A man's gotta have a code

[Raistlin]

I watched a little of Homicide last night and today. As Cap'n said, it is focused on the cops. I was mildly disappointed at first and hadn't fully gotten into it, but the last episode I just watched over dinner wowed me with something not even seen on the Wire but is all too real: insane interrogation tactics (besides just beating them). False confessions or other false incriminating statements occurred in about 25% of all DNA exonerations by the Innocence Project, and these false confessions happen because police will brutally interrogate someone for 8, 12, even 18 hours at a time. In this Homicide episode, the detectives locked up a poor old man suspected of murdering a child in the interrogation room for 12 consecutive hours of grilling, yelling, threatening, and manipulation. The only reason they would make themselves stop at 12 hours was because they knew the judge would throw out a confession after that point (which may be true for some judges, though it's not constitutionally required). I rarely rooted against the cops so hard even on the Wire (except for Walker on season 4, who Namond accurately described as "evil"). I have never seen such a horrifying yet honest and realistic portrayal of such an interrogation in any other TV show or movie. It was absolutely brilliant.

A Homicide newbie who was involved in the above interrogation also, just a couple of episodes previous, had (justifiably) blasted his more experienced partner for tricking a suspect into not remaining silent and dissuading him from getting a lawyer after the suspect started to ask for one. Which he was 100% right about, but then he later goes on to do worse. It just goes to show that truly good guys generally don't last for long in urban law enforcement.

Regarding the rest of the show, it's not episodic at all, and realistically presents cases. They come and go, with most of them lasting many episodes. You get to see a realistic variety of Homicide detectives, and the story doesn't focus on any one. Of course, it's also not the Wire. At least so far, there's no thorough exploration of Baltimore, from the drug trade to homelessness to politics. It's very cop-centric. And it doesn't have some of the truly great characters like McNulty or the Bunk, but still has some promise. Overall, so far I think it is well worth a recommendation for people who finish the Wire wanting more (which should be everyone).

Also of note, Detective Lewis, one of the main eight detectives, is played by the guy who played Gus, the City Editor in season 5 of the Wire.