Homicide: Life on the Street Season 1&2

While doing research for the new book, someone recommended I go back and spend some time with Homicide. I've seen episodes here and there, but never really got into it (it was on during my 'no interest in TV' phase.) Anyways, I gotta say, this is far and away the best cop show I've ever seen. It's 10x the show that NYPD Blue could ever hope to be, and it even manages to edge out The Shield and Hill Street Blues, which are each the best of their era. The show manages to be both irreverant and poignant, the acting is stellar, and the structure is just... breath taking. The best of it all tho, is the "Three Men and Adena." It's the climax of one of the main throughlines of the first season, and it comes down to two detectives who hate each other having one last chance to break the man responsible for the major murder they're following. It's a full hour of nothing but interogation and it's positively mesmerizing. It's the perfect example of how doing things by the book and formulaic might be safe, but it's not art. This is a work of art.

If you're a fan of Bendis' Powers or Brubaker and Rucka's Gotham Central, you owe it to yourself to check these DVD's out.