, I was down! I mean, this show is everything that is sorely lacking in television right now. I have to agree with Alex that television has blessed us with thought provoking shows like The X-files (first 6 seasons), The Twilight Zone (original series), Six Feet Under, and several others that I am too drunk to remember right now, but they are few and far between. Similarly, HLOTS is visceral and naturalistic in a way that surpasses anything we should be able to expect from a one-hour drama. Upon watching the special features on the DVD, I found out that the creators achieved much of raw documentary style imagery by shooting the entire show with hand-held cameras. It isn?t glossy, and the characters aren?t models, it suspends disbelief with great effectiveness. It all works? it works so well, that it doesn?t feel like I?m watching TV while sitting on my couch getting fat.
A quick synopsis seems necessary here. The show is based on a book called Homocide: a Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. It centers on a Baltimore Homicide unit that is comprised of nine main players. The show has a continuous plotline that spills from show to show. Cases are sprawled out over a period of several episodes, and the characters? lives are looked at through both a professional and personal scope. This format is much more conducive to true substance than the case-a-week morality plays we see with shows like NYPD Blue and CSI Miami. Homicide does not incorporate car chases, shootouts, police raids, or oversimplified stories of evil criminals and the need to arrest them (see my first rant). Instead, the show uses character development and intricate dialogue to create mood and tone. A novel idea right?
As before mentioned the show is mainly character and dialogue driven, and I think that a few of the main characters rank as some of the best in all of television. Frank Pembleton played by Andre Braugher stands as the show?s key figure and most interesting character. For those who watched David Duchovney?s role as Fox Mulder, Pembleton is reminiscent. Driven by the search for unattainable truth, and constant inner struggle, he is constantly at odds with the work he has to do, but completely genius in doing it. This struggle is played out constantly, and adds a very conflicted and gritty element to the show. The cast also includes Richard Belzer who often adds the comic relief as John Munch (he plays the same role on Law and Order SVU). I am not going to give a profile to the rest of the main players, other than to say, that there really isn?t a weak link in the first three seasons, it even has a stellar performance from a Baldwin (Daniel Baldwin).
Like I said, this show is definitely worth the watch, put it on your Netflix list and enjoy. I only hope that we can get back to this type of programming at some point on a regular basis!
Faber
What do you think? Drop us a line at webmaster@simpleprop.com and give us some
feedback. Maybe we'll even run your letters in future Gambits. 'The Daily Gambit' is updated every weekday.
