Homicide: Life on the Street

"homicide:Life on the streets" was a mere curiousity to me,but soon became an addiction.The presence of strong character actors and grinding tension of the everyday misery that is urban law enforcement ,left a bitter but tantalizing taste in my mouth. The show followed the wildly popular "law and order" and brought that one-two punch of drama rarely seen today.Sadly ,I feel ,the show was too real- the officers had real issues and weaknesses,the crimes were far too painful ( the Adina Howard story line that ate at the characters Bayliss and Pembleton),and the pressure cooker of real life policing was often presented on a show where the characters weren't "heroes",just working people trying to survive-to this day I will NEVER understand how "shallow" and overrated copy cat "NYPD:BLUE" ever beat this show in the same time slot-but the moronic often pick "simplicity over quality". If ever a show could bridge the gap from TV to the big screen , HLOS could have..........