Run Time: 16 Hours 40 Minutes

During the initial airing of NYPD Blue and the third season of Law & Order, a third police drama was introduced, Homicide: Life on the Street. The series was based upon a novel written by David Simon, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. Barry Levinson with Tom Fontana, Henry Bromell, and Paul Attanasio adapted the novel for television. The series first aired in 1993, during which the anticipated popularity was not met to the network's expectations. Lacking the popularity of competing police dramas, Homicide did not look as if it would enter its second season. However, due to the praise of the NYPD Blue's initial season, NBC let Homicide enter a second season, in hope of riding off the success of NYPD Blue. With Homicide off to a shaky start, its first two seasons were relatively short, with nine and four episodes respectively. As anticipated, the popularity of the show began to pick up. Homicide never obtained the same popularity as Law & Order or NYPD Blue, but enough that a feature film was created from the television series.

Homicide takes a slightly different approach to police dramas than Law & Order and NYPD Blue. While Law & Order and NYPD Blue have a unique balance of criminal investigations and the legal proceedings that follow, Homicide focuses mainly upon the criminal investigations by taking a look into the lives of the Baltimore Police Department Homicide Division. Homicide does take into account the legal proceedings that are related to the criminal investigations, but rarely. In comparison to Law & Order and NYPD Blue, this focus is all most non-existent. Another difference of Homicide is the style in which the series is filmed. The series uses handheld cameras to give a documentary feel to the show, similar to awful reality shows like Cops. However, the show doesn't feel like a true documentary.

One of the strongest elements of this show is the writing. Each story in season three funnels throughout the rest season, which really helps to build and define the show's characters. The reason that this writing promotes the show's character development is that the situations the detectives encounter are so powerful, so emotional, and so dramatic that it is difficult to not connect with them. The stories give a really good opportunity to get to know each and everyone of the cast members. In the end, we're left feeling their pain, their torment, their anger, and their happiness and it's really hard not to really care about them.

The third season opens with the death of Det. Steve Corsetti (Jon Polito). His partner, Det. Meldrick Lewis (Clark Johnson) doesn't take the news very well. There is some mystery surrounding his death and the outlook of finding a perpetrator isn't very good. Lewis becomes captivated with his quest to find the truth. His anger and suffering blind him from the truth that he is unwilling to see. This story becomes very gripping because we watch not only Lewis, but everyone in the homicide department deal with Corsetti's death in their own way.

In probably the most powerful story of season three the homicide department's emotions are put to the test once again. A rogue gunman ambushes detectives Stan Bolander (Ned Beatty), Beau Felton (Daniel Baldwin), Kay Howard (Melissa Leo), and John Munch (Richard Belzer) during a routine arrest. Bolander, Felton, and Howard suffer heavy casualties. Munch is lucky and left without physical injury. However, Munch suffers pain another way through grief and guilt. The rest of the department becomes a flurry, as the top priority becomes finding the shooter. This story proves to be very good, because this tragic event affects everyone. It also becomes very gripping because we witness some very strong characters turn weak and timid. Their passions, their emotions become all too real.

These were a couple examples of the riveting stories in season three. Some additional stories include the domestic issues of Det. Felton, which makes it difficult for him to continue working. The troubles that Det. Frank Pembeton (Andre Braugher) gets into after taking some bad advice also proves to be a wonderful tale. The betrayal that Bayliss feels after his partner and good friend turns against him. On the comical side, another great underlying story sets three of the detectives together on a journey into entrepreneurship. Detectives Munch, Lewis, and Bayliss join together to purchase a local bar across from their precinct.

It's because of the truly mesmerizing storylines of the third season that one can easily identify with the entire cast. These stories reveal their personalities and their emotions that makes you really love (or hate) them and feel the power of their raw emotions. The manner that the show presented the cast truly impressed me. While some other series stick to relatively large casts, they sometimes have difficulty really making their characters appealing to viewer. The disorganized character development really doesn't make an appearance at all in Homicide.

Because of the funneled storylines throughout the season, it isn't a great idea to watch the third season of Homicide on an episode-by-episode basis. The stories that transition from episode to episode are interwoven together, so that at times it's just too hard to not watch just one more episode. The third season of Homicide is probably one of the best television seasons I've witnessed, which is mainly because I loved every minute of it.

The DVD

Video:
This feature is presented in its original television aspect of 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. The entire series was filmed using 16mm handheld cameras to give a documentary facade. The picture suffers from a high amount of grain, which is somewhat expected for earlier television series. However, this look gives the show a rough feeling that truly captures the show's dramatic ambience. There are no subtitles presented with this feature, nor is it closed caption enabled.

Sound:
The audio in this feature is presented in English 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo surround. The dialogue is very crisp and clean with only a slightly noticeable hiss.

Extras:
The extras aren't the biggest attraction to this box set. Similar to previous releases of Homicide there aren't a lot of extras included. The first extra is an audio commentary with Barry Levinson and Henry Bromell for the episode "The Gas Man". The second extra is a 14.5 minute featurette, "Homicide: Life in Season 3" that takes a look into the making of season 3 with Barry Levinson, Tom Fontana, Henry Bromell, David Simon, James Yoshimura, and narration by Daniel Baldwin. The next extra, "The Board" is a written text that you read from your TV screen. It covers the role of the whiteboard in the series. The final extra includes a song listing on each disc that contains information artist name and song title for each episode's soundtrack.

Final Thoughts:
Not too long ago I reviewed Homicide: Life on the Street Season 4. Prior to this experience I was never a huge fan of Homicide, but afterwards, I was really enthralled by the series. Homicide quickly became one of my favorite shows. The third season contains a higher level of drama, which ties you into the characters leaving you spellbound in each episode. The fourth season was great, but the third season was even better. If you're like me and love to see great dramas mixed with the right element of crime, Homicide: Life on the Street Season 3 will definitely fit the bill.