Critics and viewers often look toward the late 1990s and the elevation of HBO when tracing the birth of prestige television. The premium cable network debuted “Sex and the City” in 1998 and the Mafia-crime drama “The Sopranos” in 1999. While both shows ushered in a new wave of TV, giving the small screen a cinematic feel, it would be disingenuous to say that these series first sparked the flame.
Five years before Carrie and Big began their epic (and exhausting) love saga, “The Wire” creator David Simon’s first novel, “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” was adapted for TV. More than three decades after its 1993 NBC debut, all seven seasons of “ Homicide: Life on the Street ” and its bookend TV film are finally available to stream on Peacock . Created by Paul Attanasio, “Homicide” is an intense, addictive and hyper-realistic examination of the Baltimore Police Department’s homicide department.
While many police procedurals of the era forged a cookie-cutter path for audiences, robotically unpacking cases and offering simplistic character breakdowns, “Homicide” does something different. Attanasio, showrunner Tom Fontana and Simon, who worked on the series as a writer and producer, thought more highly of their audience, as evidenced by the unique choices made throughout the show. As the pilot “Gone For Goode” opens, viewers are thrust onto the Baltimore streets.
Under the cloak of darkness, detectives Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson) and Ste.