“Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons (122 episodes) on NBC from January 31, 1993 to May 21, 1999, and was succeeded by Homicide: The Movie (2000), which served as the de facto series finale.” (Wikipedia)

I only recently learned the series was based on David Simon’s book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991). Many of the characters and stories used throughout the show were based on events depicted in the book. The book was also the inspiration for the HBO series The Wire.

I just finished the book and it was as good as you would expect. Words like “gritty” and “raw” don’t begin to capture the characters, locales and dialogue. I recently purchased the DVD set of the NBC series. I watched the series when it aired but that was a long time ago and I’m sure I missed a lot of episodes.

Simon also wrote The Corner, a six-part HBO series that chronicled the life of a family living in poverty amid the open-air drug markets of West Baltimore. After I recover from Homicide, I’ll read The Corner. My recollection of the HBO series is of a very depressing story.

Most police dramas that make it to TV or cable are pretty week compared to Simon’s work. NYPD Blue was good but limited by being on network TV. If you enjoyed The Wire and Homicide, I highly recommend the books on which they were based.