The Most Important ’90 Cop Series Is Finally Coming To Peacock
Homicide: Life on the Street, one of the best cop TV dramas of all time, is officially on its way to the Peacock streaming service. The highly acclaimed series has been kept off streaming services due to pre-digital music rights issues, but it seems like NBC has finally figured that bit of business out. The seasons of the series are set to hit Peacock on August 19, and it will be the first time you can watch it in HD.
The news of Homicide: Life on the Street was confirmed by David Simon made on X. Simon wrote the book the series is based on and would serve as a producer, writer, and consultant on the series. Simon would later perfect the police TV drama with his series The Wire nearly a decade later.
Not The Typical Police Procedural
Homicide: Life on the Street is based on Simon’s observations that he made while following a Baltimore Police Department homicide unit while he was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Much like his later series, The Wire, Homicide is praised for its accuracy in depicting homicide units that you might not see in your typical police procedural. The series is also praised for its ensemble cast that features a breakout performance from the late Andre Braugher as Detective Frank Pembleton.
An Authentic Series
Unlike many police procedurals, you won’t see the detectives in Homicide: Life on the Street almost superhumanly solving a murder seemingly every day. Instead, the city of Baltimore’s numerous murder cases go mostly unsolved. This lends to the authenticity and dramatic weight of the series, though, like The Wire, the show is multifaceted and has humor, heart, and realistic circumstances in equal measure.
An Amazing Amount Of Stars Appeared
While Andre Braugher was the standout in Homicide: Life on the Street thanks to his Emmy-winning performance as straight-laced Pembleton (a role he would later give a hilarious twist on with his performance as Raymond Holt in Brooklyn 99), there were plenty of other great cast members of performances throughout the show.
The rest of the ensemble cast includes Yaphet Kott, Richard Belzer, Ned Beatty, Jon Polito, Melissa Leo, and even a pre-Breaking Bad Giancarlo Esposito. Major stars like Steve Buscemi, Robin Williams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Edie Falco, Alfre Woodard, JK Simmons, Bruce Campbell, and many more also appeared throughout the show.
Seven Seasons To Binge
If that level of prestige wasn’t enough, Homicide: Life on the Street also had big-time directors like Katheryn Bigelow, Alan Taylor, Barry Levinson, and more work on episodes of the series. There’s plenty to catch up on, too, if you’ve never seen the series, as the show ran for seven seasons and 122 episodes. There was also a movie titled Homicide: The Movie which served as a series finale and which will presumably make the jump to Peacock too.
One Of The Greatest Shows Of All Time
Homicide: Life on the Street won numerous awards during its run, even becoming the first drama to win three George Foster Peabody Awards. If you’re one of the many who agree The Wire is one of the best TV shows of all time, then Homicide should scratch a similar itch. Make sure to check it out when it hits Peacock in August.
