Before The shield And TheWirethere was Murder: Life on the Street. The NBC crime drama is widely regarded as the best of the best among genre fans, but never achieved the success it deserved. Now, a whopping 31 years after the first episode aired in 1993, viewers old and new can finally stream the series on Peacock and understand why it still matters. Even though television and the world have evolved since the 1990s, killing is still an elite piece of television drama.

Murder: Life on the Street Season 1 only included nine episodes because the broadcaster didn’t really know what to do with them. Based on David Simon’s acclaimed book Murder: A year on the streets of deathThe first season understandably stuck closer to the real-life characters and crimes described in these pages, but legendary director Barry Levinson, a crack team of writers, and some incredible actors got the show off to a great start.

Murder: Life on the street captured David Simon’s voice

Season 1: Successful book adaptation

Peacock audiences may not know that killing is based on a book. Before David Simon became a successful TV writer and producer, he was a reporter for The Baltimore Sunand spent a whole year accompanying the Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Squad. The result was Murder: A year on the streets of deaththe best piece of true crime ever made. Bringing it to television – with Simon’s unique voice and his keen eye for detail – was no easy task. But he had a legend at his side: screenwriter and director Barry Levinson, who had already earned an Oscar nomination for the 1978 film. Dinnerwas impressed by Simon’s book and came up with the idea of ​​making a television series out of it.

Det. Steve Crosetti: That’s the problem with this job. It has nothing to do with life.

Levinson is officially listed as executive producer on Murder: Life on the Streetbut his creative touch is evident throughout. He directed the pilot episode, “Gone for Goode,” and set the show’s visual style and tone: gritty and realistic, but not the “grittiness for the sake of grittiness” that pervades many crime series on television today. killing is not stylized and does not have to be in the audience’s face; the style is very similar to the detectives in the show, as he has nothing to prove. The audience either follows the series or not. In addition, it was Levinson who got screenwriter Paul Attanasio to try his hand at television; Attanasio wrote the pilot and was credited as the creator of Murder: Life on the Street before moving to Fox’s popular medical drama Houseand he himself was nominated for two Oscars.

Murder: Life on the Street Season 1 is primarily directed by Tom Fontana, who is credited as a writer or story writer for all but the first episode. Fontana, James Yoshimura, and Jorge Zamacona write the majority of the eight episodes, and this consistency helps the season take the template set by Attanasio and build upon it. In the 1990s, it wasn’t as common for one person or a few people to write every episode of a series, but with Fontana at the helm, the season flows like a single cohesive narrative. Simon’s honest tone and real-life detective sense of humor find their way into the scripts, whether through certain elements taken directly from the book or simply the way certain characters and storylines are established. And here comes the other incredible part of killing comes into play: its fantastic actors.

Homicide: Life on the Street has one of the best TV casts

Looking back, the ensemble seems like a dream team

Looking back at the Murder: Life on the Street cast, it looks like a superteam of actors. Peacock is promoting the series by focusing on the late Andre Braugher and Richard Belzer – which makes sense, since both stars are closely associated with the show and people on the streamer now know Belzer for voicing his character Det. John Munch to Law and Order: SVU. Nevertheless, the entire cast is interesting and killing is one of the rare shows where the cast actually got better as the series progressed.

Braugher is the main attraction, and for good reason. His portrayal of detective Frank Pembleton is one of the most remarkable performances in the history of television dramas, regardless of genre, and it’s a shame he only won one Emmy Award for the role. Braugher is perfect throughout, especially in Season 1, Episode 5, “Three Men and Adena.” The episode is essentially a play, as it follows Pembleton and his partner Tim Bayliss (an underrated Kyle Secor) interrogating their prime suspect in the murder of Adena Watson, played by Tony nominee Moses Gunn. Between the work of the trio of actors, Fontana’s ability to bring the rhythm and melody of the stage to television, and the direction of Martin Campbell – the same Martin Campbell who Casino Royale – it’s the best episode of the season.

Fan-favorite Belzer is instantly enchanting as Munch, but he is not the only one. Before making a name for himself as a director, Clark Johnson starred in Murder: Life on the Street as Det. Meldrick Lewis; Johnson and Jon Polito have the first lines in the series. Oscar winner Melissa Leo plays the tough Det. Kay Howard, a strong female character long before they became the norm. The cast also includes Daniel Baldwin, Ned Beatty and, above all, Foreigner Alumnus Yaphet Kotto as unit chief Al “Gee” Giardello. Kotto has an incredible presence and gives Gee so much more nuance than typical TV crime supervisors. One of the many special things about killing shows how diversity prevails in leadership positions and discusses the problems associated with it.

Is “Homicide: Life on the Street” still worth watching?

This classic TV show retains its value

As with any show that is more than two decades old, there are fragments of Murder: Life on the Street that haven’t aged well. For example, in the banter between Lewis and Det. Steve Crosetti that opens the series, Lewis calls his partner a “fat-headed guinea fowl.” A line like that probably wouldn’t make it onto TV today, even given the gallows humor that cops often display. There are other lines and moments that reveal the series as a product of its time. But apart from that, killing is a television series from the 1990s that still holds up today, even if some parts have gotten better in retrospect.

Det. John Munch: I’ve been a homicide detective for 10 years. Don’t you ever lie to me like I’m Montel Williams again.

It’s a look back at the actors and the knowledge of the incredible careers they either launched or expanded through the show. Braugher will now also be fondly remembered for his comedic skills Brooklyn Nine-NineBut killing remains his best work and the best way to appreciate the full range of his talent. It is the handiwork of big names behind the camera like Levinson, Campbell and Bruce Paltrow. Murder: Life on the Street Season 1 won two Emmy Awards – one for Levinson’s direction of “Gone for Goode” and one for Fontana’s screenplay of “Three Men and Adena” – and is an example of how television was, in many ways, simpler and stronger in 1993. The medium has made great strides, but it has also gotten bigger and louder and sometimes lost in itself. Murder: Life on the Street was always an honest man and is still remembered for his disarming efficiency and incredible craftsmanship.

Homicide: Life on the Street is now streaming on Peacock.